The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of...

4 Muḥammad b. Qāsim invited the Hindu princes to embrace Islam, and the invaders who followed him were probably equally observant of the religious law. (Elliot, vol. i. pp. 175, 207.) ↑

5 Or Baran, the old name of Bulandshahr. ↑

6 Elliot, vol. ii. pp. 42–3. ↑

7 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. iii. part ii. p. 85. ↑

8 “The military adventurers, who founded dynasties in Northern India and carved out kingdoms in the Dekhan, cared little for things spiritual; most of them had indeed no time for proselytism, being continually engaged in conquest or in civil war. They were usually rough Tartars or Moghals; themselves ill-grounded in the faith of Mahomed, and untouched by the true Semitic enthusiasm which inspired the first Arab standard bearers of [258]Islam. The empire which they set up was purely military, and it was kept in that state by the half success of their conquests and the comparative failure of their spiritual invasion. They were strong enough to prevent anything like religious amalgamation among the Hindus, and to check the gathering of tribes into nations; but so far were they from converting India, that among the Mahommedans themselves their own faith never acquired an entire and exclusive monopoly of the high offices of administration.” (Sir Alfred C. Lyall: Asiatic Studies, p. 289.) (London, 1882.) ↑

9 Firishtah, vol. i. p. 184. ↑

10 Ibn Baṭūṭah, tome iii. p. 197. ↑

11 Elliot, vol. iii. p. 386. ↑

12 Mankind and the Church, p. 286. (London, 1907.) ↑

13 Sir Richard Temple: India in 1880, p. 164. (London, 1881.) Punjab States Gazetteers, vol. xxxvi A, Bahawalpur, p. 183. ↑

14 Manual of Titles for Oudh, p. 78. (Allahabad, 1889.) ↑

15 Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. p. 466. ↑

16 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. iii. part ii. p. 46. ↑

17 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. xiv. part ii. p. 119. In the Cawnpore district, the Musalman branch of the Dikhit family observes Muhammadan customs at births, marriages, and deaths, and, though they cannot, as a rule, recite the prayers (namāz), they perform the orthodox obeisances (sijdah). But at the same time they worship Chachak Devī to avert small-pox, and keep up their friendly intercourse with their old caste brethren, the Thakurs, in domestic occurrences, and are generally called by common Hindu names. (Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 64.) ↑

18 Ibbetson, p. 163. ↑

19 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 64. Compare also id. vol. xiv. part iii. p. 47. “Muhammadan cultivators are not numerous; they are usually Nau-Muslims. Most of them assign the date of their conversion to the reign of Aurangzeb, and represent it as the result sometimes of persecution and sometimes as made to enable them to retain their rights when unable to pay revenue.” ↑

20 Ibbetson, p. 163. ↑

21 Indeed Firishtah distinctly says: “Zealous for the faith of Mahommed, he rewarded proselytes with a liberal hand, though he did not choose to persecute those of different persuasions in matters of religion.” (The History of Hindostan, translated from the Persian, by Alexander Dow, vol. iii. p. 361.) (London, 1812.) ↑

22 The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xxii. p. 222; vol. xxiii. p. 282. ↑

23 Innes, pp. 72–3, 190. ↑

24 Sir W. W. Hunter: The Religions of India. (The Times, February 25th, 1888.) ↑

25 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 518. ↑

26 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. v. part i. pp. 302–3. ↑

27 Sir Alfred C. Lyall: Asiatic Studies, p. 236. ↑

28 A tomb in the cemetery of Pantalāyini Kollam bears an inscription with the date A.H. 166. (Innes, p. 436.) ↑

29 Zayn al-Dīn, pp. 34–5. ↑

30 Id. p. 36 (init.). ↑

31 Id. p. 21. ↑

32 The modern Madāyi. ↑

33 Zayn al-Dīn, pp. 23–4. ↑

34 Id. p. 25. ↑

35 Innes, p. 41. ↑

36 Id. p. 398. ↑

37 Ibn Baṭūṭah, tome iv. pp. 82, 88, etc. ↑

38 Innes, p. 190. ↑

39 Oboardo Barbosa, p. 310.

Similarly it has been conjectured that but for the arrival of the Portuguese, Ceylon might have become a Muhammadan kingdom. For before the Portuguese armaments appeared in the Indian seas, the Arab merchants were undisputed masters of the trade of this island (where indeed they had formed commercial establishments centuries before the birth of the Prophet), and were to be found in every sea-port and city, while the facilities for commerce attracted large numbers of fresh arrivals from their settlements in Malabar. Here as elsewhere the Muslim traders intermarried with the natives of the country and spread their religion along the coast. But no very active proselytising movement would seem to have been carried on, or else the Singhalese showed themselves unwilling to embrace Islam, as the Muhammadans of Ceylon at the present day appear mostly to be of Arab descent. (Sir James Emerson Tennent: Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 631–3.) (5th ed., London, 1860.) ↑

40 Qurʼān, xvi. 126. ↑

41 ʻAbd al-Razzāq: Maṭlaʻ al-saʻdayn, fol. 173. ↑

42 They are found chiefly in the Tamil-speaking districts of Madura, Tinnevelly, Coimbatore, North Arcot and the Nilgiris. ↑