[Then follows an account of the last speech of the Prophet at Mecca.]
All the fundamental principles of the Muslim state are here. Racial differences are to count for naught, all are equal, all are brothers, neither law nor social opinion must make any difference between the high-born and the low. A man's rights to his person, to the produce of his labour and to the reputation his character has earned for him are as sacred and inviolable as the holiest of places; no alleged state-necessity, no fanatical prejudices or party interests can be allowed to infringe them. Civil war is to be abhorred . . . There are to be no pariahs or low-castes; the slave is entitled to the same food and drink as his master and has the same political privileges as a freeman . . .
This is the message - simple and clear. And yet the history of Islamic nations, during the thirteen centuries that have elapsed, has been a constant violation of every political principle bequeathed to them by the great Apostle.
[Now there is an account of the successors of Mohammad, upto the Umayyad Caliph al Walid (705-15) and Hajjaj, his governor of Iraq.]
. . . The Arab chroniclers and the Chach Nama leave us in no doubt that Buddhism was then the prevailing creed of Sind. But Hinduism was gaining ground, and zealous Buddhist priests complained that the worship of Buddha was being abandoned. The exact relation of the two creeds, which was neither of neutrality nor hostility nor love, is hard to define. Although Chach [founder of the then-ruling dynasty of Sind] was a Brahman, there is no reason to suppose that he attempted to interfere with the then popular religion of Buddhism. . .
Rai Chach died after a prosperous reign of forty years and was succeeded by his brother, Chandar, who patronised the religion of the Nasiks (Buddhists) and monks and promulgated their doctrines. "He brought many people together with the sword and made them return to his religion." Chandar died in the eighth year of his reign and his nephew, Dahir don of Chach, mounted the throne at Alor, the capital of the kingdom . . . The chiefs of Ramal were presumptuous enough to attack him, but Muhammad Allafi, an Arab adventurer who had entered Dahir's service, "attacked them on all sides and killed an captured 80,000 warriors and 50 elephants".
[The Meds of Dewal seized some Muhammadan women. Two forces sent by Hajjaj for their rescue were slaughtered and he applied to the Khalifah for permission to fit out a force that could conquer not only Dewal but all of Sind.]
Hajjaj organised the expeditionary force with the greatest care and entrusted its command to his own cousin and son-in-law, Muhammad bin Qasim; a brilliant youth of seventeen, who had already distinguished himself as governor of Faras. Muhammad Qasim marched with "six thousand picked cavalry from Syria and Iraq, six thousand camel riders thoroughly equipped for military operations, and a baggage train of three thousand Bactrian camels", from Shiraz. . . to Dewal and laid siege to it as soon as his boats arrived. . . the invaders scaled the walls and captured the town. "The governor of Dewal fled, and the priests of the temple were massacred." A garrison of four thousand was left at Dewal and the the Arabs moved up the river to Nirun (Hyderabad). The citizens of that town had with commendable foresight sent two samanis (Buddhist priests) to Hajjaj. . . and obtained a written promise of protection from him by undertaking to pay an annual tribute. Muhammad Qasim had orders not to molest them. The Buddhist governor of Nirun was received great honour when he came to see the Arab general and undertook to guide him to Siwistan (Sehwan).
The Arab general had quickly learnt all he could of the religion and institutions of the people. The massacre of Dewal priests was a mistake he took care not to repeat. He was now anxious to assure the public that those who submitted to him would lose nothing while his hand was going to fall heavily on the recalcitrant. The privileges of the Buddhist and Brahman priests were repeatedly guaranteed; the common people were left free to worship as they pleased, provided they were willing to pay to the Arabs the same taxes they had previously paid to the officers of Rai Dahir. This policy had the expected effect, and as soon as his military superiority became evident the priests and the non-political masses decided to throw in their lot with him.
[The Arab forces met the army of Rai Dahir near Rawar, in June, 712 A.D. With the help of their local allies they out-maneuvered and surrounded his forces, defeating them after a five-day battle. Rai Dahir was killed in battle. His son Jaisiya took the defeated army to the fort of Rawar and then to Brahmanabad, where his force was defeated by Moka, a chieftain of Bait. The siege of Brahmanabad was prolonged by the soldiers inside the fort, who were aware they would be shown no mercy.]
. . . Four leading merchants of the town met to decide the question. "They had neither power nor wealth to enable them to fight the enemy. If he stayed a few days more, he would at last be victorious, and they would have no ground on which to ask for protection. If they could get any assurance, it would be better to make terms and surrender the fort to him, for if peace were made, those found in arms would be slain, but all the rest of the people - the merchants, the handicraftsmen and the cultivators - would find protection." To this opinion they all agreed and sent their messengers to Muhammad Qasim. . . On a day fixed beforehand with Muhammad Qasim the people came out to fight and, according to their prearranged scheme, left the gate of the city open. The Musalmans entered the town, but Muhammad Qasim ordered them to kill none but those who showed fight. "Protection was given to the artificers, the merchants and the common people, and those who had been seized from these classes were all liberated; but he sat on the seat of cruelty and put all those who had fought to the sword. It is said that about six thousand fighting men were slain, but according to others sixteen thousand were killed and the rest were pardoned."
Before the investment of Brahmanabad, Sisakar, the minister of Rai Dahir, had sued for protection, and Muhammad Qasim, always gracious to his Sindhi allies of talent and standing, immediately conferred upon him "the office of wazir". Sisakar now became the counsellor of the Musalmans. Muhammad Qasim told him all his secrets, always took his advice, and consulted him in all the civil affairs of the government, on his political measures and the means of prolonging his success. . . Muhammad Qasim, who was free from the sterile fanaticism of the later Ghaznavid and Ghurian Turks, freely appointed Hindus to the highest offices. He never lost sight of the fact that his administrative measures, if just and fair, would contribute materially to the success of his arms, and as the country came into his hands bit by bit, he made careful arrangements for its efficient government. . .
The city of Brahmanabad was placed in charge of four prefects, each of whom was responsible for one of the gates. "Muhammad Qasim also gave them as tokens of his satisfaction saddled horses and ornaments for their hands and feet, according to the customs of the kings of Hind [This may indicate they were Hindus or Buddhists]. And he assigned to each of them a seat in the great public assemblies."
"He fixed a tax upon all the subjects according to the law of the Prophet. Those who embraced the Mohammadan faith were exempted from slavery, the tribute and the poll-tax; and from those who did not change their creed a tax was exacted according to three grades. . . Some showed an inclination to change their creed, and some having resolved upon paying tribute, held fast by the faith of their forefathers, but their lands and property were not taken from them.
"All the people, the merchants, artisans and agriculturists, were divided into their respective classes, and ten thousand men, high and low were counted. Muhammad Qasim then ordered twelve dirhams weight of silver to be assigned to each man, because all their property had been plundered. . . Muhammad Qasim maintained [the Brahmans'] dignity and passed orders confirming their pre-eminence. They were protected against opposition and violence. Each of them was entrusted with an office, for Muhammad Qasim was confident that they would not be inclined to dishonesty."
. . . A deputation of Brahmanabad Brahmans represented to him that "from fear of the army, the alms and bread were not regularly given to them, while the attendants of the temples were in distress". . . Muhammad Qasim referred the question to Hajjaj for a definite and permanent settlement. "It appears, the latter wrote in reply,`that the chief inhabitants of Brahmanabad have petitioned to be allowed to repair the temple of Budh and pursue their religion. As they have made submission, and have agreed to pay taxes to the Khalifah nothing more can be properly reqired of them. . . Permission is given them to worship their gods. Nobody must be forbidden or prevented from following his religion.' Thereupon Muhammad Qasim directed the nobles, the principal inhabitants and the Brahmans to build their temple, traffic with the Mohammadans, live without any fear, and strive to better themselves."
Hajjaj congratulated Muhammad Qasim on the wisdom and prudence of his political measures and directed him to march on Alor and Multan. . . The general made careful arrangements for the preservation of peace and order in the territory he had subdued. The small Muslim force he had brought from Persia would not have sufficed for garrisoning a third part of southern Sind, but he had from the first been liberal in enlisting the warlike local tribes and it was with a mixed force, in which the Arabs must have been a minority, that he advanced towards Alor. . .
Alor (or Aror), the greatest city of Sind, had been left by Dahir in charge of his son, Fufi. . . The civil population began to waver, and knowing how faithful Muhammad Qasim was in the observance of his promises, decided to submit. Fufi fled away on discovering that he had lost all support, and the citizens opened the gates on the usual terms - death for soldiers who refused to submit, protection for the civil population and the maintenance of the old taxes.
Muhammad Qasim . . . then advanced to Habibah, a fort to which Kaksa, son of Chandar, had fled after the battle of Rawar. Muhammad Qasim, who wanted a counsellor of standing, well acquainted with the condition of Northern Sind as Sisakar was with south, received Kaksa's messenger very cordially, declared that "the princes of dahir's family were all wise, learned, trustworthy and honest", and promised to make Kaksa his counsellor in all affairs with the office of wizarat. . . "When [Kaksa] came to transact business, Muhammad Qasim used to make him sit before the throne and then consulted him, and Kaksa took precedence in the army before all the nobles and commanders. He collected the revenue of the country and the treasure was placed under his seal . . ." Kaksa proceeded to justify the confidence of his master by helping him to conquer the forts still held by the princes of Dahir's family.
. . .The garrison of Multan came out to fight and the battle raged from morning to sunset. But neither side gained a decisive victory and the garrison withdrew behind their walls. After the city had been besieged for two months, a Multani, who had asked for quarter, showed the invaders a spot where the wall could be mined, and after two or three days of stiff fighting, they broke into the city. "Six thousand warriors were put to death, and all their relations and dependents were taken as slaves, but protection was given to the merchants, artisans and agriculturists." Muhammad Qasim, for the first time, relaxed the rigour with which he had, since the fall of Dewal, sent a fifth part of the spoils to the caliph, and allowed his army to have the whole of it. . . [he] had nothing left to send to the caliph but a Brahman solved his difficulty by leading him to a hidden treasure buried by an old king beneath an idol of gold with eyes of ruby. . . This is the only instance in which Muhammad Qasim found his way to one of those accumulated hoards of gold and precious stones which we meet so often in Sultan Mahmud's invasions. On the same day a letter from Hajjaj showed that - apart from the Multan treasure - the Sind expedition, as a business venture, had yielded 100 per cent profit to the caliph's exchequer.
[The next campaign was to be against Rai Har Chandar, ruler of Kannauj, then the largest and strongest kingdom in India. But Muhammad Qasim's career came to an early close before he could embark on it. Hajjaj had died in 714, and after the death of Caliph al Walid in 715, his successor Sulaiman undertook a purge of the party of Hajjaj. Muhammad Qasim was recalled and executed.]
Alone among the many Muslim invaders of India Muhammad Qasim is a character of whom a conscientious Musalman need not be ashamed. Though only the lieutenant of the governor of Persia, his work challenges comparison with the later exploits of Mahmud and Shihabuddin. Of the three, Muhammad Qasim alone had a conscience and - thanks to his patrician birth - the instincts and feelings of a gentleman. He never sought a shortcut to success through fraud and guile like Shihabuddin, and his whole career was free from the conscienceless vandalism to which the pillage of peaceful non-Muslim population seems a service to Islam. . . He seems to have felt keenly that Islam as a religion would be judged by the behaviour of the Arabs and he did all he could to obtain the goodwill of the Indians for his government as well as his faith. He admitted them to the highest offices, allowed himself to be guided by their advice and never interfered with their religious freedom. And they trusted him as they never again trusted a Musalman for eight hundred years.
Footnote Ferishta's description of the Sind expedition is short, confused and inaccurate. A brief account of it will, however, be found in many Arab chronicles of the early years of Islam and specially in the Futuhul-Buldan of Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Jabir Al Baladuri, an extract from which is given in Vol I of Elliott and Dowson's History of India. But by far the most detailed and reliable history of the period is the Tarikh-i-Hind wa Sind, generally known as the Chach Nama. It is a translation from an Arabic original, now lost, by Muhammad 'Ali bin hamid bin Abu Bakar Kufi, who lived in the time of Sultan Nasiruddin Qubacha. The internal evidence of the Persian text conclusively proves that, though the translator has added to it here and there, the original Arabic history was written at the time of the invasion and by a person - probably the Qazi appointed by Muhammad Qasim at Alor - well informed as to the facts.
Amber Habib / [email protected]
