Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though earlier
Muslim conquests made limited inroads into the region, beginning during the period of the ascendancy of the
Rajput Kingdoms in
North India, from the 7th century onwards.
However, the Himalayan kingdoms of
Nepal,
Bhutan and
Sikkim and others high in the Himalayas (such as
Almora,
Garhwal,
Lahul,
Spiti,
Kinnaur in modern Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and
Chitgaon Hills) were never conquered by Muslims. Therefore Muslim conquest in
Indian subcontinent really means Muslim conquest in
Hindustan excluding the Himalayan region.
Background
Like other
sedentary societies in history, the Indian sub-continent has been attacked by
nomadic tribes throughout its long history. In evaluating the impact of Islam on the sub-continent, one must also note that the sub-continent was a frequent target of tribes from
Persia and
Central Asia who arrived from the North West. With the fall of the
Sassanids and the arrival of the
Caliphate's domination of the region these tribes began to contest with the new power and were subsequently integrated into it giving rise to Muslim dynasties of Central Asian heritage, generally the
Turks. In that sense, the Muslim invasions of the 10th century onwards were not dissimilar to those of the earlier invasions in the
History of Central Asia during the 1st through to the 6th century.What does however, make the Muslim invasions different is that...
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