Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent

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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