Hazara Islamicus (Jul 2020)
Cuases of Ghaznawi’s Conquests in India and its Preaching Milestones
Abstract
The Islamic conquests have expanded and Islam has spread across the globe from the beginning of Islam, while in The Land of India, the conquests of Muslims had started during the reign of the Guided Caliphs, including the “Muhallab” attack of the southern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, thus being considered the first of the Muslim invaders in India. The land of Sind was conquered by Muhammad bin Qasim, hence the rays of the light of Islam spread in Sindh and some areas of India in the first century, but most of the Indian territories were still under the Indian pagan majority and under Indian kings. However, the invaders did not exceed the borders of Kabul and Sindh, except the Ghaznavids, when Prince Subaktagin captured Ghazni, and other Afghan lands of Kabul, Laghman, etc in the late 4th century, thus he opened the gateway to India for those after him especially his son, Mahmud. The first conquest of the ruler of Ghazni was in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1001 AD, and then followed by conquests in central and south India and lasted for more than twenty years. These conquests are famous and prominent, for their dynamic impacts. These conquests, in terms of their causes and objectives, are suspected by some Muslims and distorted by non-Muslims and have concealed their steps and features in terms of Islamic Da'wah. The questions raised here are: What are the causes and objectives of these conquests? Has it had a moral effect on spreading the call of Islam? And what steps have been taken for that? And what were its features? This paper aims to study these questions and to explain the causes of these conquests and uncover some doubts about them. And to highlight the milestones of the peaching of Islam and steps are taken in this regard.
