Rise of Islam in Bengal, role of migration

[kalu_miah]

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760

Militarily, Muhammad Bakhtiyar’s conquest was a blitzkrieg; his cavalry of some ten thousand horsemen had utterly overwhelmed a local population unaccustomed to mounted warfare.[12] ………

If Muslim coins and the architecture of this period projected to the subject Bengali population an image of unbridled power, they projected very different messages to the parent Delhi sultanate, and beyond that, the larger Muslim world. Throughout the thirteenth century, governors of Bengal tried whenever possible to assert their independence from the parent dynasty in Delhi, and each such attempt was accompanied by bold attempts to situate themselves within the larger political cosmology of Islam. For example, when the self-declared sultan Ghiyath al-Din ‘Iwaz asserted his independence from Delhi in 1213, he attempted to legitimize his position by going over the head of the Delhi sultan and proclaiming himself the right-hand defender (nāṣir) of the supreme Islamic authority on earth, the caliph in Baghdad.[23] This marked the first time any ruler in India had asserted a direct claim to association with the wellspring of Islamic legitimacy, and it prompted Iltutmish, the Delhi sultan, not only to invade and reannex Bengal but to upstage the Bengal ruler in the matter of caliphal support. After his

armies

defeated Ghiyath al-Din in 1227, Iltutmish arranged to receive robes of honor from Caliph al-Nasir in Baghdad, one of which he sent to Bengal with a red canopy of state……….

But Delhi was distant, and throughout the thirteenth century the temptation to throw off this allegiance proved irresistible, especially as the imperial rulers were chronically preoccupied with repelling Mongol threats from the Iranian Plateau. So governors rebelled, and each brief assertion of independence was followed by their adoption of ever more exalted titles on their coins and public monuments. In 1281 Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Balban, the powerful sovereign of Delhi, ruthlessly stamped out one revolt by hunting down his rebel governor and publicly executing him. Yet within a week of Balban’s death in 1287, his own son, Bughra Khan, whom the father had left behind as his new governor, declared his independence. Bughra’s son, who ascended the Bengal throne as Rukn al-Din Kaikaus (1291–1300), then boldly styled himself on one mosque “the great Sultan, master of the necks of nations, the king of the kings of Turks and Persians, the lord of the crown, and the seal,” as well as “the right hand of the viceregent of God”—that is, “helper of the caliph.” On another mosque he even styled himself the “shadow of God” (z̄ill Allah), an exalted title derived from ancient Persian imperial usage.[26]

Exasperated with the wayward province, Delhi for several decades ceased mounting the massive military offensives necessary to keep it within its grip. In fact, the actions of Sultan Jalal al-Din Khalaji (r. 1290–96) betray something more than mere indifference toward the delta. A contemporary historian recorded that on one occasion the sultan rounded up about a thousand criminals (“thugs”) and “gave orders for them to be put into boats and to be conveyed into the Lower country to the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti, where they were to be set free. The thags would thus have to dwell about Lakhnauti, and would not trouble the neighbourhood (of Dehli) any more.”[27] Within a century of its conquest, then, Bengal had passed from being the crown jewel of the empire, whose conquest had occasioned the minting of gold commemorative coins, to a dumping ground for Delhi’s social undesirables. Already we discern here the seeds of a North Indian chauvinism toward the delta that would become more manifest in the aftermath of the Mughal conquest in the late sixteenth century…………..

Initially, Delhi did not allow Bengal’s assertions of independence to go unchallenged. In 1353 Sultan Firuz Tughluq took an enormous

army

down the Ganges to punish the breakaway kingdom. Although Firuz slew up to 180,000 Bengalis and even temporarily dislodged Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah from his capital at Pandua, he failed to reannex the delta. Six years later, Firuz made another attempt to restore the delta to Delhi’s authority, but he was again rebuffed, this time by Shams al-Din’s son and successor, Sikandar Shah (r. 1357–89).[28] These inconclusive invasions of Bengal, and the successful tactics of the two Bengali kings to elude the North Indian imperialists by fading into the interior, finally persuaded Firuz and his successors of the futility of trying to hold onto the distant province. After 1359 Bengal was left undisturbed by North Indian

armies

for nearly two centuries………

 

[kalu_miah]

@eastwatch lets forget politics for a moment, we know we have differences in our views in that regard.

I would invite you to kindly contribute in this thread, if you do not mind. I know you have interest in history of Bengal. I would like to see your critique of Eaton's work as well as presentation of published work from other sources and your personal views that you have gained from studying other historical sources.

The main goal is to construct a realistic picture of the role of migration in the genesis of ethnic Muslim Bengali people.

I think many people, Bangladeshi's themselves and Indians as well, have a kind of distorted picture of who Bengal Muslims are and where they came from.

Interesting paper on this topic:
http://mukto-mona.net/Articles/kamrun_nahar/Racial_Origin.pdf

 

[kalu_miah]

Here I will try to get an estimate for the population of Bengal landmass (West Bengal + Bangladesh) before Islamic rule at around 1200 AD.

From this image we can see that world population at 1200 AD was about 450 million.

From above picture we can see that India's population was about 20% of world population at around 1200 AD. So 20-22% of 450 million is about 90-100 million.

Now lets look at Bengals population from census of British India in 1871:
1871 India Census - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We can see from above, Bengal's population was 63 million out of 240 million of British India, which included lower Burma and Arakan. This is about 26% of British India's population.

But Bengal Presidency at that time comprised areas which are now within Bangladesh, and the present day Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Odisha (Orissa) and Tripura.

Current population of these areas:
Bangladesh: 160 million
West Bengal: 90 million
North East: 40 million
Bihar: 100 million
Orissa: 40 million
Total: 330 million

This 330 million is about 20% of South Asian population of about 1.6 billion.
Current 250 million of Bangladesh+West Bengal is about 15% of current South Asian population. Now if we consider the population explosion in Bengal after Muslim rule from 1200 onward, mainly after Mughal conquest of Bengal and resulting clear cutting of forested land in the Mughal agrarian expansion project, then we can estimate that population of Bengal at 1200 AD was probably around 5% (roughly 1/3 the current % level) of then Indian population of 90-100 million. So my estimate of Bengal landmass (excluding current Bihar and Orissa) population at 1200 AD would be about 3-5 million.

 

[kalu_miah]

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760

The geographic expansion of Muslim power in premodern Bengal is easy enough to reconstruct. In any given area of the delta, as in the premodern Muslim world generally, the erection of mosques, shrines, colleges, or other buildings, civil or military, usually presupposed control by a Muslim state. Epigraphic data testifying to the construction of such buildings thus form one kind of evidence for political expansion. The same is true of coinage. Since reigning kings jealously claimed the right to strike coins as a token of their sovereignty, the growth of mint towns

also reflects the expanding territorial reach of Muslim states. These two kinds of sources, epigraphic and numismatic, thus permit a visual reconstruction of the growth of Muslim political authority in Bengal through time and space, as depicted in map 2.

Map 2a. 1204–1342: governors, Balbani rulers, Shams al-Din Firuz, and sucessors (1204–81; 1281–1300;1301–22; 1322–42)

Map 2b. 1342–1433: Ilyas Shahi and Raja Ganesh dynasties (1342–1414; 1415–33)

Map 2c. 1433–1538: restored Ilyas Shahis, Abyssynian kings, and Hussain Shahis (1433–86; 1486–93; 1493–1538)

Map 2d. 1539–1760: Afghans and Mughals (1538–75; 1575–1760)

(If we look at maps above, there is hardly any garrisons, mint towns and architectural monuments in todays lower West Bengal area before 1433, rather the mint towns appear there after 1433. Most of the garrisons, mint towns and architectural monuments appear above Padma river, the main one in the former capital of Bengal Sultanate Gaura/Lakhnauti/Chapainawabganj in West Bengal/Bangladesh border, few others in Malda and South Dinajpur and rest in current Bangladesh. Prior to 1433, very few were below Padma river in lower West Bengal)

The advent of Indo-Turkish rule fundamentally altered Bengal’s physical and social landscape. In the mid fourteenth century, for example, the visiting Chinese merchant Wang Ta-yüan noted that the agrarian frontier had pushed far into the delta’s hinterland, transforming formerly forested areas into fields of rice paddy (see chapter epigraph above).[1] It was under Muslim rule, too, that Bengal’s economy first became thoroughly monetized. Now it is true that kings of the Chandra dynasty (ca. 825–1035) had minted silver coins, and that from the ninth or tenth century at least the delta’s southeastern corner had been integrated into a wider Indian Ocean economy.[2] But in Pala or Sena times, the major part of the delta is not known to have used metal coinage at all. By contrast, from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth, the Muslim rulers’ silver coin, the tanka, circulated uninterrupted throughout the region.

In fact, the sequence of local conquests and bulges in the money supply suggests that Indo-Turkish rulers were driven into Bengal’s hinterland, at least in part, by their thirst for uncoined silver. Each new conquest on Bengal’s southern, eastern, or northern frontiers was followed by an expansion in the volume of silver coinage in circulation, the victors minting tankas from the accumulated silver stocks of defeated Hindu kingdoms. ……

Bengal’s Muslim society from the thirteenth century through the sixteenth was overwhelmingly urban, concentrated in the sultanate’s successive capital cities—Lakhnauti from 1204, Pandua from about 1342, and Gaur from about 1432—and in the provincial towns of Satgaon, Sonargaon, and Chittagong. Although new garrison towns regularly sprang up in the interior, as the numismatic and epigraphic evidence shows (see map 2), the preeminence of the capital cities was assured, since members of the provincial nobility, regardless of where their land assignments were located, had to maintain residences there.[13]

The nobles and merchants described above formed part of the Muslim elite, or ashrāf, which also included urban Sufis, religious officials (‘ulamā), and foreign-born soldiers and administrators. In fact, foreign origin, even if only of one’s ancestors, formed an important, if not defining, element of ashrāf identity. Writing around 1495, the poet Vipra Das referred to the Muslim preachers (mullās) and judges (qāẓīs) of Satgaon as “Saiyids,” “Mughals,” and “Pathans”—that is, men claiming an Arab, Central Asian, or Afghan origin.[20] About a century later the poet Mukundaram (fl. 1590), like Vipra Das a native of the southwestern delta, described urban Muslims as men who had immigrated from points west of Bengal.[21]

 

[kalu_miah]

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760

2. Bengal under the Mughals
But in 1526 another Turk from Central Asia, Babur, dislodged the last Afghan ruling house from Delhi and established his own house—the Indo-Timurids, or Mughals. As a result, thousands of refugee Afghans flocked down the Gangetic Plain into Bihar and Bengal, where they established themselves as warrior chieftains (see map 4)...............

In 1556, however, Humayun managed to reconquer Delhi from Sher Shah’s successors. Once again, large numbers of Afghans from North India sought refuge in Bengal, then ruled by remnants of the house of Sher Shah, and after 1564 by the house of another Afghan leader, Taj Khan Karrani (1564–65).[5].........

Anti-Mughal resistance now coalesced around a remarkable Bengali Muslim chieftain, ‘Isa Khan, whose seat of government lay deep within the delta’s eastern riverine tracts in the town of Katrabo near the ancient city of Sonargaon. In 1586 Ralph Fitch, a merchant then exploring the possibilities of opening up trade between England and India, traveled through Bengal’s eastern districts and wrote, “They be all hereabout Rebels against the King Zebaldin Echebar [Jalal al-Din Akbar]: for here are so many Rivers and Ilands, that they flee from one to another, whereby his Horsemen cannot prevaile against them. The chiefe King of all these Countries is called Isacan [‘Isa Khan], and he is chiefe of all the other Kings, and is a great friend to all Christians.”[33] Fitch’s “other Kings” were the “twelve chieftains” (Beng., bāra bhūyān) recorded in other European accounts and celebrated in Bengali lore. In December 1600 the annual letter of the Jesuit Mission in Goa, commenting on the Mughal drive against Bengal’s former Afghan rulers, stated:

Twelve princes, however, called Boyones [bhūyān] who governed twelve provinces in the late King’s name, escaped from this massacre. These united against the Mongols [sic], and hitherto, thanks to their alliance, each maintains himself in his dominions. Very rich and disposing of strong forces, they bear themselves as Kings, chiefly he of Siripur [Sripur], also called Cadaray [Kedar Rai], and he of Chandecan [Raja Pratapaditya of Jessore], but most of all the Mansondolin [“Masnad-i ‘ālī,” title of ‘Isa Khan]. The Patanes [Afghans], being scattered above, are subject to the Boyones.[34]

All twelve chieftains, now subordinate to ‘Isa Khan, had been former governors of the Bengal sultanate.[35]..........

In 1602, with a view to thwarting the rebellious ambitions of all these elements, Raja Man Singh established Dhaka as the center of his military operations in the east.[44] Soon it would be Bengal’s premier city. To be sure, the Mughals did not create the city ex nihilo . Since at least the mid fifteenth century, it had been an outpost of Muslim settlers,[45] and one Mughal officer remarked that Dhaka, together with Gaur, Rajmahal, and Ghoraghat, had been among Bengal’s “ancient forts.”[46] Hence it was probably for strategic reasons that, shortly after Mun‘im Khan took charge of the province in 1574, Dhaka was made the headquarters of a thāna (Beng., thānā), or military district, on the Mughals’ far eastern frontier. Yet imperial authority there was still precarious, for in 1584 Dhaka’s thānadār, or military administrator, had been captured and imprisoned by ‘Isa Khan.[47]...........

From 1610 to 1715, the Mughals would use Dhaka as a base for integrating diverse peoples into their social and bureaucratic system and for transforming into arable land the vast stretches of forest that still covered most of “Bhati,” or the eastern delta. ...........

There are problems, however, with characterizing the Mughal state as a “gunpowder empire.” First, the Mughals did not introduce cannon or the musket to India; both had been found in North India and the Deccan since the second half of the fifteenth century, nearly a century before the Mughal age.[56] Second, the Mughals’ use of firepower did not immediately spell the end of mounted archers. Used in combination with musketeers and artillery, archers continued to play a decisive role in Mughal warfare.[57] In the ten major imperial campaigns waged between 1608 and 1618—the most important decade for the consolidation of Mughal power in the delta—the Mughals always deployed a mixed force structure, averaging for each campaign 4,000 musketeers, 2,100 mounted archers, and 300 war boats.[58] On the other hand, the Bengal rulers, like the sultans of Delhi, relied on war elephants as the principal arm of their military.[59] A European visitor once noted that Sultan Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah maintained a stable of 914 war elephants “trained to fight with swords fixed to their tusks and to throw javelins from their trunks; they can kill and wound many people in this way.”[60] At the battle of Tukaroi (1575), during the Mughals’ first serious drive into the Bengal hinterland, Sultan Daud’s elephants did indeed produce havoc among the imperial cavalry.[61] But the imperial armies eventually won that battle, and they owed their triumph not to gunpowder but to their superior use of mounted archers............

At the center of all this political activity was Dhaka, or “Jahangirnagar,” as it was officially known, which in the seventeenth century attained a peak of power and influence. Fray Sebastião Manrique, who was there in 1640, described the place as a “Gangetic emporium,” with a population of over two hundred thousand.[79] Recalling that the population of Gaur had been estimated at only forty thousand at the height of the sultanate’s power around 1515, one sees how rapidly the Mughal capital must have grown in the thirty years since Islam Khan’s arrival. Manrique was especially impressed with the city’s wealth. “Many strange nations,” he wrote, resort to this city on account of its vast trade and commerce in a great variety of commodities, which are produced in profusion in the rich and fertile lands of this region. These have raised the city to an eminence of wealth which is actually stupefying, especially when one sees and considers the large quantities of money which lie principally in the houses of the Cataris [Khatri], in such quantities indeed that, being difficult to count, it is usual commonly to be weighed.[80]

Manrique’s reference to wealthy Khatris (known today as Marwaris, because they came from Marwar in Rajasthan)[81] points to the prominence of this caste of Hindu merchants, bankers, and moneylenders, who had accompanied their Mughal patrons to wealth and success.............

Above all, the advent of the Mughal age, unlike previous changes of the guard at Gaur, did not represent a mere military occupation in which one ruling class simply replaced another. Nor were the changes accompanying Mughal rule merely ones of scale—that is, bigger cannons, a more dazzling court, or taller monuments. Rather, as will be seen in the following chapters, the conquest was accompanied by fundamental changes in the region’s economic structure, its sociopolitical system, and its cultural complexion, both at court and in the countryside............

Most important, perhaps, were the sheer numbers of new immigrants who inundated the delta as a result of Bengal’s political reintegration with North India. These included soldiers recruited from the north, Marwari merchants who accompanied and helped finance their Mughal patrons, swarms of petty clerks attached to Mughal officers, and the many artisans who supplied and equipped the Mughal military establishment. In effect, Bengal had become a colony for outsiders, effectively reversing the long-term pre-Mughal trend whereby a Muslim ruling class had progressively accommodated itself to the Bengali environment owing to generations of intermarriage with Bengali women and centuries of isolation from the north.

Both the literature and the architecture of the period reveal the new ruling class’s profoundly foreign—that is, non-Bengali—character. In 1626 an Afghan, Mahmud Balkhi, journeyed to Rajmahal and wrote of encountering people whose family origins lay in Balkh, Bukhara, Khurasan, Iraq, Baghdad, Anatolia, Syria, and North India.[25] These would have been remnants of the predominantly Sunni ashrāf of Akbar’s day, when Rajmahal was the provincial capital. Some years later the poet-official Muhammad Sadiq Isfahani, who lived in Dhaka from 1629 to his death in 1650, kept a diary, the ṣubḥ-i ṣādiq, in which he mentions the dozens of artists, poets, generals, and administrators he had come to know in that city. Most of these men were Shi‘as whose ancestors had migrated from distant centers of Persian culture—for example, Mashhad, Teheran, Ardistan, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Taliqan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Herat, Bukhara, or Gilan.[26] This suggests that between the reign of Akbar (1556–1605), when Rajmahal was capital, and that of Shah Jahan (1628–58), when Dhaka was capital, an increasing proportion of Bengal’s urban ashrāf, although born in North India, claimed Iranian ancestry.[27]...........

That ashrāf Muslims occupied a social category distinct from the “natives” was also noted by the Portuguese friar Sebastião Manrique, who in 1629 described Bengal’s population as composed of three groups—“the Portuguese, the Moors, and the natives of the country.”[36] In this social classification Muslims were, by definition, foreigners to the land. From the perspective of the ashrāf Muslims whom Manrique met, it was conceptually impossible for “natives” also to be “Moors”—that is, that there could be Bengali Muslims..........

 

[kalu_miah]

The Telegraph - North Bengal & Sikkim

Love & neglect dooms tomb
- Conquerer forgotten in death
ABHIJIT CHAKRABARTY

Khilji's tomb. Picture by Abhijit Chakrabarty
Gangarampur (South Dinajpur), Jan. 2: They mean well, but their initiative is doing Bakhtiar Khilji's tomb more harm than good.

The grave of Khilji, who captured Nabadwip in 1201 and ushered in Muslim rule in Bengal, is losing its battle against time, administrative apathy and the damage done by well-meaning residents with no clue about how to go about restoring the 800-year-old structure.

The original engravings on the tomb are all but hidden under layers of earth and plaster that Narayanpur residents have pulled on the structure in a bid to prevent it from crumbling to dust.

After reasoning with the villagers, this correspondent could convince them that the tomb needed scientific restoration to preserve its original shape and styling.

The villagers promised to stop the plastering work and soon petition the district magistrate and urge him to initiate the preservation work.

Interestingly, the tomb has been protected over the generations by the villagers of Narayanpur, who pred- ominantly belong to Hindu Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

One of the villagers, Nirod Roy, pointed out that every year during the Bengali month of Baisakhi the tomb is visited by Muslim fakirs who light lamps and distribute sweets.

'Over the years, we have been demanding that the district administration construct a three-kilometre-road for tourists to travel easily to the spot,' Roy said.

Golideb Singh, another villager, pointed out that every four or five years some government officials visit the tomb.

'They inspect the tomb and leave after assuring us that funds will be allotted to restore the disintigrating structure,' he said.

District magistrate Romit Mutsuddi said: 'No one has brought my attention to the fact that villagers have been plastering the tomb. Responsibility for the structure lies with the Archaeological Survey of India. We cannot step in. I have instructed the subdivisional officer and block development officer to submit a report through me to the state archaeological department.'

Bakhtiar Khilji was a young fortune-seeking Turk who sought employment in Mohammad Ghori's army.

He managed a jagir in Ayodhya and then spread his influence by capturing others through guerrilla operations.

After capturing Nabadwip and King Lahksman Sen, he was murdered by a senior general at Naraynpur and laid to rest beside a pond near the garrison where he was stabbed to death.

 

[kalu_miah]

goldenbengal.org

Bengal - Golden Age

The current generation of Bengalis do not recall the great era of the Bengal Sultanate commencing around 1204 CE. This was when Bengal had reached the zenith of civilisation and regional dominance. The Sultanate implemented law and order, enriched the cultural heritage, established justice and brought economic prosperity in the land. It clearly demonstrated how Islam was an integral part of state and society; that it can secure the basic needs and rights of people by providing food, clothing and shelter for all the population, create an infrastructure and exercise independent political thinking on behalf of it's citizens. This secured their interests, unlike the status quo of Bangladesh today.

Although the history is there, Bangladeshis appear to be suffering from amnesia since they cannot remember beyond the immediate history of their land. They are not fully aware of their own past. History is usually coloured by those who have power domestically but is also shaped by dominant international powers of the day who invariably influence others with their thoughts, ideas and their interpretation of history. This is clearly seen in today’s international political climate.

Today, there is an attempt by some to remove the idea of Islam being an integral part of society and state from the minds and hearts of the Bengalis. This will only spell disaster for Bengal , the last two hundred years are witness to its downfall. This is similar to the Bengal tiger being robbed of its stripes. Therefore it is of paramount importance that the Bengalis of today re-connect with their history.

This website is an attempt to elucidate that glorious past of Bengal so that the Bengalis of today can re-discover it and be proud of that golden era of Bengal.

 

[kalu_miah]

 

[kalu_miah]

BARI MOSQUE & MINAR AT CHOTA PANDUA, HOOGHLY

In Chota Pandua,a 140 feet high tower was a part of the town's principal mosque called Bari Masjid and displayed the power of ruling class and aimed at propagating the new religion of Islam ( Early 14th century )

Pandua, Hooghly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The place is best known for its minar[3] and the ruins of Pandu Raja's Palace where all important state ceremonies were held.[4] The 13th century minar soars to a height of 125 feet.[5]
Shahid Shah Safiuddin was the nephew of Feroz Shah Khilji the Sultan of Delhi. It is said that a Pandu Raja lived in Mahanad in Hooghly where cow slaughter was totally banned. However the Sultan settled in Pandua for the occasion of his son's circumciscion (Khatnah) ceremony. So he had slaughtered a cow for feast to offer to his guests. This enraged the King and he sacrificed the saint's son to Goddess Kali. Shah Safiuddin went to Delhi and complained to the Firoz Shah Khilji about this horrific incident.The Sultan sent a large army under the command of Jaffar (Zafar) Khan Ghazi during {1290-1295 AD}. Taking the spiritual guidance from his guide Shah Bu Ali Qalandar at Panipat, Pandua was attacked. The imperial army was victorious after a long battle. However Shah Safiuddin was fatally wounded. He was buried at the spot where he fell during the battle, with lot of respect and joy. There remains his Dargah near Pandua GT road. A mosque was also built later.

Zafar Khan Gazi's tomb and mosque at Tribeni, Hooghly (1298):

 

[kalu_miah]

Glimpses of India with Koyeli: Destination India

Gaur, has played the capital role for three major dynasties of the West Bengal in the ancient times. They were the Hindu Senas, the Muslim Nawabs and the Buddhist Palas. Gaur, which is on the border of the India and Bangladesh is around 12 km from Malda. It has many historical relics like the ruins of the forts, the Bara Sona Mosque, Dakhil Darwajah which was built in 1425. The attractive colourful tiles on the Gomti Gate and Firoz Minar are the master pieces of art. Apart from this there are relics of the Qadam Rasul Mosque, Lattan Mosque.

Bara Sona Mosque

Bara Sona Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in India, is located at Gaur-Lakhnauti, about 15 km south of Malda, West Bengal. This is a beautiful shrine featuring the architectural excellence of the Sultanate period.

The Bara Sona Masjid was constructed during the rule of Sultan Hossain Shah (1493–1519) and Sultan Nasrat Shah (1519–32), and has a massive structure, comprising 168 feet by 76 feet, in a rectangular arena with octagonal towers at the corners, giving it a beautiful look. There used to be four gateways to this mosque, out of which only two remain in good shape, one is in conservable status, while the last one completely distressed. The common name of this mosque is – Baraduari Masjid, or the Mosque with 12 doorways, with its corridor running from eastern front, having six doors on each side. The stone built structure has 33 small domes on top, and are known to have been gilded with gold during the flourishing days, and thus came the name ‘Bara Sona’ or Great Golden Mosque. The domes still stand and presumably, the gold gilding is a story, and the brightness of the domes, under the bright sun rays, used to give it a golden look.

The rectangle shaped mosque contains 12 doors and octagonal towers. In architecture style, this mosque resembles the famous Chota Sona Mosque built by Alauddin Husain Shah. Believed to have been built in 1523, Bara Sona Mosque has a spacious veranda with eleven pointed arched doorways. It also possesses two gateways to its east and north.

Dakhil Darwaza

This impressive gateway or the Dakhil Darwaja; formed the main northern entrance to the fort of Gaur & was built by Barbak Shah in year 1425 A.D.. The structure is made with red bricks and admired with terracotta work. This gate measuring 34.5 m wide and 21 m in height was once the main gate of a fort that no longer exists. The fort has four corners, which feature five-storey towers. In the south-eastern corner of the fort, there is a 20 m high wall encircling the remnants of an age-old palace. Salutes fired from it gave it the name of "Salami Darwaja". According to Rizvi (the famous historian & the author of the second volume of the famous "Wonder that was India" This Salami Darwaja was the biggest "brick built gateway" ) in the medieval period.

Loton Masque

Popularly known as Loton Masjid (Loton mosque),it was built in the year 1475.Locally it is believed that the king Yusuf Shah built it for his most beautiful courtesan Loton Bibi.It's surface was once entirely faced with colored bricks!

Firoz Minar

Firoz Minar is located close to the Dakhil Darwaza. The tomb was constructed during the reign of Sultan Saifuddin Feroze Shah (1485-1489). The structure is a five-storey tower, which resembles the Qutub Minar. It features a spiralling flight consisting of 84 steps, by ascending which the tourists can reach the top of the tower. The tourists can also view the terracotta carvings on the walls of Firoz Minar.

Kadam Rasul Mosque

Kadam Rasul Mosque, located close proximity to the Feroze Minar, is believed to have the footprints of Prophet Muhammad on a piece of stone. The four corners of the mosque feature four towers built with black marble. The structure of the mosque was constructed in 1530 by Sultan Nasiruddin Nusrat Shah.

Tomb of Fateh Khan

The tomb of Fateh Khan built in 17th century is located opposite to the Kadam Rasool Mosque. The tomb is constructed in the style of Hindu Chala, though Fateh Khan was the commander of the army of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor.

Chika Mosque

Chika Mosque was built under the patronage of Sultan Yusuf Shah in 1475. The mosque was named Chika because it was a guarded refuge of bats, locally called Chikas. The mosque features a single-domed edifice, which has almost been turned into ruins.

However, the tourists can view the carvings on the walls and the figures of the Hindu deities on the stonework of doors and lintels, which are partly visible. The structure is unique as it also has traces of the architectural style of the Hindu Temples.

Luko Churi (Hide & Seek) Gate

Luko Churi Gate or the Lakhchhipi Darwaza was built in 1665 by Shah Shuja. It was named so as the Sultan used to enjoy playing hide and seek with his begums here.

 

[Moander]

What happened in Bengal was related to contemporary world events. I try to cover some of these events in these threads:
Nomad vs Sedentary and spread of Islam
Turks, Mongols and a Persian Secretarial Class in Early Delhi Sultanate

Birth of Muhammad (SAWS) and Chinggis Khaan unleashed forces that shaped much of the world and also in a remote corner of South Asia, far away from Mecca and Mongolia, resulted in events that eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh.

After death of Muhammad (SAWS) in 7th century, Arab nomads from Arabian peninsula conquered two major settled civilizations/empires, Byzantine in the North West (present Jordan, Syria, Lebanon), Byzantine North Africa in the West, Roman West Europe (Spain, parts of Italy etc.) and Sassanian Iran to the North East. Arab Khilafa then started recruiting another group of nomadic warriors, Turkic people from the Central Asian steppes and employ them as slave soldiers (Mamluks). Mamluks eventually started taking over many of these Islamic empires and created new ones such as Delhi Sultanate, Bengal Sultanate etc. But these nomads had no settled civilization skills of their own so they started using the existing culture, language and bureaucratic organizational skills of these conquered settled civilizations. Sassanian in the East, and Byzantine and Roman in the West.

Around 1200 AD, Chinggis Khaan united tribes in Gobi desert and surrounding steppe areas, declares himself Khan of Khans of all nomadic felt tent people (nomads living in yurt/ger from Manchu steppes North of Korean peninsula to Hungarian steppes in east Europe) and started taking over settled and nomad empires one by one. First China, then Central Asia and Iran and then Russia. In two places they lose, one in battle of Ain Jalut near present day Palestine against Mamluks and converted Mongols from the Russian Khanate and the 2nd against Delhi Sultanate, which became a refuge for Muslim Turkic people from Central Asia and who were able to lure and recruit many Mongols in their ranks as well.

Soon the Mongol Khanates started falling within a century, the first to fall was Chagatai and it was taken over by the son-in-law (Gurkani) empire of Emir Timur. He unites Central Asian Chagatai Khanate, Russian Altyn Orda or Golden Hordes and Il-khanid Iran. He sacks Osmanli in Anatolia and Delhi Sultanate. After fall of Yuan Mongol rule of China at the hand of Ming, Timur was on his way to attack Ming China to restore Mongol Yuan, but died on the way near Syr Daria in present day Kazakhstan. After the Khanates the Timurid empire also faded away giving rise to other empires. Babur one of the last Timurid prince got ousted from his state in Ferghana valley and tried his fortune in South Asia and succeeds. So finally Yassa makes it way into South Asia and makes profound changes in one of its fringe frontier called Bangalah (Bengal).

Yassa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1. He [Chingis-Khan] ordered that all religions were to be respected and that no preference was to be shown to any of them. All this he commanded in order that it might be agreeable to Heaven. {al-Makrizi}
2. Leaders of a religion, lawyers, physicians, scholars, preachers, monks, persons who are dedicated to religious practice, the Muezzin (this latter appearing to be from the later period of Khubilai Khan unless this was further translated there had been no specific reference made to any Muezzin and cities including mosques were levelled), physicians and those who bathe the bodies of the dead are to be freed from public charges. {Al-Makrizi}

Verkhovensky reports that the Yassa begins with an exhortation to honor men of all nations based upon their virtues. This pragmatic admonition is borne out by the ethnic mixture created by Genghis Khan in the Mongolian medieval army for purpose of unity (Ezent Gueligen Mongolyn), the United Mongol Warriors. The origin of the word Mongol, "mong", means "brave". Thus at the time it may have meant as much an army of "the brave", as an army from or made up of people from Mongolia.

• Genghis Khan consulted teachers of religions, such as imáms and probably rabbis and Christian priests, in compiling his law codex.

Chingiz Khan: The Life and Legacy of an Empire Builder - Anwarul Haque Haqqi - Google Books
Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II - Satish Chandra - Google Books

Indegenization process: Fortune seeking warriors come to a new area in military campaigns, most often do not bring their wife. So they marry from local chieftains families to create first Muslim Ashraf. Subsequent warrior migrants who come to settle down, most probably marry from this existing pool of Ashraf families. When Ashraf fall to poverty, the rich converts can absorb them into their own family to gain Ashraf blood, which is treasured and rare commodity. Overtime population becomes more homogeneous, but just like South America, there remains a few percentage unmixed Ashraf (mixed themselves but not after the first settlement move), rest 40-70% are Mestizo with varying degree of foreign blood and then there are 50-20% unmixed natives (the percentages are wild guesses on my part, without a comprehensive genetic test of a broad cross section of people from various strata, it is premature to make conjectures, but I use this only as a speculative example).

Islam came to Bengal in 3 waves. First was through the coastal areas by Arab maritime traders. 2nd was the Turkic invasions that created Delhi Sultanate and Bengal Sultanate soon after. Turkic Bengal Sultanate spread Muslim rule to distant eastern hinterland of Bengal, but Muslim settlements remained limited to urban garrison towns and mint towns. The 3rd final push came after Mughal conquest of Bengal, that transformed the rural “Bhati” areas of eastern Bengal, with a mega project of clear cutting of forested land and creating mostly Muslim communities geared towards Wet Rice Cultivation. This way Bengal could become the granary and cash generator of Mughal empire, that would then finance imperial expansion in other parts of South Asia.

I would like to thank Richard M. Eaton for making available online the book he wrote on this subject:

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760
Richard Eaton | The Department of History

I will present material mostly from this book that will shed light on the topic mentioned in the title.

Well done @kalu_miah i am impressed with your work. Regarding the topic of the thread, i think the question will be the other way around. Why Muslims are minority in India despite of thousand years of Muslim rule? With my limited knowledge about history, i think its because of Timur & Moghols. I might be wrong but from what i read,

After Delhi fell to Timur's army, uprisings by its citizens against the Turkic-Mongols began to occur, causing a bloody massacre within the city walls. After three days of citizens uprising within Delhi, it was said that the city reeked of decomposing bodies of its citizens with their heads being erected like structures and the bodies left as food for the birds.[65]
Timur's invasion and destruction of Delhi continued the chaos that was still consuming India and the city would not be able to recover from the great loss it suffered for almost a century.

Timur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur

During the Mughal period, a lot of war took place between Muslims. Its common among the Mughal to fight for the throne, brother against brother, father against son not to mention against other Muslim kingdom etc. It severely reduce the number of muslim population in North India and also these factor contributed to the migration of Muslim to Bengal as it was a remote place & comparatively peaceful region.

If you have time can you please look into my theory?

 

[khair_ctg]

Well done @kalu_miah i am impressed with your work. Regarding the topic of the thread, i think the question will be the other way around. Why Muslims are minority in India despite of thousand years of Muslim rule? With my limited knowledge about history, i think its because of Timur & Moghols. I might be wrong but from what i read,

After Delhi fell to Timur's army, uprisings by its citizens against the Turkic-Mongols began to occur, causing a bloody massacre within the city walls. After three days of citizens uprising within Delhi, it was said that the city reeked of decomposing bodies of its citizens with their heads being erected like structures and the bodies left as food for the birds.[65]
Timur's invasion and destruction of Delhi continued the chaos that was still consuming India and the city would not be able to recover from the great loss it suffered for almost a century.

Timur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


During the Mughal period, a lot of war took place between Muslims. Its common among the Mughal to fight for the throne, brother against brother, father against son not to mention against other Muslim kingdom etc. It severely reduce the number of muslim population in North India and also these factor contributed to the migration of Muslim to Bengal as it was a remote place & comparatively peaceful region.

If you have time can you please look into my theory?

i will try to answer your question directed to kalu mian. the eastward migration happened due to seeking refuge and also for an outpost for 'difficult' people the Delhi based central admin wanted to get rid of.

But in 1526 another Turk from Central Asia, Babur, dislodged the last Afghan ruling house from Delhi and established his own house—the Indo-Timurids, or Mughals. As a result, thousands of refugee Afghans flocked down the Gangetic Plain into Bihar and Bengal, where they established themselves as warrior chieftains

the Afghans or Pathans were a major part of the sultanat and resisted the Turko-Mongol (Mughal) forces of Babar in the 16th century. many of these Pathans moved eastwards to towards Bengal facing the powerful forces of Babar from the West. this may have some parallel with Taimur's destruction of Delhi in 14th century, that a similar wave of sultanat people sought refuge in the East. however such refuge was obviously short lived as the Mughals succeeded in incorporating Bengal in their civilization and absorbing the sultanat in 16th century defeating the Karanis and Bhuiyans

A contemporary historian recorded that on one occasion the sultan rounded up about a thousand criminals (“thugs”) and “gave orders for them to be put into boats and to be conveyed into the Lower country to the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti, where they were to be set free. The thags would thus have to dwell about Lakhnauti, and would not trouble the neighbourhood (of Dehli) any more.”[27] Within a century of its conquest, then, Bengal had passed from being the crown jewel of the empire, whose conquest had occasioned the minting of gold commemorative coins, to a dumping ground for Delhi’s social undesirables.

 

[eastwatch]

Here I will try to get an estimate for the population of Bengal landmass (West Bengal + Bangladesh) before Islamic rule at around 1200 AD.

From this image we can see that world population at 1200 AD was about 450 million.

From above picture we can see that India's population was about 20% of world population at around 1200 AD. So 20-22% of 450 million is about 90-100 million.

Now lets look at Bengals population from census of British India in 1871:
1871 India Census - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We can see from above, Bengal's population was 63 million out of 240 million of British India, which included lower Burma and Arakan. This is about 26% of British India's population.

But Bengal Presidency at that time comprised areas which are now within Bangladesh, and the present day Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Odisha (Orissa) and Tripura.

Current population of these areas:
Bangladesh: 160 million
West Bengal: 90 million
North East: 40 million
Bihar: 100 million
Orissa: 40 million
Total: 330 million

This 330 million is about 20% of South Asian population of about 1.6 billion.
Current 250 million of Bangladesh+West Bengal is about 15% of current South Asian population. Now if we consider the population explosion in Bengal after Muslim rule from 1200 onward, mainly after Mughal conquest of Bengal and resulting clear cutting of forested land in the Mughal agrarian expansion project, then we can estimate that population of Bengal at 1200 AD was probably around 5% (roughly 1/3 the current % level) of then Indian population of 90-100 million. So my estimate of Bengal landmass (excluding current Bihar and Orissa) population at 1200 AD would be about 3-5 million.

My way of estimation was not as articulate as your own. But, I also came to the conclusion that in around 1200AD when Khaliji Turk Ikhtiaruddin Muhammad Bakhtiar conquered Bihar and Bengal, and settled his own people in this region, the local existing Hindu population of Bengal & Bihar was around 3.5 million.

Now, the question arises how many of his own people, Turkic, Afghan & other foreign-born, did he settle in this region. History says when he accompanied his 10,000 strong cavalry to invade and conquer Ahom. History of Bengal says of Tibet, but, Assamese Burunji says of attack on Assam. When he left for Ahom, he also send an expedition to Orissa under the leadership of two brothers, Shahabuddin and Shihabuddin with 5,000 horsemen.

It can be assumed that when 15,000 of his male troops are away from their new home, there must be at least another 15,000 to 30,000 able-bodied males in the region he had already conquered. So, it can be assumed that at least 40,000 male able-bodied young people with him.

Add with them their wives from their parched land in Afghanistan, the population rises to 80,000 strong. Now, add at least 200,000 of their children with the above figure, the foreign Muslim population rises to 300,000, at the least. How do I know that they brought their dependents from east Afghanistan? We have to understand that the entire north India was under the control of newly arrived Khaliji Turkic Muslims. As it is today with airplanes, far yesterday it was camel and horse driven caravans going and coming from Bengal to Delhi and from there to Garmshir of Afghanistan. New Muslim entrants and the dependents arrived in Hindustan and Bengal by using this caravan route.

We can deduce from the above discussion that in the very aftermath of conquering Bengal there came at least 300,000 foreign Muslims. They were the core of Muslim society and with them came many new arrivals seeking land, plenty of food and political power. We can see that out of a total population of 3.8 million comprising Hindus and Muslims, 300,000 were foreign born Muslims.

Muslim population kept on increasing through conversion as well as immigration of Muslims from Arabia, Ethiopia, north and west India as well as central Asia. The influx continued until 1757 when the Muslims lost their political power and clout in Bengal.

There are many major events in the political history of Bengal that influenced many other foreign Muslims to enter Bengal and domicile here.

 

[kalu_miah]

Well done @kalu_miah i am impressed with your work. Regarding the topic of the thread, i think the question will be the other way around. Why Muslims are minority in India despite of thousand years of Muslim rule? With my limited knowledge about history, i think its because of Timur & Moghols. I might be wrong but from what i read,

After Delhi fell to Timur's army, uprisings by its citizens against the Turkic-Mongols began to occur, causing a bloody massacre within the city walls. After three days of citizens uprising within Delhi, it was said that the city reeked of decomposing bodies of its citizens with their heads being erected like structures and the bodies left as food for the birds.[65]
Timur's invasion and destruction of Delhi continued the chaos that was still consuming India and the city would not be able to recover from the great loss it suffered for almost a century.

Timur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


During the Mughal period, a lot of war took place between Muslims. Its common among the Mughal to fight for the throne, brother against brother, father against son not to mention against other Muslim kingdom etc. It severely reduce the number of muslim population in North India and also these factor contributed to the migration of Muslim to Bengal as it was a remote place & comparatively peaceful region.

If you have time can you please look into my theory?

Timur was a "religious warrior" a perfect Jihadi general of his time and it looks like he did not kill many Muslims unless of course some Muslim army decided not to submit to his will and fight him. You may find Timur's own words quite revealing, please read as much as you find interesting. It looks like the sack of Delhi was triggered not by him but by some unruly locals:
Chapter 9 – Timur’s Account of His Invasion of India and Sack of Delhi

"I then mounted my horse and rode toward the gate of the public square, alighting at the ‘id-gah, or court of celebrations and festivities, a lofty and extensive building, where I directed my throne to be set up. I took my seat upon the throne and held a court, which was attended by Sayyids, the judges, the learned Mussulmans, the shaikhs, and the great men and chiefs. I had them introduced one by one, whereupon they made their obeisances and were admitted to the honour of kissing my throne. I received every one of them with respect and kindness, and directed them to be seated. Fazl-allah Balkhi was viceroy and deputy of Mallu Khan, and he came out to wait upon me and do homage, accompanied by a party of the officials and clerks of the government of Sultan Mahmud and Mallu Khan. Thereupon all the Sayyids, scholars, shaikhs, and other leading Mussulmans arose, and making the princes their mediators, they begged that quarter might be given to the people of Delhi, and that their lives might be spared. Out of respect to the Sayyids and scholars, whom I had always held in great esteem and honour, I granted quarter to the inhabitants of the city, after which I then ordered my ensign and royal standard to be raised, and the drums to be beaten and music played on the tops of the gates of Delhi. Rejoicings for the victory followed, and some of the clever men and poets that accompanied me worked the date of the victory into a verse, which they presented to me. Of all these memorial verses, however, I have introduced only this one into my memoirs:

“On Wednesday, the eighth of Rabi’ the second (Dec. 17, 1398), The Emperor Sahib-Kiran took the city of Delhi.”

I rewarded and honourably distinguished the literary men and poets who presented these verses to me.

I sent a party of men into the city to bring out the elephants which Sultan Mahmud had abandoned when he fled. They found 120 enormous elephants and several rhinoceroses, which they brought out to my court. As the elephants passed by me, I was greatly amused to see the tricks which their drivers had taught them. Every animal, at the sign of his driver, bowed his head to the ground, made his obeisance, and uttered a cry. At the direction of their drivers they picked up any object from the ground with their trunks and placed it in their drivers’ hands, or put it into their mouths and kept it. When I saw these mighty animals, so well trained and so obedient to weak man, I was greatly astonished, and I ordered that they should be sent to Turan and Iran, to Fars and Azur and Rum (Byzantium), so that the princes and nobles throughout my dominions might behold these animals. Accordingly I sent five to Samarkand, two to Tabriz, one to Shiraz, five to Herat, one to Sharwan, and one to Azarb aij an.

When Friday came, I sent Maulana Nasir-ad-din Omar, together with certain other holy and learned men who accompanied my camp, to the Jami’ Masjid, with directions to say the prayers for the Sabbath, and to recite the official prayer of my reign in the metropolis of Delhi. This petition was accordingly repeated in my name in the pulpits of the mosques of the city of Delhi, and I rewarded the preachers with costly robes and presents.

When the preparations for holding a court in Delhi were completed, I gave orders for the princes, amirs, and other officers, as well as the Sayyids, scholars, shaikhs, and all the principal men of the city, to attend my court. When all had arrived, I entered and took my seat upon the throne. The Turkish and Arab musicians and singers began to play and sing, and wine, sherbet, sweetmeats, and all kinds of bread and meat were served. I bestowed rich robes, caps, girdles, swords, daggers, horses, and the like upon the princes and amirs and other leading men of my army, especially upon those heroes who had distinguished themselves by deeds of valour under my own observation. To some I gave regiments and raised their dignity, while to the Sayyids and scholars of the city I presented robes and gifts.

I ordered my secretaries to draw up despatches announcing my victories in Hindustan and to circulate them with all speed throughout my dominions; and I also directed my revenue officers to make provision for collecting the ransom-money assessed upon the entire city, excepting the Sayyids, scholars, and shaikhs. The collectors proceeded about their work, and I remained in my quarters for several days, holding courts, giving feasts, and partaking of pleasure and enjoyment.

On the sixteenth of the month (Dec. 26), certain incidents occurred which led to the sack of the city of Delhi and to the slaughter of many of the infidel inhabitants. One was this. A party of fierce Turkish soldiers had assembled at one of the gates of the city to look about them and enjoy themselves, and some of them had laid riotous hands upon the goods of the inhabitants. When I heard of this violence, I sent some amirs, who were present in Delhi, to restrain the Turks, and a party of soldiers accompanied these officers into the city. Another reason was that some of the ladies of my harem expressed a wish to go into the city and see the Palace of a Thousand Columns which Malik Jauna had built in the fort called Jahanpanah. I granted this request, and I sent a party of soldiers to escort the litters of the ladies. Another reason was that Jalal Islam and other officials had entered Delhi with a party of soldiers to collect the contribution laid upon the city. Another reason was that some thousand troopers with orders for grain, oil, sugar, and flour had gone into the city to collect these supplies. Another reason was that it had come to my knowledge that great numbers of Hindus and infidels had come into the city from all the country round with their wives and children, and goods and valuables, and consequently I had sent some amirs with their regiments into Delhi and directed them to pay no attention to the remonstrances of the inhabitants, but to seize these fugitives and bring them out.

For these various reasons a great number of fierce Turkish troops were in the city. When the soldiers proceeded to apprehend the Hindus and infidels who had fled to Delhi, many of them drew their swords and offered resistance. The flames of strife thus lighted spread through the entire city from Jahan-panah and Siri to Old Delhi, consuming all they reached. The savage Turks fell to killing and plundering, while the Hindus set fire to their houses with their own hands, burned their wives and children in them, and rushed into the fight and were killed. The Hindus and infidels of the city showed much alacrity and boldness in fighting. The amirs who were in charge of the gates prevented any more soldiers from entering Delhi, but the


Hindu women

flames of war had risen too high for this precaution to be of any avail in extinguishing them.

All day Thursday and throughout the night, nearly fifteen thousand Turks were engaged in slaying, plundering, and destroying.

When Friday morning dawned, my entire army, no longer under control, went off to the city and thought of nothing but killing, plundering, and making prisoners. The sack was general during the whole day, and continued throughout the following day, Saturday, the seventeenth (Dec. 27), the spoil being so great that each man secured from fifty to a hundred prisoners, men, women, and children, while no soldier took less than twenty. There was likewise an immense booty in rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, and other gems; jewels of gold and silver; gold and silver money of the celebrated Alai coinage; vessels of gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great value. Gold and silver ornaments of the Hindu women were obtained in such quantities as to exceed all account. Excepting the quarter of the Sayyids, the scholars, and the other Mussulmans, the whole city was sacked. The pen of fate had written down this destiny for the people of this city, and although I was desirous of sparing them, I could not succeed, for it was the will of God that this calamity should befall the city.

On the following day, Sunday, it was brought to my knowledge that a great number of infidel Hindus had assembled in the Jami’ Masjid of Old Delhi, where they had carried arms and provisions, and had prepared to defend themselves. Some of my people who had gone that way on business were wounded by them, whereupon I immediately ordered Amir Shah Malik and Ali Sultan Tawachi to take a party of men and clear the house of God of infidels and idolaters. They accordingly attacked these infidels and put them to death, after which Old Delhi was plundered.

I ordered that all the artisans and clever mechanics who were masters of their respective crafts should be selected from among the prisoners and set aside, and


Mausoleum of Timur at Samarkand

accordingly some thousands of craftsmen were bidden to await my command All these I distributed among the princes and amirs who were present, or who were officially engaged in other parts of my dominions.

I had determined to build a Jami’ Masjid in Samarkand, the seat of my empire, which should be without a rival in any country; and for this reason I ordered that all builders and stone-masons should be set apart for my own especial service.


Interior of Timur’s tomb at Samarkand

By the will of God, and by no wish or direction of mine, all the three cities of Delhi, Siri, Jahan-panah, and Old Delhi, had been plundered. The official prayer of my sovereignty, which is an assurance of safety and protection, had been read in the city, and it was, therefore, my earnest wish that no evil might happen to the people of the place. It was ordained by God, however, that the city should be ruined, and he accordingly inspired the infidel inhabitants with a spirit of resistance, so that they brought on themselves that fate which was inevitable.

When my mind was no longer occupied with the destruction of the people of Delhi, I took a ride around the cities. Siri is a round city, with lofty buildings surrounded by strong fortifications built of stone and brick. Old Delhi has a similar strong fort, but it is larger than that of Sin, and from the fort of Sin to that of Old Delhi, which is a considerable distance, there runs a strong wall, built of stone and cement. The district called Jahan-panah is situated in the midst of the inhabited city. The fortifications of the three cities have thirty gates. Jahan-panah has thirteen gates, seven on the south side bearing toward the east, and six on the north side bearing toward the west. Siri has seven gates, four toward the outside and three on the inside toward Jahan-panah. The fortifications of Old Delhi have ten gates, some opening to the exterior and some toward the interior of the city.

When I was tired of examining the city, I went to the chief mosque, where I found a congregation of Sayyids, lawyers, shaikhs, and other principal Mussulmans, together with the inhabitants of their parts of the city, to whom they had been a protection and defence. I called them to my presence, consoled them, treated them with every respect, and bestowed upon them many presents and honours. I also appointed an officer to protect their quarter of the city, and guard them against annoyance, after which I remounted and returned to my quarters.

After spending fifteen days at Delhi, passing my time in pleasure and enjoyment, and in holding royal courts and giving great feasts, I reflected that I had come to Hindustan to war against infidels, and that my enterprise had been so blessed that wherever I had gone I had been victorious. I had triumphed over my adversaries, I had put to death hundreds of thousands of infidels and idolaters, I had dyed my proselyting sword with the blood of the enemies of the Faith, and now that I had gained this crowning victory, I felt that I ought not to indulge in ease, but rather to exert myself still further in warring against the infidels of Hindustan. Having made these reflections, on the twenty-second of Rabi’-al-akhir, 800 A.H. (Jan. 1, 1399 A.D.), I again drew my sword to wage a religious war."

Timur’s memoirs then proceed to describe his taking of Mirat by storm, his frightful slaughter of the inhabitants, his capture of Hardwar, and his devastation of the territory along the Ganges, until he turned his army on the homeward march to Samarkand, fighting his way at every step until he left India.
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But Timur was an exception:
FROM MONGOLS TO MUGHALS

"Chinggis' grandson Hulegu Khan was the founder of the Ilkhanate and his goal was to take Baghdad, the center of Islamic learning and culture and seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. Hulegu's mother and two wives were Christians and this helped him forge an alliance with Christian leaders in Georgia and Armenia against the Muslims in Iraq. As Baghdad fell in 1258, Hulegu ordered that the city be evacuated before the looting began. He sent in Christian troops to secure churches and their congregants' life and property, but many Muslim residents chose to remain.

Weatherford describes the destruction that followed the fall of Baghdad: "The Christians inside Baghdad joined their fellow believers to loot the city and slaughter the Muslims, from whom they felt their salvation had finally come. Centuries of hatred and anger spilled out as they defiled and destroyed mosques, and turned many of them into churches."[4] It is estimated that 80,000 people lost their lives, and the fires of the looting spread to consume the entire city. As far as I can tell, Weatherford is the only scholar who emphasizes the fact that it was Christian troops seeking revenge who sacked the city. Other accounts also report that Hulegu's troops slaughtered the people who did attempt to leave the city.

Contrary to widespread belief, most Muslims in India and Indonesia were not converted by the sword. Some forced conversions did happen in India, but census data prove that most of these converts must have lapsed. The most famous examples of reconversion were the brothers Harihara and Bukka, founders of the great Hindu empire Vijayanagar (1336-1565), who were forced to convert to Islam by Muhammad Tughluq in 1327. The most striking example of mass reconversion happened in Mysore, where Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) required that all his citizens convert to Islam. Today only 5 percent of the people in the Mysore area is Muslim, while the adjoining Malabar Coast has 30 percent Muslims,[5] primarily because they settled this area as peaceful traders in the 8th Century. With regard to voluntary conversion, one would expect a direct correlation between areas controlled by the Delhi Sultans and the Mughal emperors and highest Muslim population, but census data does not support this reasoning either. The only correlation that holds is the discovery of higher Muslim populations wherever Sufis traveled on these missions. This explains the otherwise curious fact that East Bengal, far from the centers of Islamic power, is now the Muslim country of Bangladesh. Sufi missionaries were also key to the peaceful spread of Islam in Indonesia and Mayalsia. "
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As for your theory, there is some truth to it, there was Muslim migration to Bengal (Sultanate or Subah that included Bengal, Bihar and Orissa) whenever there was disturbance in North India, during the time of Babur's conquest and also during Maratha invasion, but that was not the main contributing factor why we have majority Muslims in eastern Bengal. The main contributing factor, according to Eaton, is conversion of locals during the Mughal administered agrarian expansion project, at the hand of immigrant Sufi pirs who led local teams for clear cutting of forests and creating new wet rice cultivating farm lands.

Having said that, the migration factor was still significant, which had prepared the ground circumstances of an established Muslim rule in Bengal, without which mass conversion during the agrarian expansion could not have taken place. In this thread we are trying to highlight the migration factor, using Eatons own words and from other sources, what these migrations looked like according to original records, written by people visiting or local officials/historians/citizenry.

 

[kalu_miah]

A visa free tourist zone for Gaur/Pandua in Malda district

In this thread I suggested ways on how Bangladeshi's can visit these historical sites in West Bengal which are close to India-Bangladesh border.