Early Medieval Period 600-1200

Islam

Following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, Islamic armies invaded the Byzantine and Persian Empires. Exhausted by a long and brutal war and with populations disenchanted with imperial rule and religion, Muslim forces quickly overran the Middle East. By 637, the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon had fallen; in 638 Muslim forces had occupied the Levant and were pushing into Egypt, then into North Africa. Byzantium survived thanks to the defenses around Constantinople and were able to hold onto much of Anatolia, but the Persian empire was conquered whole with the last shah murdered while on the run in 651.

Map of Islamic expansion 632 to 750 CE

In the 640s and 650s, there were some minor Muslim raids in the NW of South Asia, and some minor conquests of Greek/Persian kingdoms on the edge of the former Persian empire; there also were coastal raids on the western coast of S Aisa.

Muhammad bin Qasim, a general of the Umayyad Caliphate, led a series of campaings that saw the conquest of Sindh/Indus by 712, but expansion was soon contained. Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty (which ruled much of South and East India) then Nagabhata of Gurjara-Pratihara defeated Qasim's successor, and Nagabhata acquired territory up to the Indus river. On the Muslim side of the Indus, a number of sultanates were created under both native and foreign rulers, and this began centuries of raiding but also cultural diffusion.

The Ghaznavid dynasty emerged in the tenth century and at its height would rule much of modern Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of NW South Asia. The dynasty was Turkish in ethnicity but was thoroughly Persianized, and their campaigns would see Islam begin to spread into the subcontinent. Mahmud (ruled 997-1030) expanded the dynasty's control over Sindh and other small kingdoms, and led numerous expeditions into northern India. The Ghaznavid dynasty was opposed by the Rajput dynasties, most notably with Gurjara Pratiharas. The Hindu Rajput dynasties were a collection of clans and small kingdoms in the north west, who came from a variety of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Larger state formations were rare given infighting between clans.

After the fall of the Gupta dynasty, South Asia had fragmented. North India was unified briefly under the emperor Harsha (reigned 606 to 647) but after his death, Northern India and specifically the city of Kannauj were the site of conflict between three dynasties, the Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas, and Rashtrakutas, in what is known as the Kannauj Triangle or Tripartite Struggle, from about 750 to 900 CE. The Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty would eventually become dominant and rule much of the northern region until 1036, and the kings took the title of Maharajadhiraja, Great King of Kings. The kingdom was known for its decorative carved panels, for example:

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The Partihara kingdom is also notable for repulsing early Islamic invasions. The Rajput clans often warred amongst themselves, but united against invaders; once the immediate threat diminished, internal wars increased in the 11th and 12th centuries.

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Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526)

1191 sultan Mu'izz al'Din of the Ghurid dynasty (an eastern Iranian dynasty, initially Buddhist then Muslim) used the Khyber Pass to invade the kingdom of Prithviraj III, prince of parts of Punjab and Rajasthan; by 1193 he had conquered Delhi; he was assassinated in 1206. One of his military slaves, Qutb al-Din Aibak, of Turkish descent, took control and became first sultan of Delhi; his dynasty is known as the Mamluk (slave) dynasty - not same as one in Egypt), and would be the first of a succession of dynasties ruling the new sultanate.

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Despite the political instability, the Sultanate of Delhi saw impressive economic and demographic growth; its production of cotton and connection to the wider Islamic world boosted its production and trade significantly. Culturally, it led to an Indo-Persian culture. The Sultanate was religiously plural; Hindus, Buddhists, and others were tolerated so long as they payed the jizya tax (a tax on non-Muslims). The level of toleration varied, though, and there were a number of periods of iconoclasm that saw Hindu and Buddhist temples defaced, destroyed, and/or converted to mosques. Persian was the language of course, and the Urdu language developed: originally an Indo-Aryan language, much of its grammar is similar to Sanskrit but it borrowed vocabulary heavily from Arabic and Persian and used the Persian script. It quickly became a lingua franca in the Indo-Islamic frontier and evenutally would be used as the administrative language.

The Delhi sultanate also had a female ruler, Razia Sultana (reigned 1236-40). She was raised around court and trained to be regent. On the death of her father, she was supposed to take the throne but the nobles instead placed her half-brother on the throne; when he was assassinated after a disastrous six months, she took the throne and ruled until another half-brother usurped the throne

Just as the Rajputs defended South Asia from Islamic expansion, the Sultanate of Delhi would defend South Asia from the Mongols, although Delhi itself was brutally sacked by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1398, an event that supposedly saw more than 200,000 people massacred and the city burned.

Vijayanagar Empire

The Vijayanagar Empire emerged in the fourteenth century as the Hindus of southern India attempted to resist Muslim attempts at control. The empire developed a strong military and conflict with the Sultanate was frequent. The economy was heavily agricultural, relying on cotton and rice production with tenant-farmers who had part ownership over the lands. Trade with China was frequent and profitable.