Pre-partition #5 The Tide of Islam
Islam was introduced in the Subcontinent through a military campaign at first and later mass conversions with the coming of the Sufi preachers.
The first Muslim conquest in the sub-continent was during the Caliphate of Hazrat Umar RA, under the command of Abdullah bin Abdullah in 624 AD, and conquered Makran.
Later after 68 years, the Muslim conqueror, Muhammad Bin Qasim, a young Arab general, acquired Sindh in 712 AD when he rode eastward along the desolate Makran Coast with 6,000 Syrian Arab Cavaliers.
This event had great historic immense important significance about which the Italian scholar F. Gabrielle comments: “Present day Pakistan, holding the values of Islam and Arabism in such high esteem, should take upon the young Arab conqueror, Muhammad Bin Qasim, almost as a distant Kistes (founding father), a hero of Indian Islam.”
Muhammad Bin Qasim was commander of Caliph Walid Bin Abdul Malik, whose domains extended from Central Asia to Spain.
In 712, Muhammad Bin Qasim conquered Sindh’s major seaport Daibul and gained as far as Multan.
Basically, Muhammad Bin Qasim arrived in Sindh to quash the plundering of Arab shipping and ultimately he took control of the Indus Valley as far as north as Multan when Brahmin King Dahir Son of Chach ruled Sindh. Local leaders paid tribute to the Caliph of Baghdad. For three centuries Multan remained the northernmost outpost of Sindh province of the Arab Empire.
The Abbasids who became the new rulers of Sindh succeeded Ommayids. From 750 AD the Abbasid caliphs sent their governors to rule. Sindh paid significant revenue to Baghdad as it was a prosperous territory. In 820 AD Caliph Al-Mammon received one million dirhams as revenue from Sindh.