THE%20SINDH%20STORY

eports the Chachnama, was “charmed with their perfect beauty” and their
“blood-sucking blandishments”. However, the two princesses said to the Khalifa
that Qasim had already violated their chastity. The Khalifa flew into a rage. He
ordered that Mohammed Bin Qasim be killed and his body brought to him in a
bullock’s hide. When the orders were duly executed, the princesses revealed that
they had cooked up the violation story only to avenge “the ruination of the king
of Sindh and Hind and desolation of the kingdom of our fathers and
grandfathers”. The enraged Khalifa ordered them tortured to death and had their
torn bodies thrown into the river Tigris. The defeat of Sindh had been partly
avenged.
In Sindh the very first thing the Arabs did was to convert the Debal temple into a
prison. Soon, however, all Sindh became an Arab prison. The loot of Sindh
enriched the Arab lands. Twenty thousand Sindhis were sold in slavery, mostly
as cooks and cashiers. Here they specially popularized the Sindhi rice porridge
bhatt (Sanskrit Bhakt, Hindi bhaat, rice). Others captivated the Arab hearts with
their sweet singing, to the accompaniment of the ektara and the cymbals. Many
other Sindhis became trusted accountants in Arab business houses. A Sindhi
accountant became a guarantee of business success. Several Sindhi vaids (native
physicians) became famous in West Asia. One of them, Manik, cured Khalifa
Harun al-Rashid, when the local and Greek physicians had given up hope. On
another occasion Manik revived the Khalifa’s dear cousin Ibrahim, after he had
been declared dead by the physicians. Many Hindu arts and sciences began to
flow from Sindh into the Arab lands. Hindu astronomy, medicine, and
mathematics reached Europe through the Arab hands. To this day, the numerals
1,2,3,.... are known in Arabic as Hindsa. The Panchatantra stories of wisdom were
translated into Arabic as Kalilah wa Dimnah.
Even the Arabic script came from India --- centuries before the Arab invasion of
Sindh. According to experts, sixteen of the twenty-two basic Arabic characters
are directly traceable to the Brahmi lipi of Ashoka’s days. They look very
different only because they came to be written from right to left in the style of
“Kharoshthi” (in the manner of “asses’ lips”). Dr. Pathan notes: “Even the Arabic
script, which is supposed to have been -borrowed from the Nabataeans, was
greatly influenced by the Hindu Nagari script.”
Under the Hindu influence, the great Syrian poet Abdul Alaal-Maorri became a
Hindu and went vegetarian. Al-Hallaj visited Sindh, cried “anal-Haqq” (Aham
Brahm Asmi --- I am the Truth) and was crucified. There even was an Arab-
Sindhi romance. Luai was a descendant of Mohammed. He and his wife Hind
had a son, Asim. The family settled down in Samarra in Sindh. Here Hind
repaired the local Hindu temple. Asim fell in love with Sita, the daughter of the
temple priest. But Luai would not consent to Asim becoming Hindu --- and the
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