islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Jihadlarge numbers as a result of the extreme cold and the quantity of the snow.' 462 The number of those frozen todeath in Hindu Kush is uncertain. According to Moreland, ‘their number was so large that the price of thesurvivors remained low in foreign markets.’ 463An advanced civilizationINDIA BEFORE THE COMING OF ISLAMPrior to Muslim conquest, India was one of the world’s top civilizations with significant achievements—inscience, mathematics, literature, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, architecture and so on—to its credit.Indian mathematicians conceived the mathematical concept of zero and founded the basics of algebra. Thepersianized Abbasid caliphs, inspired by the pre-Islamic Persian pursuit of knowledge, 464 sent scholars andmerchants to India for collecting documents and texts on science, mathematics, medicine and philosophy.According to Nehru, ‘In subjects, like medicine and mathematics, they learned much from India. Indianscholars and mathematicians came in large numbers to Baghdad. Many Arab students went to Takshashila inNorth India, which was still a great university, specializing in medicine.’ 465An Indian scholar brought two seminal mathematical works to Baghdad in 770. One was theBrahmasiddhanta (known to Arabs as Sindhind) of the great seventh-century Indian mathematician,Brahmagupta. It contained early ideas of algebra. In the ninth century, famous Muslim mathematician andastronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi combined the Indian work with Greek geometry to found themathematical system of algebra. Khwarizmi became known as the father of algebra. The term algorithm (oralgorism), the technique of performing arithmetic calculations developed by al-Khwarizmi using Indiannumerals, is the latinized version of his name. The second manuscript contained the revolutionary system ofdenoting number, including the concept of zero, unknown elsewhere. Muslim scholars used to call this Indiannumbering system, "Indian (Hindi) numerals"; the Europeans later gave it the name, "Arabic numerals". 466Although Muslims made significant contributions in these achievements, they often, in an act of selfgratification,claim all the credit for these plagiarized developments. Pre-Islamic India had a great tradition increating magnificent and sensual sculptures, and building wondrous architectures. After the coming ofMuslim invaders, Indian builders and craftsmen mixed Islamic ideas to their own, creating a new Indo-Islamicmosaic in the new building and architecture, which became integrated into the "heritage" of the self-declaredIslamic civilization.Alberuni (d. 1050) has recorded many of these ancient Indian achievements in his famous work,Indica, published in 1030. Arabic scholar Edward Sachau translated this book in 1880 and published underthe title of Alberuni’s India (1910). Sachau writes: ‘To Alberuni, the Hindus were excellent philosophers,good mathematicians and astronomers.’ 467 Alberuni summarizes Indian achievement in mathematics asfollows:462. Gibb, p. 178463. Moreland WH (1923) From Akbar to Aurangzeb, Macmillan, London, p. 63464. Patronized by the pre-Islamic Sassanian kings of Persia, the great Nestorian learning centre of Jundhishpur hadbecome a flourishing centre for translating the ancient works of Greek, Indian and other origin. Under king Khosro I(531–579), it had become a melting pot of Syrian, Persian and Indian scholars. Khosro I sent his own physician toIndia in search of medical books. These were then turned from Sanskrit into Pahlavi (Middle Persian), and manyother scientific works were translated from Greek into Persian or Syriac.465. Nehru (1989), p. 151466. Eaton (2000), p. 29467. Sachau, Preface, p. XXX153