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

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?about 1,200 children through his 2,000–4,000 thousand wives and sex-slaves. 190 The extensive enslavement ofthe vanquished Hindus, particularly the women—who were engaged in the breeding of Muslim children—helped the rapid growth of the Muslim populace.Therefore, wherever Muslims made successful inroads, they reduced the Hindu population directlyby slaughtering the men in large numbers and taking away the women and children as captives. It indirectlyreduced the Hindu populace by rendering the remnant Hindu men unprocreative by depriving them ofchildbearing female partners. Since those women became the vehicle for breeding Muslim offspring instead,the final result was a reduction of the Hindu populace and a sharp rise in the number of Muslims. Thegrowing Muslim population was to be maintained by the toiling of the vanquished Hindus, subjected togrinding taxes. This is roughly the same protocol, which Prophet Muhammad had applied to the Jews of BanuQurayza and Khaybar.Qasim’s three-year-long exploits in India, therefore, not only added a few hundred thousand Hindusto the fold of Islam instantly through enslavement, but the enslaved women also acted as the vehicle ofreproduction, swelling the Muslim populace in lips and bounds. Initiated by the Prophet, this protocol wasapplied by Muslim invaders and rulers everywhere; in India, Emperor Akbar banned the practice in 1564although rather unsuccessfully. In his expeditions to India, Sultan Mahmud slaughtered the men in largenumbers and carried away a great multitude of mainly women and children as slaves. Al-Utbi records thatSultan Mahmud had taken 500,000 people captives in his campaign of 1001–02. In his assault in Ninduna(Punjab), he captured so many slaves that ‘they became very cheap…,’ wrote an elated al-Utbi. In Thanesar(Haryana), Mahmud enslaved 200,000 and returned with 53,000 slaves in 1019. 191Based on the records of Muslim historians, Sultan Mahmud’s repeated invasions of Northern Indiahad reduced the Hindu population by about two million as estimated by Prof. KS Lal. 192 Many of them wereslaughtered in the course of the assaults; the rest—a larger number—were carried away as slaves at the pointof the sword and instantly became Muslim.Later on, Sultan Muhammad Ghauri (Muizzuddin, d. 1206) of Khurasan and his General KutbuddinAibak joined hands to consolidate Muslim power in India, which led to the establishment of direct Muslimrule in India, the Sultanate of Delhi, in 1206. According to the testimony of Muhammad Ferishtah, three tofour hundred thousand Khokhars (Hindus) were converted to Islam by Muizzuddin. Fakhr-i-Mudabbir sumsup the exploits of Muizzuddin and Aibak as thus: ‘even poor (Muslim) householder became owner ofnumerous slaves.’ 193The capture of slaves remained a general policy in Muslim-ruled India until the reign of apostateAkbar (r. 1556–1605), who prohibited mass enslavement in battle-fields. Despite the ban, the age-oldtradition continued with vigor even in his reign. His frustrated advisor, freethinker Abul Fazl, says in AkbarNama that ‘many evil-hearted and vicious officers used to proceed to the villages and mahals to sack them.’In these sackings, normally the women and children were driven away. In Akbar’s reign, affirms Moreland,‘It became a fashion to raid a village or a group of villages without any obvious justification, and carry offthe inhabitants as slaves.’ 194 It is no wonder then that Abdulla Khan Uzbeg, a general of Akbar, hadboastfully declared:190. Milton G (2004) White Gold, Hodder & Stoughton, London, p. 120191. Lal (1994), p. 20192. Lal KS (1973) Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, p. 211–17193. Lal (1994), p. 43–44194. Moreland WH (1995) India at the Death of Akbar, Low Price Publications, New Delhi, p. 9276