History Mystery- Part 3

muqawwee123 · March 17, 2013, 7:17am

Re: History Mystery- Part 3

and the right answer is, before Sindh, Arabs invaded Makran (which is part of Balochistan province of Pakistan). Sindh is rightly named as Bab ul Islam in sub-continent as Makran was linked with Iran and other gulf countries like Oman till the independence of Pakistan.

The popular version of Arabs coming into Sindh for getting Arab ladies free from Raja Dahir seems flawd, when we read this passage from Tabri ( a famous historical book in Arabic):

The first Islamic conquest of Makran took place during the Rashidun Caliphate in the year 643 A.D. Caliph Umar’s governor of Bahrain Usman ibn Abu al-Aas, who was on his campaign to conquer the southern coastal areas of Iran send his brother Hakam ibn Abu al-Aas to raid the Makran region, the campaign was not meant for whole scale invasion but merely was a raid to check the potential of the local inhabitants. The raid was successful[14] In late 644 A.D Caliph Umar sent an army for whole scale invasion of Makkuran under the command of Hakam ibn Amr. Reinforcement from Kufa joined him under the command of Shahab ibn Makharaq and Abdullah ibn Utban, the commander of campaign in Karman, also joined them, no strong resistance was faced by them in Makran until the Hindu King of Rai Kingdom in Sind, along with his army having contingents from Makran and Sind stopped them near River Indus. In mid 644, Battle of Rasil was fought between Radhisun Caliphate and Rai Kingdom where Raja’s forces were defeated and retreated to eastern bank of river Indus. Raja’s army included War elephants, and they didn’t make any trouble for the Muslims veterans who handled War elephants during the conquest of Persia. According to the orders of Caliph Umar the war elephants were sold in Islamic Persia and the cash was distributed among the soldiers as a share in booty.[15] In response of Caliph Umar’s question about the Makran region, the Messenger from Makkuran who bring the news of the victory told him:
O Commander of the faithful! It’s a land where the plains are stony; Where water is scanty; Where the fruits are unsavory Where men are known for treachery; Where plenty is unknown; Where virtue is held of little account; And where evil is dominant; A large army is less for there; And a less army is use less there;

The land beyond it, is even worst (referring to Sind)

Umar looked at the messenger and said: "Are you a messenger or a poet? He replied “Messenger”. Thereupon Caliph Umar, after listening to the unfavorable situations for sending an army instructed Hakim bin Amr al Taghlabi that for the time being Makkuran should be the easternmost frontier of the Islamic empire, and that no further attempt should be made to extend the conquests. Thereupon one of the commanders of Islamic army in Makran said the following verses:
**If the Commander of faithful wouldn’t have stopped us from going beyond, so we would have bought our forces to the temple of prostitutes.[16]
**

** Referring to the Hindu Temple in interior Sind where prostitutes used to give a part of their earning as alms. **

Makran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This proves that there were lobbies in Arab world as earlier as the period of Caliphate of Rashideen, who wanted to invade Sindh, and the reason mentioned for attacking Sindh was an excuse to hide expansion mentality of invaders.