Historical Episodes of Muslim India
On September 21, 1437 AD, Sultan Nasser Khan Faouqi of the Khandesh Muslim kingdom of Central India, died heartbroken three days after his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Lalling and the sack of his capital, Burhanpur, by the forces of Sultan Ala od-Din Ahmad Shah Bahmani of the Deccan. During his 38-year rule, Nasser Khan had built a strong realm which he had inherited from his father, but after him, under his weak and divided successors, the kingdom deteriorated and was finally absorbed by the expanding Mughal Empire.
On September 23, 1803 AD, the Battle of Assaye was fought in western India during the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War and resulted in a decisive defeat for the Maratha Confederacy by Major General Arthur Wellesley, who later became the Duke of Wellington and went on to defeat French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, at the famous Battle of Waterloo in 1814. Later in his memoirs, Wellington would recall the Battle of Assaye as more crucial, strategic and deadly than Waterloo. The battle was the result of the Maratha Confederacy’s bid for supremacy in central India. But the Marathas made the fatal mistake of stirring up hostilities with India\’s most powerful Muslim monarch, Nizam ol-Molk Asef Jah of Haiderabad-Deccan by raiding his border territories. When due warnings failed to chasten them, the Nizam, who a few years earlier had sacked the Maratha capital, Poona (Pune), prepared for war. The British joined the fight in order to crush any bid by the Marathas to become a major power after the shattering defeat they had suffered in 1761 in the 3rd Battle of Panipat at the hands of the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Abdali – a former general of the late Iranian emperor Nader Shah Afshar. Thus, the British, assisted by 10,000 troops from Haiderabad, along with a regiment sent by Mysore’s Hindu Raja, confronted the 50,000 strong Maratha army, and after forcing it into pitched open battle, decisively won the encounter.
On September 23,1912 AD, the Urdu and Persian author, linguistic, researcher and critic, Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Khan, was born in Jabalpur, India, in a religious family of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. He was a product of the famous Aligarh Muslim University and did his MA in Urdu & Persian literature, followed by PhD on the eminent Persian poet, Hassan Ghaznavi. He migrated to Pakistan, and took up service at the Urdu College, Karachi. Later he was head of the Department of Urdu in Sindh University, Hyderabad. His book on the famous philosopher-poet Iqbal Lahori and the holy Qur’an, was awarded as the best book ever written on this subject. Dr Ghulam Mustafa became a famous religious and spiritual leader. He trained a large number of students and was author of more than 100 books in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English.
On 19th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa\’dah in 776 AH, Mohammad Shah I the second ruler of the Bahmani Dynasty of the Deccan in southern India, passed away in his capital Golbarga after a reign of 17 years, and was succeeded by his son, Mujahid Shah. Better known as organizer of the Bahmani Empire that was founded by his father, Ala od-Din Hassan Gangu Bahman Shah, a general of Iranian origin who revolted against the excesses of the Turkic ruler of northern subcontinent, Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, he founded many institutions and was a patron of Persian language and literature. The Bahmani Sultanate, which lasted for 180 years, developed a distinct Muslim culture and style of architecture evolved out of direct contact with Iran and the migration in large numbers of Iranian scholars, poets, architects, traders, statesmen, and soldiers.
On September 26,1876 AD, the famous Indo-Pakistani political activist and literary figure, Seyyed Ghulam Mohi od-Din Nairang, was born in Ambala in a family that had migrated to India from Tirmiz in Greater Khorasan. He studied law and joined the All-India Muslim League. He was a close friend of the Philosopher-Poet of the East, Allamah Mohammad Iqbal Lahori, and was active in the political and social fields. On the creation of Pakistan he settled in Lahore, where he died in 1952. In addition to his poetical composition, “Kalaam-e Nairang” he was a regular contributor to prestigious Urdu magazines such as “Zamana”, “Makhzan”, “Humayun”, “Aligarh Old Boys”, and his own “Tableegh”. His articles on political, national and literary topics also appeared in the prominent newspapers of those days such as “Inqelaab” (Lahore), “Zamindaar” (Lahore), “Wakeel” (Amritsar), “Sach” (Lukhnow), and “Khilafat” (Bombay).
On October 1,1887 AD, the eastern part of Balouchistan was formally annexed by the British to their dominions in India to end any claims to this vast region by Afghanistan and Iran. This region which is now in Pakistan, originally belonged to Iran, both before and after the advent of Islam, and until the assassination of Nader Shah Afshar in the 1740s.
On October 1, 1896 AD, Liaqat Ali Khan, the Indian Muslim statesman who became Pakistan’s first prime minister on its birth in 1947, was born in an aristocratic family in Karnal, East Punjab. He was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University in India, and at the Oxford University in Britain. Trained as lawyer, on his return to India, he rose to prominence as an influential member of the Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. On 16 October 1951, he was shot twice in the chest during a public meeting at Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
On 27th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah in 1200 AH, the Indian Muslim, writer, historian, and famous poet of Persian and Arabic, Mir Ghulam Ali Hussaini Waseti, known by his pen name of Azad Bilgrami, passed away at the age of 84. He was born in Bilgram, in north India, and gained reputation for his mastery over literature. He stayed for two years in Delhi, then visited Lahore and Multan and lived for five years in Sind. He then traveled to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, where he devoted himself to religious studies. He returned from Arabia to India and lived in the city of Aurangabad in the Deccan till his death. The King of Yemen acknowledged his poetic qualities and accorded him the title of “Hassaan al-Hind”, or Hassaan of India, a reference to the Arabic poet, Hassaan Ibn Thabit, who lived in the time of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Azad compiled two diwans of poetry in Arabic and Persian. Mention could also be made of his book “Ghezalaan-e Hind” a book on Indian womanhood as reflected in Persian literature.
On 4th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 710 AH, General Malik Kafur returned to Delhi from his victorious campaign in the Deccan (southern India) and presented Sultan Ala od-Din (1296-1316), the second and greatest king of the short-lived Khalji Turko-Persian Dynasty of India 241 tonnes of gold, 20,000 horses, and 612 elephants laden with treasure, including the famous diamond “Koh-e Noor” (Mountain of Light), excavated at Golconda. Originally a Hindu from Khambat in Gujarat, western India, he was known as “Hazar-Dinari” (Thousand Dinar – the price paid for him by the Sultan), and on embracing Islam, rapidly rose to become an able general, who brought south India into the fold of the Muslim World, when Islamic faith was fast spreading in all directions – Russia, eastern Europe, West Africa and southeast Asia.
On October 11, 1572 AD, Sulaiman Khan Karrani, the Afghan Sultan of Bengal, or what is now the Indian province of the same name along with Bangladesh, died after a reign of six years. He had succeeded his elder brother Taj Khan Karrani and was followed by his sons Bayazid and Daud Khan who ruled the short-lived semi-independent state that acknowledged Mughal emperor Akbar Shah as the supreme ruler by reciting his name in the Friday Prayer sermons. Though northern India and parts of southern India were ruled by the Muslim rulers, they had not yet been able to conquer Orissa. So in 1568 Sulaiman Khan sent his son and the famous general Kala Pahar against the last Orissan Hindu king Mukunda Deva, who was defeated and the region annexed to the Afghan state of Bengal. The dynasty eventually ceased to exist with the Mughals conquering Bengal when Daud Khan made the fatal error of asserting full independence.
On October 11, 2005 AD, Shan ul-Haq Haqqi, Urdu linguist and writer of the Subcontinent, passed away in Canada at the age of 88 while undergoing medical treatment. Born in Delhi to Ehtasham od-Din Haqqi, who wrote a study of the famous Iranian poet, Hafez Shirazi titled “Tarjuman ul-Ghayb”, along with an Urdu translation of Diwan-e Hafez, he was a product of Aligarh Muslim University. After migration to Pakistan in 1948, he became a notable Urdu poet, writer, journalist, broadcaster, translator, critic, researcher, linguist and lexicographer of Pakistan. In addition to his regular professional duties, he remained associated with the Urdu Dictionary Board for 17 years from 1958 to 1975, compiling a 24-volume dictionary. He compiled two other dictionaries – “Farhang-e Talaffuz” which is a pronouncing dictionary of Urdu, and the Oxford English-Urdu Dictionary, which is a translation of the eighth and ninth editions of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. He also translated into Urdu the Hindu Sanskrit classic “Bhagvad Gita”.
On September 21, 1919 AD, the well-known Islamic scholar of Pakistan, Fazl ur-Rahman Malik, was born in the Hazara area of British India (now in Pakistan). He studied Arabic at Punjab University, and went on to Oxford University in Britain, where he wrote a dissertation on the famous Iranian Islamic philosopher-physician, Abu Ali Ibn Sina.
Afterwards, he began a teaching career, first at Durham University where he taught Persian language and Islamic philosophy, and then at McGill University where he taught Islamic studies until 1961, when he returned to Pakistan to head up the Central Institute of Islamic Research. Because of hindrances, he resigned from the post and returned to teaching, moving to the United States and teaching at UCLA as a visiting professor for a few years.
He moved to the University of Chicago in 1969 and established himself there becoming the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought. At Chicago he was instrumental for building a strong Near Eastern Studies program that continues to be among the best in the world.
He died in 1988. In his memory, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago named its common area after him, due to his many years of service.
His books included: “Prophecy in Islam: Philosophy and Orthodoxy”, “Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition”, “Major Themes of the Qur\’an”, “Islamic Methodology in History”, and “Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition”.
On September 20, 1810 AD, the famous Urdu and Persian poet of India, Mir Mohammad Taqi Mir, passed away at the age of 87. Born in Agra in a religious family descended from the Infallible Imams of the Prophet\’s Household, he was one of the pioneers who gave shape to Urdu language, and is considered the principal poet of the Delhi School.
He later migrated to Lucknow at a time when Urdu language and poetry was in its formative stage. Mir\’s instinctive aesthetic sense helped him strike a balance between the indigenous expression and new enrichment coming in from Persian imagery and idiom.
He was a prolific author in both Urdu and Persian, and wrote his autobiography titled “Zikr-e Mir” in Persian. In addition to his “Kulliyat-e Farsi” (Persian language collection) of poems, he has also left behind at least six divans in Urdu.
On October 12, 1999 AD, General Pervez Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Navaz Sharif in a bloodless coup and seized power in Pakistan, a day after he was dismissed from his post of chairman of the army\’s joint chief of staff. For nine years, Musharraf stayed in power, by changing the constitution and becoming the president through rigged elections. He turned the country into a US base for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. In July 2008 he was forced to resign and hand over power to an elected civilian government. Earlier this year, Musharraf not just lost the general elections after returning home from self-exile but was charged with murder and other unlawful activities during his term as president, and is currently under house arrest, waiting the court’s decision.
On October 13, 1240 AD, Raziyya Sultana, the only Muslim lady to sit on the throne of Delhi, was captured near Kaithal in Punjab by the local Jats and killed, along with her husband, Altuniya the Turk, after being defeated in battle near Delhi by the forces of her usurper brother, Muiz od-Din Bahram Shah. As the daughter and heir apparent of the third ruler of the Mamluk (slave) Dynasty of northern India, Shams od-Din Iltutmish, she ruled for four years, after being bypassed for six months by the Turkic nobility in favour of her brother, Rukn od-Din Feroz. Even before she became ruler, she was preoccupied with the affairs of state during her father\’s reign. A shrewd politician, she managed to keep the nobles in check, while enlisting the support of the army and the populace. Her greatest accomplishment on the political front was to manipulate rebel factions into opposing each other. At that point, Raziyya seemed destined to become one of the most powerful rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, but the turbulent Turkic nobles plotted and revolted against her, resulting in her downfall.