The Hūṇas and the Arabs

The Huns were nomads from Central Asia who appeared in the 4th century. Skilled riders and archers, they conquered much of Europe. The Hūṇas of Indian writings are thought to be a branch of them, and they helped weaken the Gupta Empire.

In the early 6th century, two Hūṇa leaders pushed deep into the Ganga plains against strong resistance, until they were defeated by kings of the Aulikara dynasty of Daśhapura (today's Mandsaur). That effectively ended Hūṇa power in India.

Then something remarkable happened. By the 7th century the Hūṇas had blended into Indian society. Many became soldiers or local officials — one inscription records a Hūṇa on a temple's management council! They wrote inscriptions in Sanskrit and Prakrit and used Gupta-style titles, coins and religious symbols, such as Lakṣhmī and signs of Viṣhṇu or Śhiva on their coins.

After the death of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in 632 CE, the new religion spread quickly across Asia and Africa. In 637, Arab ships raided India's west coast at Thānā (Thane), Bhārukachchha (Bharuch) and Debal, but did not win lasting control.

Things changed when the governor of Iraq sent an army under Muhammad bin Qasim, which swept into Sindh in 712. Debal fell first; according to a 9th-century historian, al-Balādhurī, the invaders killed people there for three days and destroyed a great temple. (The book notes that because some faiths condemn worshipping images, it prefers the words 'image', mūrti or vigraha instead of 'idol'.)

Bin Qasim then marched to Aror, the capital of King Dāhar, declaring it his duty to fight a religious war. In a fierce battle, Dāhar, riding an elephant, was killed by an arrow. A later chronicle, the Chachnāma, says one of his queens resisted bravely, and another gave her treasure to the soldiers to encourage them to fight on.

But the Arab conquest did not last. Within two years of bin Qasim's death, Indian chiefs won back most of the land. An inscription at Gwalior says the Pratīhāra Nāgabhaṭa I 'crushed the large army of the powerful Mlechchha king' (mlechchha came to mean foreigner), and Kashmir's Lalitāditya defeated an Arab chief three times. The geographer al-Istakhri wrote that after three centuries of effort, Arab rule in India covered only two small states in Sindh and Punjab — and even there they survived only by giving up the destruction of images. In Sindh, Hindus and Buddhists were allowed to rebuild temples and keep worshipping.

Long before Islam, India and Arabia were linked by trade, with ships sailing back and forth on the monsoon winds — the word 'monsoon' comes from the Arabic mawsim, 'season'. In the 9th century, Indian books on mathematics, astronomy and medicine were translated into Arabic in Baghdad. The Arabs adopted India's decimal number system with zero and its numerals; their mathematicians said these came from India, but when the Arabs passed them on to Europe they became known as 'Arabic numerals'.