Islam was first introduced into South Asia in ad 711, when an Arab naval expedition sailed to the mouth of the Indus River (now in Pakistan) to suppress piracy against Arab shipping.
For over one and a half billion people in the world today, there is only one God: Allah. Allah made his will known to human-kind when he revealed the holy scriptures (the Quran) to the world through his messenger Muhammad. Muhammad, who is seen as the last in a line of prophets that included Abraham and Jesus, was born around ad 570 in Mecca in the Arabian peninsula. The Arabic word Islam, literally meaning "submission," describes the religion whose followers submit to the will of Allah. One who submits to the will of Allah, as revealed by the Prophet Muhammad, is called a Muslim (or Moslem).
Islam, one of the world's great religions, spread rapidly across Arabia and then through the vast expanse of deserts and steppe lands that cuts a path across the Old World from the Atlantic Ocean to the China Sea. It spread along the maritime trade routes and caravan routes that carried the commerce of the times. Islam was first introduced into South Asia in ad 711, when an Arab naval expedition sailed to the mouth of the Indus River (now in Pakistan) to suppress piracy against Arab shipping. The most significant Muslim incursions into South Asia, however, began at the start of the 11th century, when Afghan rulers sent military expeditions into the plains of India. In 1021 the Punjab was annexed by Mahmud of Ghazni to form the eastern province of his empire. Lahore, its capital, emerged as a major center of Islamic culture, and mass conversions to Islam among the common people began at this time. By the end of the 12th century the Afghans had captured Delhi, which remained a center of Muslim power in South Asia for over 650 years. During this period of Muslim domination, large numbers of Hindus and Buddhists converted to Islam. Under Akbar (r. 1556-1605), the greatest of the Mughals, Muslims brought virtually all of the Indian subcontinent under their control. The final remnant of imperial Muslim power in India disappeared in 1858 when the last Mughal Emperor of India was exiled from Delhi by the British. However, independent states ruled by Muslims survived in the region until the middle of the 20th century.
By 1947, Muslims in South Asia numbered an estimated 100 million people, roughly 24% of the peoples of the region. With the withdrawal of the British from their Indian Empire at this time, the political boundaries of South Asia were redrawn. The Islamic state of Pakistan (later to break up into Pakistan and Bangladesh) was created. Mass movements involving as many as 10 million people saw Muslim populations flee to Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India. This was a period of communal violence and bloodshed that saw an estimated one million people murdered because of their religion.
