Muhammad bin Qasim

Title & tenure

Umayyad general; conqueror of Sindh and Multan (711–715)

In office: 711 – 715

Successor:

Arab governors of Sindh under the Umayyad Caliphate

Biography

Muhammad bin Qasim al-Thaqafi was born in Taif in Arabia and was a young relative and son-in-law of Hajjaj bin Yusuf, the powerful Umayyad governor of Iraq. When pirates near Debal seized ships carrying Muslim women and gifts from Ceylon, and Raja Dahir of Sindh refused to act against them, Hajjaj sent Muhammad bin Qasim, then only about seventeen years old, at the head of an army to Sindh during the reign of Caliph Walid I.

Achievements

• Conquered Sindh and southern Punjab up to Multan, bringing Islam to the subcontinent as a ruling power for the first time; Sindh came to be called 'Bab-ul-Islam' (the Gateway of Islam)
• Gave the local Hindu and Buddhist population the protected status of dhimmis, allowing them to keep their temples and practise their religion on payment of jizya
• Kept local officials and Brahmins in the administration, which helped win the cooperation of the people
• Opened the way for cultural, scholarly and trade exchange between the Arab world and the subcontinent

Key events

• Captured the port of Debal (712)
• Took Nerun and Sehwan and crossed the Indus
• Defeated and killed Raja Dahir at the Battle of Raor (Rawar) in 712
• Captured Brahmanabad, Aror (Dahir's capital) and Multan (713)

Legacy

Muhammad bin Qasim is remembered as the founder of Muslim rule in the subcontinent. His conquest of Sindh is regarded as the first chapter of the region's Islamic history, and in Pakistan he is celebrated as a hero whose tolerant administration attracted many local people to Islam.

How it ended

After Caliph Walid I died in 715, his successor Sulaiman, an enemy of Hajjaj, recalled Muhammad bin Qasim from Sindh. He was imprisoned in Iraq, where he died in 715 at about twenty years of age.