Islam in India, Empires, Regions, Resistance 1200-1500 CE

(For a link to Islam in West Africa and the Sahel go to:  http://islamindiaasia.blogspot.com/)

The systematic introduction of Islam into India began in 1206 with the Islamic conquest of Northern India by the Ghurid ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak.  Qutb-ud-din was a Turkish warrior slave of the sultan of Afghanistan. Qutb-ud-din's conquest ushered in an era of military feudalism for much of India and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate.  This style of a military state and administration would dominate a number of empires of the Islamic world and its periphery from this period through the 16th century.  It included the Mamluk dynasty and empire that dominated Syria and Egypt, as well as various attempts at military feudalism in the Khmer region of Cambodia, and the Mongol Empire that would dominate the great Central Eurasian plateaus from the late 13th to 14th centuries.


The Delhi Sultanate was not the first introduction of Islam into India.  Parts of the far northwestern parts of India's coastal border with Iran, the Sind, had been variously captured or under Islamic control or influence by around 712 C.E.  There is a strong regional component to Islam's success and the political domain of the Delhi Sultanate in the North. During the first dynasty, Iltutmish (r. 1210-1236)  managed to hold out against the Mongol Invasion which left garrisons of troops on India's northern border in the Panjab.  From around 1236-1239, Iltutmish's daughter, Raziyyat was a successful ruler for three years until she was deposed and killed in a palace coup.  (Kulke and Rothermund, 2010, p. 118).  See the contemporary chronicle, Tabaqat-i-Nasari, 


The Delhi Sultanate is conventionally divided by periods of its family and military dynasties.  Treating history as a discussion of dynasties distorts social and power relations outside of palace dynamics.  By no means is all history a narrative of dynasties and royalty, but the political division of dynasties is still a convenient periodization in use:
1206-1290 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate and Aibak dynasty and Iltutmish
1290-1320 Khalji Dynasty
1320-1388 Tughluq Dynasty
1398 Timurid invasion and sack of Delhi by Timur 
1398 to 1451 regional dynasties and resurgence of Hindu regional power and resistance.  
1451-1526 Lodi Dynasty reestablishes the Delhi Sultanate


Soon after the initial conquests of Northern India, Qutb-ud-din authorized the construction of a major mosque complex in Delhi, the capital of his new state.  There he ordered the construction of the complex known as the Qutb Minar mosque complex.  The Qutb Minar was distinguished by its towering decorative minaret, influenced by the Ghaznavid minarets found in Afghanistan.

But the mosque was also unique for its syncretic use of significant elements of Hindu temple architecture and Buddhist elements that were cut or removed from local temples. 
3D Panoramas of the Qutb Minar complex

 http://www.360cities.net/image/qutb-complex
Ashoka's Iron Pillar with the Minar http://www.360cities.net/image/qutub-minar
Tour of the Qutb Minar complex http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/new-delhi/qutb-minar/map.html

Above:  corner detail at the Qutb Minar of Hindu temple columns incorporated within the Qutb Minar complex  

 Above:  The iron pillar or Ashoka's pillar, so-named after the famous Buddhist emperor of India of the 3rd century BCE.  This is an example of how Buddhist symbols of power and ideology were absorbed and repositioned in a central position within the central courtyard of the mosque complex.  
For more on the Qutb Minar complex:  http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=15

Interactive Map to Cultural and Political Sites in India http://www.learn.columbia.edu/courses/indianart//flash/sea_map.htm

On the Vijayanagara Empire: Resistance to the Delhi Sultanate and the formation of a Hindu empire in the South.
The Sultanate's central and southern Indian provinces were weaker and strongly resisted by a counter reaction among Hindus and other groups.  This included the success of the Vijayanagara Empire that emerged in Southern India 1346 and lasted until the military defeat at Talikota in 1565.  The Vijayanagara continued in local power until about 1646. 

Go to the Vijayanagara Research Project for material on archaeology and architectural history of temple and palace architecture http://www.archaeos.org/html/vbkgd.htm