Islam in South Asia

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Muslims in South Asia
South Asia UN.png
United Nations cartographic map of South Asia
Total population
c.652.8 million (2019)
(32% of the population) Increase2.svg [1] [2] [3]
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan 243,530,000 [4] (2024)
India 200,000,000 [5] (2021)
Bangladesh 150,400,000 [6] (2022)
Afghanistan 41,128,771 [7] [8] (2022)
Sri Lanka 2,131,240 [9] (2023)
Nepal 1,483,060 [10] (2021)
Maldives 560,000 [11] [12] (2021)
Bhutan 727 [13] [14] (2020)
Religions
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Languages
Liturgical (Universal)
Common (Regional)
Traditional (Community)

Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 650 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population. Islam first spread along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, almost as soon as it started in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Arab traders brought it to South Asia. South Asia has the largest population of Muslims in the world, with about one-third of all Muslims living here. [17] [18] Islam is the dominant religion in half of the South Asian countries (Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). It is the second largest religion in India and third largest in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Contents

On the Indian subcontinent, Islam first appeared in the southwestern tip of the peninsula, in today's Kerala state. Arabs traded with Malabar even before the birth of Muhammad. Native legends say that a group of Sahaba, under Malik Ibn Deenar, arrived on the Malabar Coast and preached Islam. According to that legend, the first mosque of India was built by the mandate of the last King of Chera Perumals of Makotai, who accepted Islam and received the name Tajudheen during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632). [19] [20] [21] On a similar note, Malabar Muslims on the western coast also claim that they converted to Islam in Muhammad's lifetime. According to Qissat Shakarwati Farmad , the Masjids at Kodungallur, Kollam, Madayi, Barkur, Mangalore, Kasaragod, Kannur, Dharmadam, Panthalayini, and Chaliyam, were built during the era of Malik Dinar, and they are among the oldest Masjids (mosques) in the Indian Subcontinent. [22] [23] [24] Historicaly, the Barwada Mosque in Ghogha, Gujarat built before 623 CE, Cheraman Juma Mosque (629 CE) in Methala, Kerala and Palaiya Jumma Palli (630 CE) in Kilakarai, Tamil Nadu are three of the first mosques in South Asia. [25] [26] [27] [28] [23]

The first incursion occurred through sea by Caliph Umar's governor of Bahrain, Usman ibn Abu al-Aas, who sent his brother Hakam ibn Abu al-Aas to raid and reconnoitre the Makran region [29] around 636 CE or 643 AD long before any Arab army reached the frontier of India by land. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year 649 AD, was an early partisan of Ali ibn Abu Talib. [30] During the caliphate of Ali, many Hindu Jats of Sindh had come under the influence of Shi'ism [31] and some even participated in the Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. [30] According to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep islands, situated just to the west of Malabar Coast, by Ubaidullah in 661 CE. After the Rashidun Caliphate, Muslim dynasties came to power. [32] [33] Since the 1947 partition of India, South Asia has been largely governed by modern states, [34] [35] with Pakistan, which later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971, emerging as the primary Islamic country in the region.

Origins

Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinent during the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders. Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia. Unlike the coasts of Malabar, the northwestern coasts were not as receptive to the Middle Eastern arrivals. Hindu merchants in Sindh and Gujarat perceived the Arab merchants to be competitors.

According to Historians Henry Miers Elliot and John Dowson in their book The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians , the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 CE. The first Indian mosque is thought to have been built in 629 CE, purportedly at the behest of an unknown Chera dynasty ruler, during the lifetime of Muhammad (c.571–632) in Kodungallur, in district of Thrissur, Kerala by Malik Bin Deenar. In Malabar, Muslims are called Mappila.

Henry Rawlinson, in his book Ancient and Medieval History of India ( ISBN   81-86050-79-5), claims the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century. This fact is corroborated, by J. Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals, [36] and also by Haridas Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV. [37]

The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went. [38] It was, however, the subsequent expansion of the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent over the next millennia that established Islam in the region.

According to Derryl N. Maclean, a link between Sindh and early partisans of Ali or proto-Shi'ites can be traced to Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who traveled across Sind to Makran in the year 649AD and presented a report on the area to the Caliph. He supported Ali, and died fighting on his behalf alongside Sindhi Jats. [39]

During the reign of Ali, many Jats came under the influence of Islam. [40] Jats fought against the Muslims in the battle of Chains in 634 [41] and later also fought on the side of Ali in the Battle of the Camel in 656 under their chief, Ali B. Danur. [42] After the Islamic conquest of Persia was completed, the Muslim Arabs then began to move towards the lands east of Persia and in 652 captured Herat. [43]

Conversions

The Islamic ambitions of the sultans and Mughals had concentrated in expanding Muslim power and looting, not in seeking converts. Evidence of the absence of systematic programs for conversion is the reason for the concentration of South Asia's Muslim populations outside the main core of the Muslim polities [44] in the northeast and northwest regions of the subcontinent, which were on the peripheries of Muslim states. [45]

The Sufis did not preach egalitarianism, but played an important role in integrating agricultural settlements with the larger contemporary cultures. In areas where Sufis received grants and supervised clearing of forestry, they had the role of mediating with worldly and divine authority. Richard M. Eaton has described the significance of this in the context of West Punjab and East Bengal, the two main areas to develop Muslim majorities. [46] The 1947 partition was eventually made possible because of the concentration of Muslim majorities in northwest and northeast India. [47] The overwhelming majority of the subcontinent's Muslims live in regions which became Pakistan in 1947. [48]

These nominal conversions to Islam, brought about by regional Muslim polities, were followed by reforms, especially after the 17th century, in which Muslims integrated with the larger Muslim world. Improved transport services in the nineteenth century brought Muslim masses into contact with Mecca, which facilitated reformist movements stressing Quranic literalism and making people aware of the differences between Islamic commands and their actual practices. [49]

Islamic reformist movements, such as the Faraizi movement, in the nineteenth century rural Bengal aimed to remove indigenous folk practices from Bengali Islam and commit the population exclusively to Allah and Muhammad. [50] Politically the reform aspect of conversion, emphasizing exclusiveness, continued with the Pakistan movement for a separate Muslim state [49] and a cultural aspect was the assumption of Arab culture. [51]

Demographics

Muslim Percentage by Country
CountryPercent
Flag of Maldives.svg  Maldives [52] [53]
100%
Flag of the Taliban.svg  Afghanistan [54]
99.7%
Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan [55]
96.47%
Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh [56]
91.04%
Flag of India.svg  India [57]
14.12%
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka [58]
9.8%
Flag of Nepal.svg    Nepal [59]
5.09%
Flag of Bhutan.svg  Bhutan
0.1%

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the Maldives are Muslim-majority countries. The Muslim population in India is 14.12%, which still makes it the largest Muslim population outside the Muslim-majority countries. [60]

See also

Notes

    Related Research Articles

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent</span> Era in South Asia characterized by Muslim rule

    The Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent or Indo-Muslim period is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in India</span>

    Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, or approximately 172.2 million people, identifying as adherents of Islam in a 2011 census. India also has the third-largest number of Muslims in the world. The majority of India's Muslims are Sunni, with Shia making up around 15% of the Muslim population.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Bangladesh</span>

    Islam is the largest and the state religion of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. According to the 2022 census, Bangladesh had a population of about 150 million Muslims, or 91.04% of its total population of 165 million. Muslims of Bangladesh are predominant native Bengali Muslims. The majority of Bangladeshis are Sunni, and follow the Hanafi school of fiqh. Bangladesh is a de facto secular country.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Pakistan</span> Role and impact of Islam in Pakistan

    Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 231.6 Million adherents of Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam and around 97% of Pakistanis follow Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Barelvi movement</span> South Asian Islamic revivalist movement

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Malabar Muslims</span> Muslim community

    Malabar Muslims or Muslim Mappilas are members of the Muslim community found predominantly in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands in Southern India. The term Mappila (Maha-Pilla) means Greater Child in Malayalam, Which is used to describe Malabar Muslims in Northern Kerala. Muslims share the common language of Malayalam with the other religious communities of Kerala.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahl-i Hadith</span> Islamic religious movement in South Asia

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Kerala</span> Overview of Islam in the Indian state of Kerala

    Islam arrived in Kerala, the Malayalam-speaking region in the south-western tip of India, through Middle Eastern merchants. The Indian coast has an ancient relation with West Asia and the Middle East, even during the pre-Islamic period.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Tanzania</span>

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    In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of Hindus, about 510 million Muslims, over 27 million Sikhs, 35 million Christians and over 25 million Buddhists. Hindus make up about 68 percent or about 900 million and Muslims at 31 percent or 510 million of the overall South Asia population, while Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, and Christians constitute most of the rest. The Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and Christians are concentrated in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while the Muslims are concentrated in Afghanistan (99%), Bangladesh (91%), Pakistan (96%) and Maldives (100%).

    The term Gujarati Muslim is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India. Most Gujarati Muslims have the Gujarati language as their mother tongue, but some communities have Urdu as their mother tongue. The majority of Gujarati Muslims are Sunni, with a minority of Shia groups.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Habbari dynasty</span> 9th-century Arab-Muslim dynasty in Sindh

    The Habbari were an Arab dynasty that ruled much of Greater Sindh, as a semi-independent emirate from 854 to 1024. Beginning with the rule of 'Umar bin Abdul Aziz al-Habbari in 854 CE, the region became semi-independent from the Abbasid Caliphate in 861, while continuing to nominally pledge allegiance to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. The Habbari ascension marked the end of a period of direct rule of Sindh by the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, which had begun in 711 CE.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Asia</span>

    Hinduism is a major religion and one of the most-followed religions in Asia. In 2020, the total number of Hindus in Asia is more than 1.2 billion, more than 26.2% of Asia's total population. About 99.2% of the world's Hindus live in Asia, with India having 94% of the global Hindu population. Other Asian nations with a notable Hindu population include Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali Muslims</span> Bengalis who follow Islam

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    Madayi Mosque is mosque at Pazhayangadi in Kannur district, northern Kerala, India. It is one of the oldest mosques in Kerala, with local legends dating back to the 7th century AD. It is believed to have been established by Malik ibn Dinar and contains a block of white marble said to have been brought from Mecca by ibn Dinar. It is one of the several mosques around Pazhayangadi/Payangadi. It is situated on the banks of Kuppam River, which joins Valapattanam River at its estuary.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Spread of Islam</span>

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