Surya Devi (died 715), was an Indian Hindu Princess of Sind. She is known for having been the war booty of the Umayyad army commander Muhammad bin Qasim during the Umayyad conquest of Sindh and given along with her sister as slaves to Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. According to the traditional story, she persuaded the Caliph to execute Muhammad bin Qasim, avenging her parents, and then managed to escape the captivity of the harem by having the Caliph execute her and her sister.
She was the eldest daughter of Dahir of Aror, the Maharaja of Sind.
In 711 CE the kingdom was invaded by the Umayyad Caliphate led by Muhammad bin Qasim. Her father was killed at the Battle of Aror which took place between his dynasty and the Arabs at the banks of the Indus River, near modern-day Nawabshah at the hands of the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim. His body was then decapitated and his head was sent to the governor of Basra, Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.
One of the king's widows, Queen Rani Bai, resisted the invading forces at the fortress of Rawar. When she realised she was unable to win, she committed suicide by the jauhar rite. When the city of Brahmanabad fell, the dead king's second Queen, Rani Ladi, was captured with Dahir's two daughters, the princesses Surya Devi and Parimal Devi. The victorious conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim made the dowager queen Rani Ladi his concubine (personal sex slave) by nikah, [1] while the two princesses, being unmarried young virgins, were reserved for the Caliph's personal use, and sent on as presents to the Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik for his harem in the capital of Damascus. [2]
The Chach Nama narrates a version in which Surya Devi played a role in the death of Muhammad bin Qasim. The account relates that when the Caliph wished to rape Surya Devi, she told him that she was no longer a virgin, since Muhammad bin Qasim had raped her and her sister before sending them on. As a response, the Caliph ordered that Muhammad was wrapped and stitched in oxen hides, [3] and sent to Syria, which resulted in his death en route from suffocation. [4] This narrative attributes their motive for this subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father's death. When the Caliph showed the corpse of Muhammad ibn Qasim to Surya Devi to illustrate the fate of anyone dishonoring or disobeying the Caliph, she reportedly answered that she had lied about Muhammad Bin Qasim, since she did not wish for her or her sister to become a slave in the Umayyad harem of the Caliph, and wished to have vengeance on her father's murderer.
Upon discovering this subterfuge, the Caliph is recorded to have been filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall. [5] [6] [7]
Year 715 (DCCXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 715 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd, or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī, famously known as Hārūn ar-Rāshīd, was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 until his death in March 809. His reign is traditionally regarded to be the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age. His epithet al-Rashid translates to "the Orthodox", "the Just", "the Upright", or "the Rightly-Guided".
Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Thaqafī was an Arab military commander in service of the Umayyad Caliphate who led the Muslim conquest of Sindh, inaugurating the Umayyad campaigns in India. His military exploits led to the establishment of the Islamic province of Sindh, and the takeover of the region from the Sindhi Brahman dynasty and its ruler, Raja Dahir, who was subsequently decapitated with his head sent to al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in Basra. With the capture of the then-capital of Aror by Arab forces, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim became the first Muslim to have successfully captured Indian land, which marked the beginning of Muslim rule in South Asia.
Abu Muhammad al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi, known simply as al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, was the most notable governor who served the Umayyad Caliphate. He began his service under Caliph Abd al-Malik, who successively promoted him as the head of the Caliph's shurta, the governor of the Hejaz in 692–694, and the practical viceroy of a unified Iraqi province and the eastern parts of the Caliphate in 694. Al-Hajjaj retained the last post under Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I, whose decision-making was heavily influenced by al-Hajjaj, until his death in 714.
Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the seventh Umayyad caliph, ruling from 715 until his death. He was the son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705) and Wallada bint al-Abbas. He began his career as governor of Palestine, while his father Abd al-Malik and brother al-Walid I reigned as caliphs. There, the theologian Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi mentored him, and he forged close ties with Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, a major opponent of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, al-Walid's powerful viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate. Sulayman resented al-Hajjaj's influence over his brother. As governor, Sulayman founded the city of Ramla and built the White Mosque in it. The new city superseded Lydda as the district capital of Palestine. Lydda was at least partly destroyed and its inhabitants may have been forcibly relocated to Ramla, which developed into an economic hub, became home to many Muslim scholars, and remained the commercial and administrative center of Palestine until the 11th century.
Raja Dahir was the last Hindu ruler of Sindh. A Brahmin ruler, his kingdom was invaded in 711 CE by the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, led by Muhammad bin Qasim, where Dahir died while defending his kingdom. According to the Chachnama, the Umayyad campaign against Dahir was due to a pirate raid off the coast of the Sindhi coast that resulted in gifts to the Umayyad caliph from the king of Serendib being stolen.
The Umayyad Dynasty came to rule the Caliphate in 661 CE, and during the first half of the 8th century CE, a series of battles took place in the Indian subcontinent between armies of the Umayyad Caliphate and Indian kingdoms situated to the east of the Indus river, subsequent to the Arab conquest of Sindh during 711 – 713 CE.
Aror or Alor or Arorkot is the medieval name of the city of Rohri. Aror once served as the capital of Sindh.
The Habbari were an Arab dynasty that ruled much of Greater Sindh in western Indian subcontinent, 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.
Mansura, referred to as Brahmanabad or Bahmanabad(Sindhi: برهمڻ آباد, romanized: barhamaṇabād, pronounced[ˈbəɾɦəmnɑːˈbɑːd̪]; ) in later centuries, was the historic capital of the caliphal province of Sindh, during the eighth century under the Umayyad Caliphate and then Abbasid Caliphate from the year 750 AD to 1006 AD. The city was founded as a central garrison by the Umayyad Forces in Sindh, the city transformed into a very vibrant metropolis during the Abbasid Era surpassing the wealth of Multan in the north and Debal in the south. Mansura was the first capital established by the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent after Muhammad bin Qasim seized the Brahmanabad territory. Mansura was built on the shores of the Indus River, it was surrounded by fertile farmland, Ibn Hauqal mentioned the wealthy local merchants who wore Baghdad Costume and were of Sindhi-Arab origins, houses were made of clay, baked bricks and plaster.
Sind was an administrative division of the Umayyad Caliphate and later of the Abbasid Caliphate in post-classical India, from around 711 CE with the Umayyad conquest of Sindh by the Arab military commander Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, to around 854 CE with the emergence of the independent dynasties of the Habbarid Emirate in Sindh proper and the Emirate of Multan in Punjab. The "Governor of Sind" was an official who administered the caliphal province over what are now Sindh, southern Punjab and Makran (Balochistan) in Pakistan.
The Brahmin dynasty, also known as the Chacha dynasty, ruled the Sindh region in western Indian subcontinent, succeeding the Rai dynasty. Most of the information about its existence comes from the Chach Nama, a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty.
Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki was an Arab military commander and provincial governor for the Umayyad Caliphate.
The Arab conquest of Kaikan was a military campaign by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates aganist the Jats of Kaikan, in present-day Pakistan. The Kingdom of Kaikan faced several invasions from the caliphate. During the reign of the Khalifa Al-Mutasim, the Arabs annexed this region successfully after defeating the Jats.
The Umayyad conquest of Sindh took place in 711 AD against the ruling Brahmin dynasty of Sindh and resulted in Sindh being incorporated as a province into the Umayyad Caliphate. The conquest resulted in the overthrow of the last Hindu dynasty of Sindh, the Brahman dynasty, after the death of Raja Dahir.
Umm al-Banin bint Abd al-Aziz was an Umayyad princess, principal wife of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I and sister of eight Umayyad caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.
The Battle of Aror took place in 711 AD between the Umayyad forces under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim and the army of Brahmin dynasty of Sindh under Raja Dahir. It was the last military conflict of Raja Dahir, in which the Umayyads defeated his army near The Indus River and resulted in the death of Dahir.
Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate refers to the chattel slavery taking place in the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), which comprised the majority of the Middle East with a center in the capital of Damascus in Syria.