People & Histories
711–11th century

Islam Comes to Sindh and Punjab

The Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquers Sindh, and later Sufi saints like Data Ganj Bakhsh make Lahore a centre of Muslim devotion.

  • India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane (2019)
  • Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Mystical Dimensions of Islam — Annemarie Schimmel, University of North Carolina Press (1975)

Well established faithempireidentity

In 711–712 an Umayyad army under the young general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh, bringing the lower Indus into the Islamic world.

  • India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane (2019)
  • Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Conversion was gradual. Over the next centuries the Ghaznavid rulers made Lahore a Persian-speaking Muslim city, and Sufi mystics, most famously Ali Hujwiri, remembered as Data Ganj Bakhsh (died c. 1072), drew followers through devotion, music and charity rather than the sword. His shrine in Lahore is still one of the busiest places of pilgrimage in South Asia.
  • India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane (2019)
  • Mystical Dimensions of Islam — Annemarie Schimmel, University of North Carolina Press (1975)

Why it matters today

Pakistan

Pakistani schoolbooks often call Sindh the "Gateway of Islam" and present Muhammad bin Qasim as the first Pakistani hero. In daily life, though, it is the Sufi saints whose shrines, like Data Darbar in Lahore, draw millions of visitors every year.