for power, and imprisoning his father, he secured
control in northern india and engaged in a series
of ongoing military campaigns to conquer inde-
pendent kingdoms in the south. When he died in
1701, his empire stretched from the Himalayas in
the north to the southern edge of the Deccan Pla-
teau and from Bengal in the east to aFghanistan in
the west. His successors were unable to maintain
control over such a vast territory, so the Mughal
Empire began to break up into smaller states again
after his death, setting the stage for the onset of
British colonial influence in the mid-1700s.
Aurangzeb is remembered for his religious
conservativism and his intolerant attitude toward
his non-Muslim subjects, in contrast to Akbar and
other Mughal rulers. He promoted strict adher-
ence to the sharia, enhanced the influence of the
Sunni Ulama in the court, and actively encouraged
conversion to islam. One of his most important
contributions to the Muslim community was his
sponsorship of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri (completed in
1675), a comprehensive compilation of Sunni legal
rulings. His religious conservativism had serious
drawbacks, however. Imperial patronage of mUsic,
art, and architectUre decreased, and even though
Hindus continued to serve as officials and allies
of the Mughal government, their status declined.
Active opposition to Aurangzeb, which included
Muslims, grew as a result of his destruction of
Hindu temples, the imposition of special taxes and
restrictions, and his persecution of the growing
Sikh community in northern India, which resulted
in the martyrdom of one of their leaders, Guru
Tegh Bahadur (d. 1675). The legacy of Aurangzeb’s
policies has continued to fuel Hindu-Muslim ten-
sions in South Asia since independence and parti-
tion in 1947.
See also dara shikoh; hindUism and islam;
mUghal dynasty.
Further reading: Gordon Johnson, Cultural Atlas of
India (New York: Facts On File, 1996); John F. Richards,
The Mughal Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993).
Australia
The continent of Australia joins neighboring
islands of indonesia and neW zealand in demar-
cating the southwestern extent of the Pacific
Ocean and the eastern extent of the Indian Ocean.
Australia is separated from Indonesia by the Ara-
tura Sea and from New Zealand by the Tasmania
Sea. Also part of the country of Australia is the
large island of Tasmania, off the continent’s south-
east coast. The country has a total land area of
some 2,967,100 square miles.
The Aboriginal peoples, Australia’s original
inhabitants, settled the land as early as 40,000
years ago. They created a diversity of cultures
across the continent. They seem to have migrated
from Southeast Asia. Europeans made note of
Australia’s existence in the 17th century, but
only in 1770 did Captain James Cook (1728–79)
claim it for Great Britain. British settlement began
less than two decades later, the first settlement
being the infamous penal colony at Botany Bay.
Over the next two centuries, the descendants
of British settlers became the dominant force in
Australia, making up two-thirds of its 19 million
inhabitants. The remaining third constitutes an
extremely diverse ethnic spectrum that includes
many people from former British colonies from
India and Southeast Asia.
The original Muslims in Australia were from
aFghanistan, men employed as camel drivers.
Many settled in central Australia, and the con-
temporary town of Alice Springs was at one time
referred to by local residents as mecca. That
original Afghan community did not perpetuate
itself and eventually died out. (Some Muslims
point to evidence of even earlier Muslims coming
to Australia from malaysia and Indonesia to settle
in fishing villages along the northern coast.) Over
the next decades, the number of Muslims grew
slowly and fluctuated widely. From a low point in
the early 1930s (around 2,000), the community
reached more than 10,000 by 1970. Since that
time, it has grown at a much more rapid rate. It
was approaching 150,000 by the time of the 1991K 70 Australia