It is at this point that Sunnı ̄ and Shı ̄ite interpretations diverge. Sunnı ̄s,
adherents of Abu ̄ Bakr, also follow the teachings of the ‘ulama ̄‘, a community
of interpreters; these are “councils” which form a consensus as to how one
of the first two authorities is to be interpreted. The Shı ̄ites, followers of ‘Alı ̄,
came to believe that it was ima ̄ms– successors to the line of ‘Alı ̄ – who were
the authorized interpreters. For the Sunnı ̄, in short, the caliph had political
authority and the ‘ulama ̄‘ interpretive authority, and political power was
often a negotiation between the two. For the Shı ̄ites, the ima ̄mwas both
political and spiritual authority.
Arabic hegemony spread rapidly within the first century of Islam’s exis-
tence – across North Africa and throughout the Fertile Crescent. The first
two caliphates were particularly strong: the Umma ̄yyads, headquartered in
Damascus, and the ‘Abba ̄sids, headquartered in Baghdad. By the mid-ninth
century, Baghdad had become the Western world’s center of civilization
- the sciences, philosophy, the arts thrived as influences were welcomed from
India, the Greek tradition, and from throughout West Asia and North Africa.
Meanwhile, the Shı ̄ites, still uncomfortable with Sunnı ̄ caliphate rule,
gravitated into Persia.
Islam in India
Islam came to the Indian subcontinent within decades of its birth. Arab
merchants had been trading along the west coast of India even before the
advent of Islam. Now, the Arab traders were Muslims. Increasingly, some
of them settled along the southern and western coast, married locally,
and formed pockets of Islamic culture interacting peacefully with their
neighbors. These settlements were entirely pacific and interactions with
neighbors remained virtually without conflict even into the recent past.
There were also constant interactions with Muslim traders and crafts-
men from Turkey and Central Asia in such areas as Northeast Panja ̄b,
Kashmı ̄r, and Eastern Bengal from the eighth century on. Many of these
“foreign” artisans had settled permanently by the thirteenth century. There
was also at least one military incursion, however – that in the area of
Sind:Muhammed Ibn Qasim, pursuing pirates who had plundered an Arab
ship, led an army of 6,000 against Qahar, king of Sind in 711. Within three
years he had established hegemony in the Indus Valley region (much of the
area that is now Pakistan).
It was the military incursions of Afghans that in hindsight have haunted
Hindu–Muslim relations in recent years. The first of these invasions was that
of the armies of Mahmu ̄ d of Ghaznı ̄ in the eleventh century. There are many
varied interpretations of Mahmu ̄d’s activities in India. It appears he first
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