ISLAM AND JIHAD 225Mahmud was equally ferocious with those whom he considered heretics
such as Dawud, the ruler of Multan. In 1010, Mahmud invaded Dawud’s
kingdom and slaughtered many of his heretical subjects. This may be the
first example of Muslim-on-Muslim holy war and indicates the attitude of
the various sects toward one another.
InA.D. 1351 Firuz Shah ascended the throne and became ruler of North-
ern India. Though in many ways an enlightened man, when it came to
religion he was a strict fundamentalist. Based on Koranic interpretation,
he indulged in wholesale slave raiding and is said to have had 180,000
slaves in his city, all of whom became Muslims.
A zealot, Firuz Shah was particularly dangerous when his religious zeal
was roused. In one instance he seized Shias, some of whom he executed,
others he lectured, and then he burnt their books. He caused theulamato
kill a man who claimed to be the Mahdi [false prophet], “and for this good
action,” he wrote, “I hope to receive future reward.”
When Firuz Shah encountered a Hindu religious festival and ordered
the leaders of that “abomination” put to death, he then inflicted severe
penalties on the population in general. He destroyed their temples and had
mosques raised on the sites.
Old sins are not easily forgiven: Recently, enraged Hindus destroyed
an ancient mosque in India claiming it was on the site of an even earlier
Hindu temple. In March 1995 the Charar-e-Sharief mosque was destroyed,
and the Babri Masjid, specifically claimed to have been built on the site
of an ancient Hindu temple destroyed by the Muslims, was itself destroyed
in 1992.
Overall, Firuz Shah, who also had a Brahman who had practiced his
rites in public burnt alive, was simply carrying on the tradition of the early
Muslim invaders. He sincerely believed that he served Allah by treating
the public practice of their religion by the vast majority of his subjects
[i.e., Hindus] as a capital crime.
Firuz Shah also used thejizyaor poll tax to push many Hindus into
converting to Islam. He exempted converts from the tax, which was other-
wise rigorously enforced. The Muslims of the fourteenth century, seven
centuries after the death of Muhammad, were still dominated by ideas
current in the early days of Islam. They were convinced that the tolerance
of idolatry was a sin.
Aurangzeb (1618–1707) was a Muslim puritan who wished to turn his
Indian empire into a land of orthodox Sunni Islam and ruled in accordance
with the principles laid down by the early caliphs. He began this process
by destroying Hindu temples. During the campaigns of 1679–80, he de-
stroyed 123 temples at Udaipur, 63 at Chitor, and 66 at Jaipur. He reduced