Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent (712–1757) is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad caliphate. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor (r.1173–1206) is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.
From the late 12th century onwards, Muslim empires dominated the subcontinent, most notably the Delhi sultanate and Mughal empire. Various other Muslim kingdoms ruled most of South Asia from the mid-14th to late 18th centuries, including the Bahmani, Bengal, Gujarat, Malwa, Mysore, Carnatic and Deccan Sultanates. Though the Muslim dynasties in India were diversed in origin, they were linked together by the Persianate culture and Islam.
The height of Islamic rule was marked during the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r.1658–1707), during which the Fatawa Alamgiri was compiled, which briefly served as the legal system of Mughal empire. Additional Islamic policies were re-introduced in South India by Mysore's de facto king Tipu Sultan.
Sharia was used as the primary basis for the legal system in the Delhi Sultanate, most notably during the rule of Firuz Shah Tughlaq and Alauddin Khilji, who repelled the Mongol invasions of India. On the other hand, rulers such as Akbar adopted a secular legal system and enforced religious neutrality. Muslim rule in India saw a major shift in the cultural, linguistic, and religious makeup of the subcontinent. Persian and Arabic vocabulary began to enter local languages, giving way to modern Punjabi, Bengali, and Gujarati, while creating new languages including Urdu and Deccani, used as official languages under Muslim dynasties. This period also saw the birth of Hindustani music, Qawwali and the further development of dance forms such as Kathak. Religions such as Sikhism and Din-e-Ilahi were born out of a fusion of Hindu and Muslim religious traditions as well.
The eventual end of the period of Muslim rule of modern India is mainly marked with the beginning of British Raj in 1857, although its aspects persisted in Hyderabad State, Junagadh State, Jammu and Kashmir State and other minor princely states until the mid of the 20th century. Today's modern Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan are the Muslim majority nations in the Indian subcontinent while India has the largest Muslim minority population in the world numbering over 180 million.
History
Early Muslim dominions
Local kings who converted to Islam existed in places such as the Western Coastal Plains as early as the 7th century. Islamic rule in India prior to the advent of the Mamluk dynasty (Delhi) included those of Arab Caliphate, Ghaznavids and Ghurids.
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was the first of the two major Islamic empires which was based in mainland India between 1206-1526. It emerged after the disintegration of the Ghurid empire in 1206. During the last quarter of the 12th century, Muhammad of Ghor invaded the Indo-Gangetic plain, conquering in succession Ghazni, Multan, Lahore, and Delhi. Qutb-ud-din Aybak, one of his generals proclaimed himself Sultan of Delhi. In Bengal and Bihar, the reign of general Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji was established. Shamsuddīn Iltutmish (1211–1236), established the Delhi Sultanate on a firm basis, which enabled future sultans to push in every direction. Within the next 100 years, the Delhi Sultanate extended its way east to Bengal and south to the Deccan. The sultanate was in constant flux as five dynasties rose and fell: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–90), Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1413), Sayyid dynasty (1414–51), and Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). Power in Delhi was often gained by violence—nineteen of the thirty-five sultans were assassinated—and was legitimized by reward for tribal loyalty. Factional rivalries and court intrigues were as numerous as they were treacherous; territories controlled by the sultan expanded and shrank depending on his personality and fortunes.
The Delhi sultanate peaked under Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1335. However, it came under gradual decline afterwards, with kingdoms like the Bengal Sultanate, Madurai Sultanate, Khandesh Sultanate and Bahmani Sultanate all asserting independence. Timur's invasion in 1398 only accelerated the process, and the Gujarat Sultanate and Jaunpur Sultanate broke away. Some of these kingdoms, such as Jaunpur, were again brought back under the Delhi Sultanate's control, although the rest remained independent from central rule until the conquests of the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries.