FIRST ARAB RAID ON INDIA DEFEATED

Islam Comes to India 14

Inspired by the early and meteoric military successes that made the Arabs ‘world conquerors’ within a short span of time, it was only natural that they “cast their covetous eyes towards India.” (Indian Resistance To Early Muslim Invaders Upto 1206 AD, P 18 — Dr. Ram Gopal Mishra). 

The first Arab invasion of India was an expedition by sea to conquer Thana near Mumbai as early as 636 A.D. It was undertaken during the vigorous expansionist regime of the second Caliph, Umar-bin-Akhtab, who was on a proselytizing mission to spread Islam to all corners of the world. He appointed Usman, of the tribe of Sakif, to capture Bahrain and Oman. Usman sent his brother Hakam to Bahrain and himself proceeded to Oman. Upon reaching Oman, Usman sent a naval expedition to capture Thana on the western coast of India (Kitab Futuh Al Buldan: Vol. 2, P 209 — Al Baladhuri Tr. By Francis Clark Murgotten).The Arab army was repulsed decisively and returned to Oman and the first ever Arab raid on India was defeated.
A second naval expedition was sent to conquer Barwas or Barauz (Broach) on the coast of southern Gujarat by Hakam, ( Kitab Futuh Al Buldan: Vol. 2, P 209 — Al Baladhuri Tr. By Francis Clark Murgotten ) the brother of Usman. This attack too was repelled and the Arabs were driven back successfully.

Caliph Abd Al Malik Coin

A third naval invasion, which was also the first attack on Sindh, was sent by Hakam to the port of Debal near Karachi in 643 A.D. He sent his brother Mughairah as the leader of the Arab army. 

At the time Sindh was ruled by the brahmin king, Raja Chach Rai who had established himself on the throne by supplanting Rai Sahasi II, son of Sahiras. Some historical accounts mention that Chach Rai had ascended the throne after the death of his master Rai Sahasi II ( The History And Culture Of The Indian People: Vol. 3 — The Classical Age, P 165 — R. C. Majumdar ). Raja Chach Rai was a powerful king who not only subdued the provincial governors who opposed his suzerainty, but also fixed the frontier of Sindh bordering Kashmir on the east and conquered a part of Makran on the west. On the south his kingdom extended to the Arabian Sea and on the north to the mountains of Kurdan and Kikanan.
The target of the first Arab naval expedition to Sindh was the port of Debal or Devalaya at the mouth of the Sindhu river. Debal was a seaside town inhabited mostly by merchants, and was under the command of Samah, son of Dewaji, who was a governor of Raja Chach Rai. When Mughairah reached Debal with his expedition, he was engaged in battle by the brave Samah, who personally led his army against the Arab invaders. The Arabs were defeated by Samah, who “issued out of the fort and engaged with them in fight” and their leader, Mughairah was killed in battle ( The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 57 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg). The news of the killing of Mughairah and the defeat of his army at Debal must have been an unpleasant surprise for Caliph Umar-bin-Akhtab, who was accustomed to tidings of Arab victories elsewhere. Umar had been very anxious for a victory over ‘Hind’. The defeat at Debal had been the third in a row for the ‘pious’ Caliph Umar, so he planned to send an expedition by land against Makran this time. He commanded Usman to proceed to Iraq, and also told Rabiah to set out on an expedition to Makran in present-day Balochistan, which was part of the kingdom of Sindh at the time. 

Umar also commanded Abu Musa, governor of Iraq for detailed information about the extent of success against Sindh and Hind. Abu Musa had come to know about the defeat and death of Mughairah and victory of Raja Chach, “a king who was very headstrong and stiff necked, and was determined to behave offensively,” ( The Chachnama ) and so he advised Umar that the kingdom of Sindh was a very powerful one that would not succumb to Islamic domination at any cost and that “he should think no more of Hind”. 

During the reign of the first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufiyan (661–680 A.D), there were as many as six Arab raids on Kikan, a frontier province of Sindh. Muawiyah was driven by a zeal for political expansion and although, his reign was focused on territorial expansion in Byzantine territories, he was nevertheless determined to conquer Sindh. The three preceding Rashidun Caliphs had made several attempts to dominate Sindh but had failed to make any impact. Each of these attacks had been repulsed by the brave and powerful Raja Chach Rai of Sindh and the robust Meds and Jats of Kikan. With each passing failure of the Arab armies in conquering Sindh, the anxiousness of the succeeding Caliphs of somehow “wanting to add a prized feather to his crown that his predecessor was unable to acquire” seemed to grow as they “revived the plans to conquer Sind” ( Echoes Among Ruins: Revisiting The Brahmin Dynasty Of Ancient Sind, P 106 — Vinay Mehta ). 

Muawiyah was the fourth Caliph to send Arab armies to Sindh repeatedly, but unfortunately for him too, each of the six expeditions failed, barring the last one, in which the Arabs managed to subdue Makran in 680 A.D. Thus, after nearly fifty years of relentless attacks, all that the world-conquering Arabs managed to gain was a tiny principality of Sindh. 

It was nearly twenty-eight years before the Arabs could think of raiding Sindh again. The second Umayyad Caliph, Abd Al Malik ibn Marwan (685–705 A.D) appointed a ruthless and over-zealous loyalist Al Hajjaj as governor of Iraq in 695 A.D. Driven by his expansionist zeal to win over Sindh, “a country which had so long defied the might of Islam,” ( R. C. Majumdar ) for the Islamic Caliphate, an aggressive Hajjaj resumed hostilities with Sindh over an incidental pirate attack on a Sri Lankan ship carrying gifts, slaves and some Muslim women for the Caliph in 708 A.D. He secured “permission to declare a religious war against Hind and Sind” ( The Chachnama) from the succeeding Caliph Al Walid ibn Abd Al Malik (705–715 A.D.), and despatched an expedition to attack the flourishing coastal town of Debal near present day Karachi under the leadership of Ubaidullah.

Grave of Uthman

While the lore of the pirate attack on the Sri Lankan ship off the coast of Debal has been popularised by Islamic, and subsequently leftist historians as the raison d’etre for Al Hajjaj’s hostility and attack over Sindh, this theory does not hold much water as the same Arabs had been making desperate attempts to somehow conquer Sindh for over half a century. The motives behind Hajjaj’s attack were no different from the earlier attacks, viz. religious and imperialist expansion of the Islamic Arab Caliphate. In addition to the insatiable greed for world domination by Arab Islamists, the other, more pragmatic and shrewd motive behind the Arab imperialist advances on Sindh was to open up shorter, in-land access to China to promote Arab commercial interests. 

Sindh was ruled by Raja Dahir at the time, son of the mighty king Raja Chach Rai. Raja Dahir was a brave, honourable and magnanimous ruler and “the fame of his sovereignty spread throughout the length and breadth of the world, and his rule was firmly fixed in the country of Hind and Sind” ( The Chachnama ). 

When Ubaidullah attacked the port city of Debal, he was killed in battle by Raja Dahir’s troops in Debal and the Arab army was severely routed. The news of the Arab army’s failure and Ubaidullah’s killing further heightened Hajjaj’s desperation to capture Sindh. He commanded Budail to attack Debal with an army of 6000 Arab soldiers. Budail received further reinforcements of 3000 Arab soldiers from Mohammed Haroon at Nerun. However, despite such a large army, the Arab attack on Debal was decisively trounced by the brave Prince Jaisiah, son of Raja Dahir, and his 4000 strong troops in a long, hard battle. Prince Jaisiah used his elephants effectively in battle to frustrate the Arabs, and as the battle raged, Budail’s horse was frightened of the elephants and ended up throwing him off its back. Budail was surrounded on all sides by Jaisiah’s brave soldiers and was killed in the battlefield.The Arab army suffered a crushing defeat as Prince Jaisiah valiantly defended Debal and Sindh.Raja Chach Rai,who defeated the Arabs,need to be celebrated.