• 6th to 15th centuries, political and religious diversity
• Small kingdoms and military aristocracies,
• RAJPUTS and autonomous villages
• Scholasticism and ritualistic religion
• 8th century Abbasid invasion from the north
• Central Asian Islam penetrates via raids & sufism
Afghano-Turkic Islamic Raids in the 1000s
• Turks, Afghans, Persians and Mongols entered into India, most prominently from Ghazni (today in Afghanistan)with Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030) making the Punjabi region a gateway to Islam
• North Indians, low-caste Hindus and Buddhists converted
The Delhi Sultanate
• The first Muslim state 1206 in Delhi by Qutb-ud-din Aybak constantly expanding and contracting
• Mixing very well with the indidgenous populaces
• Divided into 5 dynasties : the Tughluqs were crushed by Timur from Samarkand (1398-99) desolating the entire sultanate but the last dynasty (Lodis) nonetheless survived until 1526
• The Delhi Sultanate : saving South Asia from the Empire of Cengiz Khan but establishing a stronger Mongol legacy together with Islam