ADVENT OF ISLAM IN INDIA:

In India Islam gained its foot hold in the south western coastal region of Malabar1 .Historians tell us that it was by way of three open doors the sea, the land route leading through Persia into Sind, and the Khyber Pass.2 Sea: The first Gateway: Islam first appeared in the south India, on the Malabar Coast, chiefly through the influence of Arab traders who in most cases were also preachers of new faith.3 The coasts of Sind and Arabia are so near that growth of close commercial relations between the two was inevitable. Since the time immemorial spices and other articles of the Indies had been in great demand in Egypt and the countries of southern Europe. The transit trade between these area was mostly in the hands of the Arabs who used to carry Indian merchandise from Indian ports to Yemen in southern Arabia, from where the goods were carried by land to the Syrian ports to be shipped again to Egypt and Europe. This trade continued after Arabs had embraced Islam and the first major conflict between the people of the Indian subcontinent and the Muslim Arabia arose out of the developments connected with the Arab sailors plying in the Indian Ocean. They operated as far as Ceylon and even farther, and when some of them died in that Island, the local ruler thought it expedient to send their widows and orphans to Arabia ,with gifts and letters of goodwill for Hajjaj,(41-96/661-714 A.D.), the powerful viceroy of the eastern provinces of the Umayyad empire. Unfavourable winds drove the vessels carrying gifts and survivors close to the shores of Debul (an inland port near modern Karachi).Here pirates attacked them plundered the gifts and took the Muslims women and children as captives.Hajjaj on learning this, protested to Dahir, the ruler of Sind(4994 A.H./669-712 A.D.),and demanded the release of the prisoners and

restoration of the booty, but he received an evasive reply. This enraged Hajjaj ,known in th Arab history as much as for his severity as for his administrative ability, and persuaded the unwilling caliph to authorise punitive measures against Dahir.4
1.Iqtidar Hussain Siddiqui,Islam and Muslims inSouthAsia,Adam publishers,Delhi,pp.1

2 .John A Subhan, Sufism Its Saints And Shrines, Cosmo publications, India, 1999, pp.119 3.Ibid;pp119 4.M.H Syed,History Of Muslims In India,Anmol publications,New Delhi,2003,pp;7