How did Bangladesh become Muslim?
One of the Bangladesh’s main demographic peculiarities aside
from its great population density is its condition of being sort of a Muslim
Enclave to the region while none of its neighbour country has Islam as their
majoritarian religion. Around 90 percent of Bangladeshi are Muslims. In fact Bangladesh
is the country with the fourth largest Muslim population in the world, almost
150 million. At the same time Islam has been present in Bangladesh as well as
in most of South Asia for many centuries. As the religion brought by many
ruling dynasties and empires nonetheless and except for Pakistan, in no other
of these countries as Islam left such a deep mark as in Bangladesh. Why is it
then that Islam became Bangladesh’s major religion.
In answering this question we shall first enquire how Islam
made it to Bangladesh in the first place.
The first signs of Islam in the Bengal Delta region. Where Bangladesh
is located can be traced down to the times of Mahoma, himself. Hence the Arab
trade routes traders were not necessarily missionaries but indeed helped in
putting Islam on the map when going east. Even setting their own communities
near trade posts in the south of the Delta. Despite traders being the first
Muslims to reach Bengal, Islam would only predominate in the region by
conquest.
Since the beginning of Islam, Muslim conquerors were
responsible for a swift expansion process that would lead them from the Middle
East to go West, to the North of Africa and up to the Iberian Peninsula and
Sicily. But despite their conquest in Western and Central Asia, they were unable
to successfully penetrate into the Indian subcontinent for many centuries. Reaching
Bengal in particular would take Muslim faith 600 years.
The Muslim conquest of India begin in the 10th century
concretely with the hand of Samanid military commander Alp Tegin. At the surface of the Samanid’s Empire which
at the time occupied a large part of the Persian region. Alp-Tegin was a slave
soldier. At the same time the fact of being slaves didn’t mean that they were
limited to a life of service as low rank individuals. There are multiple
examples of Mamluks or slave in other word that achieved power position in
military and political life. This was the case of Alp-Tegin. Of a Turkish origin
but of Persian and Muslim upbringing, he rebelled against the Samanid Empire
and formed a kingdom of his own in Ghazna, now Afganistan.
Alp Tegin died next year, September 936, succeeded by his son
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim, also known as Ishaq Bin Alp Tegin. He became the founder of
Ghazna dynasty. The southern Hindu Shahis dynasty was reluctant of a Muslim
Kingdom so close to their domains and wasted no time in attacking them. The war
between these two kingdoms lasted for years. In this conflict the Shahis
dynasty was able to convince his fellow Hindu warlords of the danger of the
Ghaznavid and forming a confederacy for fighting together against the Muslim
threat Mahmud (999-1030), sabotage insane, defeated this alliance in 1008
expanding their kingdom to Lahore. But by no means, Lahore was the end of his
campaign. In southern he found an even greater picture, how wealthy these Hindu
Kingdoms were. Mahmud subsequently kept going south conquering cities and
leaving them to be ruled by his Hindu vassals. Nonetheless the extension of his
kingdom did not allow him to go further.
The Ghaznavid dynasty would face its own hard times with the
Seljuk Turks coming west. The dynasty would finally perish at the lost of
Lahore in 1186. Behind Ghaznavids defeat was the Ghurid dynasty. The Ghurid had
converted from Buddhism to Islam at the beginning of the 12th
century. After taking Lahore, they moved to northern India against the then ruling
Sanjaya dynasty. It would be Ghurid
general Mohamed Bin Bakhtiar Khilji who would conquer Bengal in 1204. Story tells
that he captured West Bengal Nabadwip, the capital of Hindu Sanjaya dynasty,
backed up by only 18 cavalry soldiers. In 1206 with the assassination of the
great emperor of Ghurid, his territory was divided among his generals. Khilji
then established his own dynasty and Delhi Sultanate. In its more than three
centuries of existence, the Muslim Delhi Sultanate would have five different
dynasties.
·
The Mamluk ( 1206 – 1290 )
·
The Khilji ( 1290 – 1320 )
·
The Tughlaq (1320 – 1414 )
·
The Sayyid ( 1414-1451 )
·
Lodi ( 1451 – 1526 )
This is when the lasting development of Islam in Bengal
began. Before Islam, in ancient history Buddhism was the main religion in Bengal
as well as orthodox Hinduism which was also the religion of the former Sen
Dynasty. Bengal was not directly affected by the then Buddhists.
Mongol Empire attack on West Asia. Yet it’s became an escape
for refugees of the Mongol Imperial horde. These Turkish Muslims often migrated
grouping around Sufis Muslim followers who were seen if not as spiritual
leaders, as heads of their communities. This migration also included scholars
from other Muslim locations. As a result south Asia became an important nucleus
of Muslim culture.
Bengali most of all has this fate, surrounded by mountain
ranges, East Bengal was a sort of geographic halting point for migration
movements. Buddhist and Hindu monastery suffered the most of the growth of
Islam faith. Most of its monks and Brahmins had to escape to remote parts of Bengal
and even the remotest places like the Nepalese mountains.
Bengal started its independence process from Delhi Sultunate
in 1338. By then the Bengal region was divided into three parts, each with its
own ruler. The following decades saw the unification of Bengal in the form of
the Bengal Sultanate and siege of its autonomy by the Delhi Sultanate. But Bengal
independence prevailed.
Meanwhile the region gain notoriety for the development of
literature and painting. This process has its peak in the 16th
century. In 1576 the Sultanate of Bengal succumbs to the Muslim Mughal Empire
which in 1610 founded Dhaka as the provincial capital of the Empire. Before the
15th century the Bengal Rivers started to suffer a great
transformation that ended in the main course of Ganges connecting to the Padma.
This meant two things.
Firstly river communication made possible a greater economic
exchange with other regions.
Secondly, as the Bengali Delta and its river flow increased,
agricultural exploitation increased greatly.
As a result rice production was so prolific that for the
first time rice became a major exportation product. This natural phenomenon coincided
with the Mughal Empires conquest of Bengal. During this time that the agrarian
base of the population took place. Until then the region was still covered by a
great deal of forest and developing agriculture was at the hands of Muslim
religion who received along with land grants. The task of clearing the forests for one part
but also of constructing mosques. These mosques acted as central cultural
institutions for the local population. In this sense Islam’s greatest
development in Bengal occurred on pair with its economic development. To the extent
that the very act of cultivating was and continues to be seen as bearing the transcendence
of a religious act.
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