raids did not begin
until the end of the twelfth century when Muhammad Ghori began his
campaigns and succeeded in making himself master of northern
India, which from 1193 to 1526 was ruled by Mohammedan dynasties,
mostly of Afghan or Turki descent. In the south the frontiers of
Vijayanagar marked the limits of Islam. To the north of them Rajputana
and Orissa still remained Hindu states, but with these exceptions the
Government was Mohammedan. In 1526 came the Mughal invasion, after
which all northern India was united under one Mohammedan Emperor for
about two centuries. Aurungzeb (1659-1707) was a fanatical Mohammedan:
his intolerant reign marked the beginning of disintegration in the
Empire and aroused the opposition of the Mahrattas and Sikhs. But
until this period Mohammedan rule was not marked by special bigotry or
by any persistent attempt to proselytize. A woeful chronicle of
selected outrages can indeed be drawn up. In the great towns of the
north hardly a temple remained unsacked and most were utterly
destroyed. At different periods individuals, such as Sikander Lodi of
Delhi and Jelaluddin (1414-1430) in Bengal, raged against Hinduism and
made converts by force. But such acts are scattered over a long period
and a great area; they are not characteristic of Islam in India.
Neither the earlier Mughal Emperors nor the preceding Sultans were of
irreproachable orthodoxy. Two of them at least, Ala-ud-Din and Akbar,
contemplated founding new religions of their own. Many of them were
connected with Hindu sovereigns by marriage or political alliances.

The works of Alberuni and Mohsin Fani show that educated Mohammedans
felt an interest not only in Indian science but in Indian religion. In
the Panjab and Hindustan Islam was strengthened by immigrations of
Mohammedan tribes from the north-west extending over many centuries.
Mohammedan sultans and governors held their court in the chief cities,
which thus tended to become Mohammedan not only by natural attraction
but because high caste Hindus preferred to live in the country and
would not frequent the company of those whom they considered as
outcasts. Still, Hindus were often employed as accountants and revenue
officers. All non-Moslims had to pay the jiziya or poll tax, and the
remission of this impost accorded to converts was naturally a powerful
incentive to change of faith. Yet Mohammedanism cannot record any
wholesale triumph in India such as it has won in Persia, E