Muhammad-bin-Qasim was the 17-year-old Umayyad general who led the conquest of Sindh. This adolescent conqueror followed in the footsteps of Alexander by bringing a new faith and culture to the Indus basin. He is mentioned in the ChachNama between the years 709-711 CE, when Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq, appointed him to lead an expedition against Sindh. Qasim was Hajjaj's nephew, and because he was a capable commander, his uncle appointed him as the head of Makran's frontier district. He was given a conquest mission in the direction of Sindh. Qasim's expedition to Sindh was meticulously planned. In this article, we will discuss the End of Muhmmad-bin-Qasim which will be helpful for UPSC exam preparation.

About Muhammad-bin-Qasim

• Muhammad ibn Qasim (31 December 695 – 18 July 715) was an Arab military commander in the service of the Umayyad Caliphate who led the Muslim conquest of Sindh during the Umayyad campaigns in India.
• His military exploits resulted in the establishment of Arab Sind and the takeover of the region from the Sindhi Brahman dynasty and its ruler, Raja Dahir, who was later decapitated and his head sent to al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in Basra.
• With the capture of the then-capital of Aror by Arab forces, Qasim became the first Muslim to successfully capture Hindu land, ushering in Muslim rule in India.

End of Muhammad-bin-Qasim

• This valiant general's demise was tragic. There are several stories about his final journey. The ChachNama attributes his death to the two virgin daughters of King Dahar, Suryadevi and Palmaldevi, who were sent to the caliph Walid as prisoners of war after their father died.
• They had accused Qasim of violating them in retaliation for their father's death. This incurred the wrath of the Caliph, who had ordered him to be executed immediately.
• He directed that wherever Qasim was, he be sewed in cow's skin and delivered to the Caliph. When his body was shown to his two daughters after his death, they revealed the truth about avenging Qasim for killing their father and destroying their family. As a result, the Caliph sentenced them to death.
• Another text titled Futuh ul Buldan of Baladhuri, on the other hand, gives an entirely different reason for Muhammad Qasim's downfall and death.
• It is said that Qasim was kidnapped and tortured to death by caliph Sulaiman, who was bitterly opposed to Hajjaj, Muhammad Bin Qasim's uncle.
• According to Baladhuri, his demise was linked to the current political situation in the Arab empire and was interconnected with the reactions of caliph Sulaiman, who succeeded his brother Walid in 715 CE.
• As a blind follower of Caliph Walid, Hajjaj had sided with him against his brother Sulaiman. Walid had considered putting aside Sulaiman's claim to succession by appointing his son instead of him, and Hajjaj had supported this plan of Walid.
• This is how Sulaiman was stripped of his right to succession, which enraged him, especially against Baghdad's powerful governor.
• The hatred peaked when the Umayyad prince granted asylum to Yazid Bin al-Muhallab, who had fled Hajjaj's persecution. The rivalry between the Hajjajites and the Muhallabites began in this manner.
• It was seen throughout the Arab empire under the caliphates of Walid, Sulaiman, and Yazid II, and this rivalry cut deep into the roots of the Umayyad empire, which had seen both the Muhallabites and Hajjajites as loyal servants.
• When Sulaiman came to power with the Muhallabites as his loyal servants, the anti-Hajjajites reaction erupted. This reaction may have had the least impact on Hajjaj, because he had died a little before his caliph Walid, as per his wish.
• The rivalry, on the other hand, had clearly affected Walid's loyal protégés and kinsmen. The first and most prominent victim of this reaction was Qutaiba Bin Muslim, who was persecuted for rebelling against the new caliph Sulaiman.
• Qutaiba is known in history as the Arab conqueror of Central Asia. Similarly, the next victim was Hajjaj's favourite – Muhammad Bin Qasim.
• Though evidence does not support Qasim's claim that Sulaiman's right to succession in the territories he conquered has expired. However, it is assumed that Qasim followed the Hajjaj order. As a result of the deaths of Hajjaj and Walid, his fate was more than he could have hoped for.
• According to popular belief, he was arrested by Yazid Bin Kabsha, his successor in the Sindh government. This occurred on the orders of Iraq's new financial governor, Salih Bin Abd ar-Rahman.
• Qasim was imprisoned at Wasit after four years of daring campaigns to expand Arabism and Islam's dominion. In 715 CE, he was imprisoned alongside Hajjaj's other relatives and tortured to death.
• Almost all of the architects of the great Arab conquests faced a tragic fate during their second and final wave of expansion.

Muhammad-bin-Qasim- Aftermath

• Following bin Qasim's departure, the next Arab governor died upon arrival. Dahir's son recaptured Brahmanabad and was granted pardon and inclusion in the administration in exchange for converting to Islam around the year 720.
• When the Umayyads were embroiled in a succession crisis, he recanted and split off. Later, Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri assassinated Jaisiah and reclaimed the territory, which his successors struggled to hold and keep.
• During the Abbasid period, around 870, the local emirs abandoned all allegiance to the caliphs, and by the 10th century, the region had been divided into two weak states, Mansurah on the lower Indus and Multan on the upper Indus, which were quickly captured by Ismailis, who established an independent Fatimid state. These successor states achieved little and shrank in size.
• For three centuries, powerful Hindu monarchs to the north and east kept the Arab conquest at bay in what is now southern Pakistan, until the arrival of Mahmud of Ghazni.

Conclusion

Qasim successfully led a military expedition to what is now Sindh, Pakistan, from 708 to 711. From 712 until his death in 715, he established Islamic rule throughout the region and served as its governor. He was killed in Mosul, Iraq, in modern times. According to some sources, his body was buried in Makran, a semi-desert coastal region of Balochistan. The presence of Qasim and the rule were both brief. His conquest for the Umayyads brought Sindh into the Muslim world's orbit.