Editing Muhammad ibn al-Qasim (section)

==Background on Sindh==
===Early Muslim presence===
[[File:Mohammad adil rais-Rashidun Caliphate-different phases.gif|thumb|Rashidun Caliphate (632-661 AD)]]
The connection between the Hindu Sind and [[Islam]] was established by the initial Muslim missions during the [[Rashidun Caliphate]]. Hakim ibn Jabala al-Abdi, who attacked [[Makran]] in the year 649 AD, was an early partisan of [[Ali|Ali ibn Abu Talib]].<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|MacLean1989|p=126}}</ref> During the caliphate of Ali, many Jats of Sindh had come under influence of Islam<ref>S. A. A. Rizvi, "A socio-intellectual History of Isna Ashari Shi'is in India", Volo. 1, pp. 138, Mar'ifat Publishing House, Canberra (1986).</ref> and some even participated in the [[Battle of Camel]] and died fighting for [[Ali]].<ref name=":0" /> Harith ibn Murrah al-Abdi and Sayfi ibn Fasayl' al-Shaybani, both officers of Ali's army, attacked Makran in the year 658.<ref name=":0" /> Sayfi was one of the seven shias who were beheaded alongside [[Hujr ibn Adi]] al-Kindi in 660 AD near Damascus.<ref name=":0" /> Under the Umayyads (661–750 AD), many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, to live in relative peace in the remote area. Ziyad Hindi is one of those refugees.<ref>S. A. N. Rezavi, "The Shia Muslims", in History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Vol. 2, Part. 2: "Religious Movements and Institutions in Medieval India", Chapter 13, Oxford University Press (2006).</ref>

===Umayyad interest in Sindh===
[[File:Map of expansion of Caliphate.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|Map of expansion of Umayyad Caliphate]]

According to Wink, [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] interest in the region was galvanised by the operation of the ''[[Meds (tribe)|Meds]]'' (a tribe of Scythians living in Sindh) and others.<ref name="wink1">{{harvnb|Wink|2002|p=164}}</ref> The Meds had engaged in [[piracy]] on [[Sassanid]] shipping in the past, from the mouth of the [[Tigris]] to the [[Sri Lanka]]n coast, in their ''[[bawarij]]'' and now were able to prey on Arab shipping from their bases at [[Kutch]], [[Debal]] and [[Kathiawar]].<ref name="wink1"/> At the time, [[Sindh]] was the wild [[frontier]] region of al-Hind, inhabited mostly by semi-nomadic tribes whose activities disturbed much of the Western [[Indian Ocean]].<ref name="wink1"/> Muslim sources insist that it was these persistent activities along increasingly important Indian trade routes by Debal pirates and others which forced the [[Arab people|Arab]]s to subjugate the area, in order to control the seaports and maritime routes of which [[Sindh]] was the nucleus, as well as, the overland passage.<ref>{{harvnb|Wink|2002|pp=51–52}}</ref> During [[Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf|Hajjaj]]'s governorship, the ''Meds'' of [[Debal]] in one of their raids had kidnapped Muslim women travelling from [[Sri Lanka]] to [[Arabia]], thus providing grounds to the rising power of the Umayyad Caliphate that enabled them to gain a foothold in the [[Makran]], [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]] and [[Sindh]] regions.<ref name="wink1"/><ref name="Gier">Nicholas F. Gier, [http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/mm.htm From Mongols to Mughals: Religious violence in India 9th-18th centuries], Presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga University, May 2006.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shoeb |first1=Robina |title=Female Sufism in Pakistan: A Case Study of Bibi Pak Daman |journal=Pakistan Vision |year=2016 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=229|quote=But this version of the story is almost absent and not accepted by many historians, because Muhammad bin Qasim attacked Sindh to punish the then ruler of Sindh Raja Dahir who captured some Muslim women, and to release them he attacked Sindh.}}</ref>
[[File:Umayyad Caliphate in 710.png|thumb|left|The Umayyad Caliphate on the eve of the invasions of Spain and Sindh in 710.]]

Also cited as a reason for this campaign was the policy of providing refuge to Sassanids fleeing the [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Arab advance]] and to Arab rebels from the [[Second fitnah|Umayyad consolidation]] of their rule.{{clarify|date=June 2018}}

These Arabs were imprisoned later on by Governor Deebal Partaab Rai. A letter written by an Arab girl named Nahed who escaped from the prison of Partab Rai asked Hajjaj Bin Yusuf for help. When Hajjaj asked Dahir for the release of prisoners and compensation, the latter refused on the ground that he had no control over those. Al-Hajjaj sent Muhammad ibn al-Qasim for action against the Sindh in 711. {{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

The [[mawali]] (new non-Arab converts) who were usually allied with Al-Hajjaj's political opponents and thus were frequently forced to participate in battles on the frontier of the Umayyad Caliphate, such as [[Kabul]], [[Sindh]] and [[Transoxania]].<ref name="2004Wink1">{{harvnb|Wink|2002|pp=201–205}}</ref> An actual push into the region had been out of favour as an Arab policy since the time of the [[Rashidun]] [[Caliph]] [[Umar bin Khattab]], who upon receipt of reports of it being an inhospitable and poor land, had stopped further expeditionary ventures into the region.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}