History of Bangladesh Part-II (Islamic Bengal)

Islam arrived on the shores of Bengal in the late first millennium, brought largely by missionaries, Sufis and merchants from Middle East. Some experts have suggested that early Muslims, including Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas (an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad), used Bengal as a transit point to travel to China on the Southern Silk Road.[45] The excavation of Abbasid Caliphate coins in Bangladesh indicate a strong trade network during the House of Wisdom Era in Baghdad, when Arab scientists absorbed pre-Islamic Indian and Greek discoveries. This gave rise to the Indo Arabic numerals. Writing in 1154, Al-Idrisi noted a busy shipping route between Chittagong and Basra.

A Bengali diplomat presenting a giraffe at the Chinese imperial court in 1414

Subsequent Muslim conquest absorbed the culture and achievements of pre-Islamic Bengali civilization in the new Islamic polity. Muslims adopted indigenous customs and traditions, including in dress, food and way of life. This included the wearing of the sari, bindu and bangles by Muslim women; and art forms in music, dance and theater.[48] Muslim rule reinforced the process of conversion through the construction ofmosques, madrasas and Sufi Khanqahs.

Minaret of the Sixty Dome Mosque, a medieval Bengal Sultanate mosque completed in 1459

The Islamic conquest of Bengal began when Bakhtiar Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate conquered northern and western Bengal in 1204. The Delhi Sultanate gradually annexed the whole of Bengal over the next century. By the 14th century, an independent Bengal Sultanate was established. The rulers of theTurkic Ilyas Shahi dynasty built the largest mosque in South Asia, and cultivated strong diplomatic and commercial ties with Ming China.

Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah was the first Bengali convert on the throne.[51] The Bengal Sultanate was noted for its cultural pluralism. Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists jointly formed its civil-military services. The Hussain Shahi sultans promoted the development of Bengali literature. It brought Arakan under its suzerainty for 100 years.

The sultanate was visited by numerous world explorers, including Niccolò de' Conti of Venice, Ibn Battutaof Morocco and Admiral Zheng He of China. However, by the 16th century, the Bengal Sultanate began to disintegrate. The Sur Empire overran Bengal in 1532 and built the Grand Trunk Road. Hindu Rajasand the Baro-Bhuyan zamindars gained control of large parts of the region, especially in the fertile Bhatizone. Isa Khan was the Rajput leader of the Baro-Bhuyans based in Sonargaon.

The ruins of Lalbagh Fort in Dhaka, 1875. The city was the Mughal capital of Bengal, an imperial commercial center and nicknamed the City of Mosques.

In the late 16th-century, the Mughal Empire led by Akbar the Great began conquering the Bengal delta after the Battle of Tukaroi where he defeated the Bengal Sultanate's last rulers, theKarrani dynasty. Dhaka was established as the Mughal provincial capital in 1608. The Mughals faced stiff resistance from the Baro-Bhuyans, Afghan warlords and zamindars, but were ultimately successful in conquering the whole of Bengal by 1666, when the Portuguese and Arakanese were expelled from Chittagong. Mughal rule ushered economic prosperity, agrarian reform and flourishing external trade, particularly in muslin and silk textiles. Mughal Viceroys promoted agricultural expansion and turned Bengal into the rice basket of the Indian subcontinent. The Sufis gained increasing prominence. The Baul movement, inspired by Sufism, also emerged under Mughal rule. The Bengali ethnic identity further crystallized during this period, and the region's inhabitants were given sufficient autonomy to cultivate their own customs and literature. The entire region was brought under a stable-long lasting administration.

By the 18th century, Bengal was the wealthiest part of the subcontinent.[61] It generated 50% of Mughal GDP. Its towns and cities were filled with Eurasian traders. The Nawabs of Bengal established an independent principality in 1717, with their headquarters inMurshidabad. The Nawabs granted increasing concessions to European trading powers. Matters reached a climax in 1757, when NawabSiraj-ud-Daulah captured the British base at Fort William, in an effort to stem the rising influence of the East India Company. Siraj-ud-Daulah was betrayed by his general Mir Jafar, who helped Robert Clive defeat the last independent Nawab at the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757.