South Asia

===Medieval era===
[[File:Rajendra map new.svg|thumb|Outreach of influence of early medieval [[Chola dynasty]]]]

Islam came as a political power in the fringe of South Asia in 8th century CE when the Arab general [[Muhammad bin Qasim]] conquered [[Sindh]], and [[Multan]] in Southern Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan.<ref name="infopak">{{cite web|url=http://www.infopak.gov.pk/History.aspx |title=History in Chronological Order |publisher=Government of Pakistan |access-date=9 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723113602/http://www.infopak.gov.pk/History.aspx |archive-date=23 July 2010 }}</ref> By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.<ref name=mrpislam>See:
* {{cite book |last1=Pirbhai |first1=M. Reza |title=Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context |year=2009 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17758-1}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=J. F. |title=The Islamic frontier in the east: Expansion into South Asia |journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies |date=October 1974 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=91–109 |doi=10.1080/00856407408730690}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shokoohy |first1=Mehrdad |title=Bhadreśvar: The Oldest Islamic Monuments in India |year=1988 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-08341-7}}; see discussion of earliest raids in Gujarat</ref> Among them was [[Mahmud of Ghazni]], who raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030.<ref name=pj03/> Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heathcote |first1=T. A. |year=1995 |title=The Military in British India: The Development of British Forces in South Asia:1600–1947 |publisher=Manchester University Press |pages=5–7 |isbn=978-1-78383-064-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Barnett |first=Lionel D. |title=Antiquities of India: An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LnoREHdzxt8C&pg=PA1 |year=1999 |orig-year=First published 1913 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers and Distributors |pages=73–79|isbn=9788171564422 }}</ref>

[[File:Timur defeats the sultan of Delhi.jpg|thumb|left|[[Timur]] defeats the [[Sultan of Delhi]], Nasir-u Din Mehmud, in the winter of 1397–1398]]

The wave of raids on north Indian and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni, plundering and looting these kingdoms.<ref>Richard Davis (1994), Three styles in looting India, History and Anthropology, 6(4), pp 293–317, {{doi|10.1080/02757206.1994.9960832}}</ref> The raids did not establish or extend permanent boundaries of their Islamic kingdoms. The Ghurid Sultan [[Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad]] began a systematic war of expansion into [[North India]] in 1173.<ref>Muhammad B. Sam Mu'izz Al-Din, T. W. Haig, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. VII, ed. C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs and C. Pellat, (Brill, 1993)</ref> He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world,<ref name=pj03/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bosworth |first1=C. E. |author-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor-last1=Boyle |editor-first1=J. A. |year=1968 |chapter=The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000–1217) |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-iran/political-and-dynastic-history-of-the-iranian-world-ad-10001217/024AA8933D346C06170E0D72EA6D71A4 |volume=5 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=161–170 |isbn=978-0-521-06936-6}}</ref> and thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref name=pj03>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Jackson (historian) |year=2003 |title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=3–30 |isbn=978-0-521-54329-3}}</ref> Some historians chronicle the Delhi Sultanate from 1192 due to the presence and geographical claims of Mu'izz al-Din in South Asia by that time.<ref>[http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/timelines/southasia_timeline.htm History of South Asia: A Chronological Outline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211053208/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/timelines/southasia_timeline.htm |date=11 December 2013 }} Columbia University (2010)</ref>

The Delhi Sultanate covered varying parts of South Asia and was ruled by a series of dynasties: Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi dynasties. [[Muhammad bin Tughlaq]] came to power in 1325, launched a war of expansion and the Delhi Sultanate reached it largest geographical reach over the South Asian region during his 26-year rule.<ref name=ebmit>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396460/Muhammad-ibn-Tughluq Muḥammad ibn Tughluq] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427052630/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396460/Muhammad-ibn-Tughluq |date=27 April 2015 }} Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects.<ref>Firoz Shah Tughlak, [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924073036737#page/n393/mode/2up Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi – Autobiographical memoirs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019003453/http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924073036737#page/n393/mode/2up |date=19 October 2016 }}, Translated in 1871 by Elliot and Dawson, Volume 3 – The History of India, Cornell University Archives, pp 377–381</ref><ref name=vsoxfordmbt>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Vincent A. |author-link=Vincent Arthur Smith |year=1919 |title=The Oxford History of India |url=https://archive.org/stream/oxfordhistoryofi00smituoft#page/252/mode/1up |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=249–251 |oclc=839048936}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schimmel |first1=Annemarie |author-link=Annemarie Schimmel |year=1980 |title=Islam in the Indian Subcontinent |location=Leiden |publisher=E.J. Brill |pages=20–23 |isbn=978-90-04-06117-0}}</ref>

Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang up in many parts of South Asia during the 14th century.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} In the northeast, the [[Bengal Sultanate]] became independent in 1346 CE. It remained in power through the early 16th century. The state religion of the sultanate was Islam.<ref name="Lewis2011">{{cite book |first=David |last=Lewis |author-link=David Lewis (academic) |title=Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lH40gT7xvYC&pg=PA44 |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=44 |isbn=978-1-139-50257-3 |quote=In 1346 ... what became known as the Bengal Sultanate began and continued for almost two centuries.}}</ref><ref name="Hussain2003">{{cite book |last1=Hussain |first1=Syed Ejaz |year=2003 |title=The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins (A.D. 1205–1576) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qFyd95ECLwkC |publisher=Manohar |page=325 |isbn=978-81-7304-482-3 |quote=The rulers of the Sultanate Bengal are often blamed for promoting Islam as state sponsored religion.}}</ref> In [[South India]], the Hindu [[Vijayanagara Empire]] came to power in 1336 and persisted until the middle of the 16th century. It was ultimately defeated and destroyed by an alliance of Muslim [[Deccan sultanates]] at the [[battle of Talikota]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kulke |first1=Hermann |author-link1=Hermann Kulke |last2=Rothermund |first2=Dietmar |author-link2=Dietmar Rothermund |title= A History of India |year=2004 |orig-year=First published 1986 |edition=4th |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-0-415-32919-4 |pages=187, 191–192}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Nilakanta Sastri|first= K. A.|title= A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar|year=1955|orig-year=reissued 2002|publisher= Indian Branch, Oxford University Press|location= New Delhi|isbn= 978-0-19-560686-7|author-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |pages=216, 239–250}}</ref>

About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the Mughal [[Babur]] and invited him to attack Delhi Sultanate. [[Babur]] defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in the [[Battle of Panipat (1526)|Battle of Panipat]] in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and the [[Mughal Empire]] replaced it.<ref name=eblodi>
[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/345985/Lodi-dynasty#ref222519 Lodi Dynasty] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427010347/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/345985/Lodi-dynasty#ref222519 |date=27 April 2015 }} ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2009)</ref>