Note 8 — Chapter IX · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA.

But these conquerors would appear to have had very little of that “love for souls” which animates the true missionary and which has achieved such great conquests for Islam. The K͟hiljīs (1290–1320), the Tug͟hlaqs (1320–1412), and the Lodīs (1451–1526) were generally too busily engaged in fighting to pay much regard to the interests of religion, or else thought more of the exaction of tribute than of the work of conversion.8 Not that they were entirely lacking in religious zeal: e.g. the Ghakkars, a barbarous people in the mountainous districts of the North of the Panjāb, who gave the early invaders much trouble, are said to have been converted through the influence of Muḥammad Ghorī at the end of the twelfth century. Their chieftain had been taken prisoner by the Muhammadan monarch, who induced him to become a Musalman, and then confirming him in his title of chief of this tribe, sent him back to convert his followers, many of whom having little religion of their own were easily prevailed upon to embrace Islam.9 According to Ibn Baṭūṭah, the K͟hiljīs offered some encouragement to conversion by making it a custom to have the new convert presented to the sultan, who clad him in a robe of honour and gave him a collar and bracelets of gold, of a value proportionate to his rank.10 But the monarchs of the earlier Muhammadan dynasties as a rule evinced very little proselytising zeal, and it would be hard to find a parallel in their history to the following passage from the autobiography of Fīrūz Shāh Tug͟hlaq (1351–1388): “I encouraged my infidel subjects to embrace the religion of the Prophet, and I proclaimed that every one who repeated the creed and became a Musalman should be exempt from the jizyah, or poll tax. Information of this came to the ears of the people at large and great numbers of Hindus presented themselves, and were admitted to the honour of Islam. Thus they came forward day by day from every quarter, and, adopting the faith, were exonerated from the jizyah, and were favoured with presents and honours.”11