Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/23

 know little of their history. Like the Indo-Armcnians1, they never multiplied to any extent or coalesced with the Hindu population, but they well deserve notice for their busy active habits, in which they emulate Europeans.

Then came the Muhammadans (Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Moguls, and Persians), who entered India at different times2. Though they

1 The Armenians of India hold a position like that of the I'arsls, but their numbers are less (about five thousand), and they are more stuttered, and keep up more communication with their native country. There are often fresh arrivals; but some have been in India for centuries, and are (lark in complexion. They are frequently merchants and bankers, and being Christian, generally adopt the European dress. They may be called the Jews of the Eastern Church: for, though scattered, they hang together and support euch other. At Calcutta they have a large church and grammar-school. Their sacred books are written in ancient Armenian. Of the two modern dialects, that spoken S.E. of Ararat by the Persi- Armenians prevails among the Indo-Armenians.

2 Muhammad's successors, after occupying Damascus for about one hundred years, fixed their capital at Baghdad in 750, and thence their power extended into Afghanistan. The Arabs, however, never obtained more than a temporary footing in India. Under the Khallf Walid I, in 711, Muhammad Kasim was sent at the head of an army into Siude, but the Muslims were expelled in 750; and for two centuries and a half India was left unmolested by invaders from the west. About the year 950, when the power of the Arabs began to decline in Asia, hardy tribes of Tartars, known by the name of Turks (not the Ottoman tribe which afterwards gained a footing in Europe, but hordes from the Altai mountains), were employed by the Khalffs to infuse vigour into their effeminate armies. These tribes became Muhammadans, and gradually took the power into their own hands. In the province of Afghanistan, Sabaktagin, once a mere Turkish slave, usurped the government. His son Mahmud founded an empire at Ghazm in Afghanistan, and made his first of thirteen incursions into India in the year 1000. During the thirteenth century the Mongol or Mogul hordes, under the celebrated Janglz Khan, overthrew the Turkish or Tartar tribes; and in 1398 Timur, uniting Tartars and Mongols into one army, made his well-known invasion of India, After desolating the country he retired, but the sixth in descent from him, Baber (BaJbar), conquered Afghanistan, aud thence invading India about 1526, founded the Mogul empire, which his grandson Akbar (son of Humayun) established on a firm basis iu 1556; a very remarkable man, Shir Shah Sur, having previously usurped the empire of Hindustan, and raised it to great prosperity. The power of the Moguls, which rapidly increased under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shahjahan, until it culminated under Auraugzib, began to decline under Shah 'Alam (Bahadur Shah), Jahandar Shah, and Farrukh-siyar; and under Muhammad Shah, the fourth from Aurangzlb, took place the Persian invasion of Afghanistan and thence of India, undertaken by Nadir Shah (a.d. 1738) to avenge on the Afghans their inroads into Persia. Hence it appears that in all cases the Muhammadan invaders of India came through Afghanistan, and generally settled there before proceeding to conquer the Hindus. On this account, and from the proximity of Afghanistan, it has followed that the greater number of Muhammadan immigrants have been of Afghan blood.