Prince Jaisiah Trounces Arab Attacks On Sindh; Hajjaj Vows Revenge

During the reign of the first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufiyan (661–680 A.D.), there were as many as six Arab raids on Kikan, a frontier province of Sindh. Muawiyah was driven by a zeal for political expansion and although, his reign was focused on territorial expansion in Byzantine territories, he was nevertheless determined to conquer Sindh. The three preceding Rashidun Caliphs had made several attempts to dominate Sindh but had failed to make any impact. Each of these attacks had been repulsed by the brave and powerful Raja Chach Rai of Sindh and the robust Meds and Jats of Kikan. With each passing failure of the Arab armies in conquering Sindh, the anxiousness of the succeeding Caliphs of somehow “wanting to add a prized feather to his crown that his predecessor was unable to acquire” seemed to grow as they “revived the plans to conquer Sind.” [Echoes Among Ruins: Revisiting The Brahmin Dynasty Of Ancient Sind, P 106 — Vinay Mehta]

Muawiyah was the fourth Caliph to send Arab armies to Sindh repeatedly, but unfortunately for him too, each of the six expeditions failed, barring the last one, in which the Arabs managed to subdue Makran in 680 A.D. Thus, after nearly fifty years of relentless attacks, all that the world-conquering Arabs managed to gain was a tiny principality of Sindh.

It was nearly twenty-eight years before the Arabs could think of raiding Sindh again. The second Umayyad Caliph, Abd Al Malik ibn Marwan (685–705 A.D.) appointed a ruthless and over-zealous loyalist Al Hajjaj ibn Yusuf as governor of Iraq in 695 A.D. Driven by his expansionist zeal to win over Sindh, “a country which had so long defied the might of Islam,” [The History And Culture Of The Indian People: Vol. 3 — The Classical Age, P 170 — R. C. Majumdar] for the Islamic Caliphate, an aggressive Hajjaj resumed hostilities with Sindh over an incidental pirate attack on a Sri Lankan ship carrying gifts, slaves and some Muslim women for the Caliph in 708 A.D. He secured “permission to declare a religious war against Hind and Sind” [The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 69 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg] from the succeeding Caliph Al Walid ibn Abd Al Malik (705–715 A.D.), and despatched an expedition to attack the flourishing coastal town of Debal near present day Karachi under the leadership of Ubaidullah.

While the lore of the pirate attack on the Sri Lankan ship off the coast of Debal has been popularised by Islamic, and subsequently leftist historians as the raison d’etre for Al Hajjaj’s hostility and attack over Sindh, this theory does not hold much water as the same Arabs had been making desperate attempts to somehow conquer Sindh for over half a century. The motives behind Hajjaj’s attack were no different from the earlier attacks, viz. religious and imperialist expansion of the Islamic Arab Caliphate. In addition to the insatiable greed for world domination by Arab Islamists, the other, more pragmatic and shrewd motive behind the Arab imperialist advances on Sindh was to open up shorter, in-land access to China to promote Arab commercial interests.

Sindh was ruled by Raja Dahir at the time, son of the mighty king Raja Chach Rai. Raja Dahir was a brave, honourable and magnanimous ruler and “the fame of his sovereignty spread throughout the length and breadth of the world, and his rule was firmly fixed in the country of Hind and Sind.” [The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 55 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg]

When Ubaidullah attacked the port city of Debal, he was killed in battle by Raja Dahir’s troops in Debal and the Arab army was severely routed. The news of the Arab army’s failure and Ubaidullah’s killing further heightened Hajjaj’s desperation to capture Sindh. He commanded Budail to attack Debal with an army of 6000 Arab soldiers. Budail received further reinforcements of 3000 Arab soldiers from Mohammed Haroon at Nerun. However, despite such a large army, the Arab attack on Debal was decisively trounced by the brave Prince Jaisiah, son of Raja Dahir, and his 4000 strong troops in a long, hard battle. Prince Jaisiah used his elephants effectively in battle to frustrate the Arabs, and as the battle raged, Budail’s horse was frightened of the elephants and ended up throwing him off its back. Budail was surrounded on all sides by Jaisiah’s brave soldiers and was killed in the battlefield. [The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 69 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg] The Arab army suffered a crushing defeat as Prince Jaisiah valiantly defended Debal and Sindh.

Hajjaj Vows Revenge And Sends Muhammad Bin Kasim To Invade Sindh

Despite the orders of the Caliph to abandon the idea of attacking Sindh again, Al Hajjaj could not come to terms with the indignity of the agonizing defeat of the Arabs. Humiliated and overcome with grief by the death of his favourite Budail, Hajjaj vowed to avenge his death. He wrote back to Caliph Al Walid exhorting him to avenge the Arab defeat at the hands of the ‘infidels’ of Sindh and insisted that he had the required number of men and arms for the expedition. The Caliph eventually relented to the persistent appeals of Hajjaj and granted permission for another expedition to Sindh.

Al Hajjaj made elaborate preparations for the next attack on Sindh attending to the smallest details. He delegated his nephew and son-in-law, Muhammad bin Kasim as the commander of a well-organised Arab army and equipped him with soldiers, arms and ammunition on a large scale. In addition, he asked the Caliph for 6000 battle-hardened Syrian warriors to accompany Muhammad bin Kasim. Hajjaj wrote a letter to the Caliph, “directing that 6000 men out of the descendants of the Chiefs of Syria should join him — men who had both their parents living — who for the sake of their name and fame, were likely to give a good account of themselves when the actual fighting took place, and who were likely to prove loyal to Muhammad Kasim.” [The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 72 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg] Besides these 6000 battle-hardened Syrian cavalry men, Hajjaj ordered another 6000 fully armed camel riders along with a retinue of 3000 Bactrian camels. He further ordered reinforcements to join Muhammad bin Kasim’s army at Makran.

Hajjaj was so consumed by the desire for revenge that his parting words to Muhammad bin Kasim were, “owing to excessive grief consequent on my separation from Bazil (Budail), every moment, the ear of my mind catches a cry (for revenge), and I give a ready response to it. I swear by God that I am determined to spend the wealth of the whole of Iraq, that is in my possession, on this expedition and the flame of my fire will never go down until I take this revenge (of Budail’s death), and remove the blot from my name.” [The Chachnama: Volume 1 (1900), P 72–73 — Translated from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg] With these words Hajjaj sent off Muhammad bin Kasim to carry out the holy war or jihad on Hind and Sind in 711 A.D.