1. Rule
     Persecution of Hindus    Records of cruelty  

2. Islamization of Kashmir

3. References

Rule

Persecution of Hindus

He is remembered by Hindus for perpetrating hardship upon his non-Muslim subjects in a bid to make them convert to Islam. It was under the influence of the Sufi saint, Mir Mohammad Hamadani, that he committed atrocities against non-Muslims in his lands. Large numbers of Hindus converted, fled, or were killed for refusal to convert during his reign.^[3]

Sikandar won the sobriquet of but-shikan or idol-breaker, due to his actions related to the desecration and destruction of numerous temples, chaityas, viharas, shrines, hermitages, and other holy places of the Hindus and Buddhists. He banned dance, drama, music, iconography and such other religious, cultural or aesthetic activities of the Hindus and Buddhists, and classified them as heretical and un-Islamic. He forbade the Hindus to apply a tilak mark on their foreheads. He did not permit them to pray and worship, blow a conch shell or even to toll a bell.So unspeakable was Sikandar's tyranny that he even stopped Hindus and Buddhists from cremating their dead and compelled them to bury the bodies using Muslim rituals. He imposed the Jizya, a poll-tax to be paid by non-Muslims living as subjects in a Muslim state, and the levy was a heavy one: each non-Muslim was required to pay an annual tax of four tolas of silver. ^[2]

Records of cruelty

Records Baharistan-i-Shahi: {{cquote|Immediately after his (Sufi Mir Mohammad's) arrival, Sultan Sikandar, peace be on him, submitted to his supremacy and proved his loyalty to him by translating his words into deeds. He eradicated aberrant practices and infidelity. He also put an end to the various forbidden and unlawful practices throughout his kingdom. Thus during the entire period of his rule, all traces of wines and intoxicants and instruments of vice and corruption, like the cord of canticle, lyre, and tambourine were wiped out. The clamor of the drum and the trumpet, the shrill notes of the fife and the clarion no longer reached people's ears, except in battles and assaults.}}

"Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and were massacred in case they refused to be converted'," writes Hasan, a Muslim chronicler. He further observes, "And Sikandarpora (a city laid out by Sultan Sikandar) was laid out on the debris of the destroyed temples of the Hindus. In the neighbourhood of the royal palaces in Sikandarpora, the Sultan destroyed the temples of Maha-Shri built by Praversena and another by Tarapida. The material from these was used for constructing a 'Jami' mosque in the middle of the city."

"Towards the far end of his life, he (Sultan Sikandar) was infused with a zeal for demolishing idol-houses, destroying the temples and idols of the infidels. He destroyed the massive temple at Beejbehara. He had designs to destroy all the temples and put an end to the entire community of infidels," puts Bharistan-i-Shahi.

In his second Rajtarangini, the historian Jonraj has recorded, "There was no city, no town, no village, no wood, where the temples of the gods were unbroken. When Sureshavari, varaha, and others were broken, the world trembled, but not so the mind of the wicked king. He forgot his kingly duties and took delight day and night in breaking images."

Writes historian Ajit Bhattacharjee, "Sikandar (1389–1413) equaled the most blood-thirsty and iconoclastic Muslim conquerors anywhere in his zeal to obliterate all traces of the Hindu religion and convert its followers to Islam on pain of death. Temples were leveled and some of the grandest monuments of old damaged and disfigured. Thousands of Hindus escaped across the borders of Kashmir, others were massacred." He further records, "Hindu temples were felled to the ground and for one year a large establishment was maintained for the demolition of the grand Martand temple. But when the massive masonry resisted all efforts, the fire was applied and the noble buildings cruelly defaced." According to M.Mujeeb, Sikandar, the iconoclast of Kashmir, made forcible conversions a sustained political policy.

To quote Firishta, "Many of the Brahmans rather than abandon their religion or their country poisoned themselves, some emigrated from their homes while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Mohamadans."

Puts A.K. Mujumdar, "These Sufi Muslim immigrants brought with them that zeal which distinguished Islam in other parts of India, but from which Kashmir was happily free up to this time." He further records, "Sikandar's reign was disgraced by a series of acts, inspired by religious bigotry and iconoclastic zeal for which there is hardly any parallel in the annals of the Muslim rulers of Kashmir."^[4]

Islamization of Kashmir

During the Shah Miri dynasty, Islam was firmly established in Kashmir and his rule has been considered controversial by some due to his rigid policies in Kashmir. In consonance with the customs in Delhi and elsewhere, Sikandar created the office of Sheikh-ul-Islam and more important, decided that the Islamic law should be valid instead of the traditional law. But, as in other places, that may have been restricted mainly to the personal law.

It was during Sikander's reign that a wave of Sufi saints headed by Mir Muhammad Hamadani (1372–1450) arrived in Kashmir in 1393. It is possibly under Hamadani's influence that Sultan Sikandar implemented an orthodox religious policy. The selling of wine, dancing of women, music and gambling were prohibited. The non-Mulsims had to pay jizya, and were forbidden to display religious symbols like wearing tilak. The Kashmiri chronicler Jonaraja writes:

He [Sikander] prohibited all types of frugal games. Nobody dared commit acts which were prohibited by the Sharia. The Sultãn was constantly busy in annihilating Hindus and destroyed most of the temples.^[6]

He strived to destroy the idols of the infidels. He demolished the famous temple of Mahãdeva at Bahrãre. The temple was dug out from its foundations and the hole (that remained) reached the water level. Another temple at Jagdar was also demolished. Rãjã Alamãdat had got a big temple constructed at Sinpur. (...) The temple was destroyed [by Sikander].^[7] Sikander burnt all books the same wise as fire burns hay. All the scintillating works faced destruction in the same manner that lotus flowers face with the onset of frosty winter."^[8]}}

References

• Nakhon Sawan FC
• Nakhon Sawan Stadium
• Nakhon Sithammarat
• Nakhon Si Thammarat FC
• Nakhon Si Thammarat F.C.
• Nakhon Si Thammarat kingdom
• Nakhon si thammarat kingdom
• Nakhon si thammarat mountain range
• Nakhon Sri Thammarat FC
• Nak Hoon Lee
• Nak-hoon Lee
• Nakhorn Ratchasima
• Na Kho Ruea
• Nakh Peoples
• Nakhshon Waxman
• Nakhtmin
• Nakhtneith
• Nakhtpaaten
• Nakhtubasterau
• Nak-hun Lee
• Nakh–Dagestanian
• Nakh–Dagestanian languages
• Nakh–Daghestanian languages
• Naki
• Nakia