686 migration and population movements: The Islamic World Eastward by Sea The adoption of Islam by the Arab merchants who plied the waters along the southern coast of Asia seems to have occurred quickly, and these merchants spread their faith where they traveled They established colonies on the coast of India, took up residence as merchants in Sri Lanka, and established colonies on the Malay Peninsula, in China, and in Indonesia Muslim merchants sailed to trading posts along the west coast of India and followed sea-lanes south of Sri Lanka, between Malaysia and Sumatra, then north to Southeast Asia, and then to ports in China They had colonies in Beijing, near Shanghai, and at Guangzhou They carried with them Muslim missionaries who managed to convert some Sumatrans in the late 13th century and much of southern Malaysia and part of Java in the 15th century In China they lived in special towns that the Chinese set aside for them In these towns lived immigrants from many lands, most of whom worked in shipping The Muslims were allowed to enforce their own laws, except in disputes involving people outside their own faith, when Chinese judges would impose Chinese law to settle matters Central Asia During their first great expansion of territory during the 660s in central Asia, Muslims came up against tough, warlike peoples who tended to be lumped together under the term Turks In 652 the Muslim army advanced into Balkh in Sughd and then to the fabled city of Samarqand, a key way station on the ancient Silk Road In 713 they subdued some nomadic tribes and pressed against the western edge of Tang China’s dominion, soon ending China’s domination of the trade routes through central Asia Two momentous events arose from the invasions of central Asia One was the conversion to Islam of many Turkish cultures and the eventual rise of the Seljuk Turks, who would eventually dominate much of the Near East The other was the attack of the Mongols during the 13th century, triggering a massive internal migration in the Islamic world Seljuk soldiers served in armies through much of the Near East, beginning the spread of their people and culture Eventually they formed their own army, and in 1038 their leader, Tughrul Beg (ca 990–1063), proclaimed himself the champion of both Sunni Islam and the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad This proclamation was an important symbolic act because the champion of the faith was often the military ruler of Islam Although the caliph was Sunni, Baghdad was under control of Shiites The Seljuk army drove out the Shia army, and the caliph declared Tughrul Beg sultan—officially the military ruler In 1040 the Seljuk Turks invaded Iran, eventu- ally overthrowing the Ghaznavid Dynasty In 1071 a Seljuk army defeated a Byzantine army and forced most of Anatolia to acknowledge Seljuk authority, although the land remained Christian The Seljuks formed a vigorous culture out of Turks, Arabs, and Iranians In 1220 the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan (ca 1162–1227) attacked central Asia They drove deep into the Near East Cities and towns that resisted the Mongols were put to the sword—every child and grownup After a pause following Genghis Khan’s death, an army of his grandson Hülegü (ca 1217–65) sacked Baghdad and killed the caliph, ending the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people fled the invasions of the Mongols, either before the arrival of the Mongol armies or after the armies devastated the land The economy of central Asia and the northern and eastern Near East was ruined Refugees included not only Muslims but also Christians, Jews, and some of those Turks who still followed their old religions Egypt, which in a desperate battle in 1260 managed barely to stave off the Mongol invasion, became the destination for many refugees Others fled into Europe They brought with them some of the finest craftspeople of the age, contributing to a flowering of arts, crafts, and economy in the empire of the Mamluks India By 713 the Arab armies had conquered the land of Sind, to and just beyond the Indus River, seizing the valley that may have been the birthplace of Indian civilization Then there was a poignant pause of about 300 years, during which the kingdoms of northern India and the Islamic empires to the northwest existed mostly in peace During that period Buddhists, who had once been numerous in Sind, almost disappeared there, not from persecution but from peaceful conversion to Islam In what is now Afghanistan, Hindus and pagans clung longer to their faiths In the lands ruled by Hindus, Islam made headway through the preaching of Muslim missionaries Islam had an appeal similar to the appeal that Buddhism had had several hundred years earlier Buddhism did not recognize caste distinctions The Muslims offered Indians a faith in which all people were equal before God Neither king nor general was spiritually superior to any commoner Discrimination on the basis of caste did not exist; all were allowed to worship equally in mosques, and all were allowed to know all of the sacred texts In the Hindu caste system access to holy books was denied to low-caste members Thus, when Muslim armies invaded the lands east of the Indus River, there were already communities of Muslims in northern India The invasions changed attitudes markedly, from acceptance of Muslims to outright hatred and a deter-