THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT,
MUHAMMED BIN QASIM AND ‘CHACH-NAMA’ IS SILENT
Facts about the Conqueror of Sind
Let us first see his family tree. MUHAMMED BIN QASIM BIN MUHAMMED BIN HUKAM BIN ABU-AQEEL BIN MASOOD BIN AAMER BIN MUQAB BIN MALIK BIN KAAB BIN UMARO BIN SAAD BIN AUFF BIN TUSI URF SALKEEFI. Interesting tree, when we are told that Muqab bin Malik was the first to accept Islam.
Muhammed bin Qasim’s father was the Amir of Iraq and Basra, and it was there that Muhammed Bin Qasim spent his early days in growing up. The most interesting information is that Muhammed Bin Qasim was very fond of Architecture and Caliph Hajaj had made him Nazim of Buildings of Sheraz. He was truly involved in giving Sheraz a new look of Islamic Architecture. Muhammed Bin Qasim was governing Sheraz and responsible for beautifying it with Islamic Architecture.
Another interesting fact revealed from letters of the Caliph at that time is that the father of Muhammed Bin Qasim was with him in his conquest of Sind. Father accompanied his son in this mission. But the story told in Chach-nama which is the Sindhi version (the popular version of being ordered to put a wet leather skin as reprisal for rape of Raja Dair’s daughters) from ages is totally wrong as it was differently stated by the historian Baladhuri long before the Chach-nama was even written. He says:
“After death of Caliph Waleed , Salman became Caliph. He appointed Salih bin Abdur Rahman as Amir of Iraq and Yazeed bin Abu Qasba as Amir of Sind. Abu Qasba had Muhammed bin Qasim arrested and sent to the custody of Amir Salih in Iraq. There he was imprisoned in jail with other family members, and tortured beyond recognition. Eventually he could not sustain the torture and died in prison”.
A sad end for a worthy man. Interesting there are poems written by Muhammed bin Qasim during his imprisonment and that too provides another insight in his character. The most interesting part is that he left a son Umrao bin Qasim in Sind, who went into hiding, because the people of Sind loved Muhammed bin Qasim and had made a statue of him in the main square of the city. When the reign of these Caliphs was over, people sought Umrao bin Qasim and put him on the throne of Sind. Umrao bin Qasim as sub-ruler served Sind from 105 AH to 120 AH, and as Acting Amir from 120 AH to 122 AH, and ruled Sind as Amir from the year 122 AH to 125 AH, and was most able in doing same. He was also responsible for the laying and beautification of the city of Mansoorah. He even defeated Raja Rai in battle, and won many other battles. But then Caliphs changed again, and Umrao bin Qasim was caught and put in prison and tortured like his father. An fearing an undue death, Umrao bin Qasim committed suicide in prison. It took him two days to die and the Amir questioned why he had done this sorry part as he would not have killed him. But Umrao bin Qasim suspected an unfair treatment and the story of Sind and Qasim came to a tragic end.
The in-fighting in Islam was responsible for death of many of its heroes.
our history is indeed strange and adverse historians twist it even more