the islamic sultanates

After the Arab-Turkic invasion of India's ancient northern neighbor Persia, expanding forces in that area were keen to invade India, which was the richest classical civilization, with the only known diamond mines in the world.

After resistance for a few centuries by various north Indian kingdoms, short lived Islamic empires invaded and spread across the northern subcontinent over a period of a few centuries.

Prior to Turkic invasions, Muslim trading communities flourished throughout coastal South India, particularly in Kerala, where they arrived in small numbers through trade links via the Indian Ocean with the Arabian peninsula, however, this marked the large-scale introduction of western religion into the primarily dharmic culture of India, often in puritanical form.

Delhi sultanate

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Arabs, Turks and Afghans invaded parts of northern India and established the Delhi Sultanate at the beginning of the 13th century, from former Rajput holdings. The subsequent Slave dynasty of Delhi managed to conquer large areas of northern India, approximate to the ancient extent of the Guptas, while the Khilji Empire was also able to conquer most of central India, but were ultimately unsuccessful in conquering most of the subcontinent.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of India".