Free download Fatehnama Sindh urf Chach Nama / فتح نامہ سندھ عرف چچ نامہ
The multi-genre Persian text Chachnama (also known as the Fatehnama Sindh as well as Takrekh-Hind wa Sindh) was written by one of Qazi Ismail’s ancestors. Qazi Ismail bin Ali a resident of Bhakkar (the fort midstream between Sukkur and Rohri) was the tutor of Ali bin Mohammad Kufi a resident of Uch Sharif who translated the book into Persian from Arabic in 1226. The English translation of the book was done by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg in 1900. The name of the book was taken from Raja Chach of Sindh who was the father of Raja Dahar.
Sindh Adabi Board took initiative to make available the book in local languages and Nabi Bakhs Khan Baloch not only translated the Persian text to Sindhi but also researched using various other sources of Sindh's conquest by Muhammed Bin Qasim for authenticity of the text. It was translated into Urdu from the Sindhi edition by Akhter Rizvi. Fatehnama Sindh urf Chach Nama / فتح نامہ سندھ عرف چچ نامہ
how can i read ... Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch Book: Fatehnama Sindh urf Chach Nama
Author: Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (Compiler), Akhter Rizvi (Translator)
Publisher: Sindhi Adabi Board, Jamshoro
Language: English
Paperback: 378 pages
Item Weight: 357 g
Dimensions: 11.26 x 1.50 x 21.82 cm
Price: 650/-
Why should you read this book?
For three fundamental reasons –
1) Muslims in India and elsewhere have been led to believe by the mullahs and Muslim historians that the take-over of India by Islam started with the invasion of Sindh by Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 AD, was resumed by Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1000 AD, and completed by Muhammad Ghuri when he defeated the Chauhans of Ajmer and the Gahadvads of Kanauj in the last decade of the 12th century.
2) Muslims of India especially, have been persuaded to look back with conceit on those six centuries, if not more, when India was ruled by Muslim emperors. In this make-belief, the British rulers are treated as provisional interlopers who cheated Islam of its Indian empire for a hundred years. So also the 'Hindu Banias', who succeeded the British in 1947 AD. Muslims are criticized every day, in every mosque and madrasah, not to rest till they reconquer the rest of India which, they are told, lawfully belongs to Islam.
3) The academic historians also agree that India was ruled by Muslim monarchs from the last decade of the 12th century to the end of the 18th . The typical textbooks of history, consequently, recount medieval Indian history in terms of several Muslim imperial dynasties ruling from Delhi - the Mamluks (Slaves), the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Sayyids, the Lodis, the Surs, the Mughals. The regional Muslim dynasties with their seats at Srinagar, Lahore, Multan, Thatta, Ahmedabad, Mandu, Burhanpur, Daulatabad, Gulbarga, Bidar, Golconda, Bijapur, Madurai, Gaur, Jaunpur, and Lucknow fill the gaps during periods of imperial decline.
You’d get an appropriate outlook to all the aforementioned points in The Chachnãma
What is the backdrop?
*Well, India before the arrival of Islamic imperialism was not precisely a zone of peace. There were abundance of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honoured principles sanctioned by the Sãstras.
*The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were never molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered.
*War booty was an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The martial classes, who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a convention of honour. Sacrifice of honour for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.
*Islamic imperialism came with a different code - the Sunnah of the Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the powerless civil population after a crucial victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled.
*The cows, the Brahmins, and the Bhikshus invited their particular consideration in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the plunder looted even from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a military mission.
And they did all this as mujãhids (holy warriors) and ghãzîs (kãfir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.
The Chachnãma, the story of Chach, the Brahmin ruler of Sind, and his kingdom's later conquest by Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 CE, the most famed Muslim history of the Arab conquest of Sindh, describes graphically what Muhammad bin Qasim did after that 'accursed Dahir' had been 'despatched' while defending the fort of Rawar.
'Muhammad took the fort and stayed there for two or three days.
He put six thousand fighting men, who were in the fort, to the sword and shot some (more) with arrows.
The other dependents were taken prisoner with their wives and children.
When the number of prisoners was calculated, it was found to amount to thirty thousand persons amongst whom thirty were the daughters of the chiefs, and one of them was Rãî Dãhir's sister's daughter whose name was Jaisiya.
They were sent to Hajjãj. The head of Dãhir and the fifth part of prisoners were forwarded in charge of K'ab, son of Maharak.
How did Hajjãj react towards these helpless people from Sindh?
The Chachnãma continues:
'When the head of Dãhir, the women and the property all reached Hajjãj, he prostrated himself before Allah, offered thanks-giving and praises' Hajjãj then forwarded the head, the umbrellas, and wealth, and prisoners to Walîd the Khalifa.'
The behaviour of the Amîr-ul-mu'minîn, (commander of the faithful) was also true to type.
The Chachnãma relates,
'When the Khalifa of the time had read the letter (of Hajjãj), he praised Allah the great. He sold some of those daughters of the chiefs, and some he granted as rewards.
When he saw the daughter of Rãî Dãhir's sister he was much struck with her beauty and charms, and began to bite his finger with astonishment.
Abdullah bin Abbãs desired to take her, but the Khalifa said: 'O my nephew! I exceptionally approve of this girl and am so enamoured of her, that I wish to keep her for myself. However, it is better that you take her to be the mother of your children'.
Meanwhile, Muhammad bin Qasim had been conspiring with some merchants of Brahmanabad and promising protection to the common people, provided they committed sedition and threw open the gates of the fort in the thick of the fight. He had some doubts whether he had done the right thing.
He referred the matter to Hajjãj in a letter which was sent post haste.
According to Chachnãma, Hajjãj replied as follows: 'O my cousin! I received your life-inspiring letter. I learnt that the ways and rules you follow are confirmable to the Law (of Islam), except that you give protection to all, great and small, and make no distinction between enemy and friend.
Allah says - Give no quarter to infidels but cut their throats. Then know that this is the command of Allah the great. You should not be too ready to grant protection, because it will prolong your work. After this, give no quarter to any enemy except to those who are of rank.
This is a valuable resolve, and want of dignity will not be imputed to you.'
So Muhammad bin Qasim carried out the command of Allah conveyed to him by Hajjãj.
The Chachnãma carries the story forward after the fall of Brahmanabad:
'When the plunder and the prisoners of war were brought before Qãsim and enquiries were made about every captive, it was found that Lãdî, the wife of Dãhir, was in the fort with two daughters of his by other wives.
Veils were put on their faces and they were delivered to a servant to keep them apart. One fifth of all the prisoners were chosen and set aside: they were counted as amounting to twenty thousand in number, and the rest were given to the soldiers. He sat on the seat of cruelty, and put all those who had fought to the sword. It is said that about six thousand fighting men were slain, but according to some, sixteen thousand were killed.'
After 'peace' had thus been restored, the conqueror took the next step.
The Chachnãma records: 'Muhammad bin Qãsim fixed a tax upon all subjects according to the laws of the Prophet.
Those who embraced Islam were exempted from slavery, the tribute and poll-tax, and from those who did not change their creed a tax was exacted according to three grades.'
Then followed the privilege reserved for every Muslim, conqueror or convert.
According to the Chachnãma:
'As the commander of the faithful, Umar, son of Khattãb, had ordered respecting the people of Shãm (Syria), so did Muhammad bin Qãsim also make a rule that every (Muslim) guest should be entertained (in Hindu homes) for one day and night, but if he fell sick then for three days and nights.'
Another massacre followed at Askalanda which was surrendered by the common people after the Hindu commandant had fled: 'He went into the fort, killed four thousand fighting men with his bloody sword and sent their families into slavery.'
And Multan: 'Six thousand warriors were put to death, and all their relations and dependents were taken as slaves.'
The Chachnãma chooses a Brahmin of Multan to proclaim Muhammad bin Qãsim's momentous victory in the following words: 'Heathenism is now at an end, the temples are thrown down, the world has received the light of Islam, and mosques are built instead of idols temples.' The Brahmin was a new convert.
Interestingly, Al Biladuri who died in 892-893 AD wrote another account of the Arab conquest of Sindh. He tells us in his Futûhul-Buldãn: 'We are told that Hajjãj caused a calculation to be made of the sums expanded in fitting out this expedition of Muhammad bin Qãsim, and the riches which resulted from it. He had spent 60 million dirhams and that which had been sent to him amounted to 120 millions dirhams.'
These 120 million dirhams represents only one-fifth of the total loot which was paid into the Caliph's coffers according to a rule laid down by the prophet of Islam. Another four hundred and eighty million dirhams were distributed among Muslim soldiers in the field.
Again, this total of 600 million dirhams does not include the sale proceeds of nearly two hundred thousand Hindu men, women and children who were taken prisoners and put to auction all over the world of Islam at that time.
India, the golden dove was thus plundered and raped!
Read this book and persuade others to read it as well.
Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch kudus to the compiler of this current version that I somehow finished this book. The first good 80 pages contain warnings about how a badly written history book you are about to read. then start the original text by Ali kufi, where in the first paragraph of about 12 lines, contain titles of the then ruler, to whom Ali kufi wanted to gift this translation. it seemed funny like he has written almost every title at his disposal. this may give a picture of what lies ahead. The last 100 pages contain explanations and corrections of this text which was worth reading and got two stars from me.
I, in no way, am rebutting the historical importance of this text but won't recommend it for general reading because most of them would leave this book without reading the last portion. or even if you are reading it you should be prepared that it is a highly fantasized version of history. now worry compiler of this book will do this preparation way better for you. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch