How many Muslims live in South Asia?
More than 650 million Muslims live in South Asia, forming roughly one-third of all Muslims worldwide. South Asia holds the largest Muslim population of any region on earth.
Questions about Islam in South Asia
Short answers, pulled from the story.
When did Islam first arrive in South Asia?
Islam first reached the Malabar Coast of present-day Kerala in the early 7th century, carried by Arab traders who sailed to India before the Prophet Muhammad was born around 570 CE. A Muslim ship was documented on the Indian coast as early as 630 CE, according to historians Elliot and Dowson.
What is the oldest mosque in South Asia?
The Barwada Mosque in Ghogha, Gujarat, built before 623 CE, is among the oldest mosques in South Asia. The Cheraman Juma Mosque in Methala, Kerala, dates to 629 CE, and the Palaiya Jumma Palli in Kilakarai, Tamil Nadu, to 630 CE.
Why did Muslim majorities in South Asia form in the northwest and northeast rather than the center?
The sultans and Mughals pursued military expansion rather than systematic conversion, so Muslim populations did not concentrate in the heartlands of Muslim rule. Sufi orders received land grants in West Punjab and East Bengal and became embedded in local agricultural communities. Their proximity to farming life created the conditions for Muslim majorities on the subcontinent's peripheries, a pattern documented by historian Richard M. Eaton.
What was the Faraizi movement in South Asian Islam?
The Faraizi movement was a 19th-century reformist current in rural Bengal that aimed to remove indigenous folk practices from Bengali Islam and commit its followers exclusively to the worship of Allah and Muhammad. It emerged as improved transport brought South Asian Muslims into closer contact with Mecca and the wider Muslim world.
How does India's Muslim population compare to Muslim-majority countries in South Asia?
India's Muslim population stands at 14.12 percent of its total, making it the largest Muslim community in any non-majority Muslim country. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the Maldives are South Asia's Muslim-majority nations. Pakistan divided in 1971, with its eastern portion becoming Bangladesh.