ABSTRACT
Several extraneous factors influenced the trajectory of South Asia’s history during this period. The rise of Islam in Arabia had repercussions on the western periphery of the subcontinent. Later, the breakdown of the Caliphate and the internecine struggles among the post-Caliphate states in Central Asia indirectly resulted in the expansion of Islam in the subcontinent. Finally, the Mongol storm that burst over Eurasia had serious ramifications on the South Asian scene. So, the history of India cannot be delinked from what was going on in Afghanistan and in Central and West Asia. Overall, this period witnessed the transition from slave armies to land-grant-based cavalry forces. This period witnessed the mounted nomadic warriors from Arabia and Central Asia gradually settling down and establishing quasi-bureaucratic polities in the sedentary societies. Now let us glance back at South Asia after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
