Contemporary Indian Muslim :
(left to Right- from top)1. Abul Kalam,2. Quarratulain Hyder, 3.M.L.Akbar.4.Irfan Haabib, 5.Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, 6.Azim Premji, 7.Zakir Hussain, 8. Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, 9. Santa Mirza, 10.Aamir Khan, 11. Shabana Azmi, 12. Sharukh khan, 13.Saif Ali Khan, 14.Salman Khan, 15.Zakir Naik.
Islam is second-most practiced religion in the Republic of India after Hinduism, with more than 13.4% of the country's population (over 138 million as per 2001 census and 160.9million as per 2009 estimate where as in Pakistan in 1998 census, the total population is 135.8 million) identifying themselves as Muslims.
Indian Muslim Population is the world's third largest and the world's largest Muslim Minority population.
Contrary to popular belief, Islam came to South Asia prior to Muslim invasions in india. islam influence first came to be felt in the early 7th century with advent of Arab traders.Trade relations between Arabia and the sub-continent are very ancient. Arab traders used to visit the Malabarregion, which was a link between themand ports of South East Asia to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia.
According to historians Elliot and Dowsonin their book The History of india as told by its own historians, the first ship bearing Muslim traders was seen on the indian coast as early as 630 A.D. H.G.Rawlinson, in his book Ancient and medieval History of india claims that the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD. Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum's "Tufat-al-Mujahidin " alsoalso is a reliable work.This fact is corroborated by J.Sturrockin his South Kanara and Madras districts Manuals
and also by Haridas bhattacharya in Cultural heritage of ndia , Vol-IV. It was with the advent of islam that the Arabs became a prominent cultural force in the world. the arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went.
The first Indian mosque was built in 629 AD at the behest of Cherman Perumal, who is considered the first Indian muslim, during the lifetime of Muhammad (c.571-632) in Kodungallur, in the district of Thrisur in kerala by malik Bin Deenar. In Malabar, the Mappilas may have been the first community to convert to Islam because they were more closely connected with the Arabs than the others.
In the 8th century the province of Sindhwas conquered by an arab armyled by Muhammad bin Kasim. Sindh became the easternmost province of the Umayyad Caliphate.
In the first half of the 10th century, Mahmud of Gazni added the Punjab to the Ghaznavid Empire and conducted several raids deeper into modern day India. A more successful invasion came came at the end of the 12th century by Muhammad of Gho. This eventually led to the formation of the Delhi Sultanate.
