The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-01
SOME. NEW hooks.
Ncd!evai India.

} tory OF India in vedic. Brahmanic ano
Buddhistic times and under the Brahmanit
Renaissance, and. while their conclusions
have been made known to the general
reader. comparatively few efforts have been
made TO make persons not oonversant with
the Persian and Hindustani languages
acquainted with that important epoch oil
Indian civilization which begins with the
first Mohammecnn Invasion and ends with
the conversion Of the Mogul Emperors into
vassals OF the British East India Company
or course. this epoch receives due consid-
Grafton in James Mills history Of India,
and also In Elphinstones history. but those
works. for various reasons, nave never
been widely read. We have reason. there
fore. TO welcome the latest contribution 70
THE Story Of the Nations series. Aedi1pd1
India Under Mohammeddn Rule: A. d.
7I2-,7o4 by STANLEY LASE-PooLH put
name. The author points out In preface
that, while the medieval period OF Indian
history does not exactly correspond with
tho Middle Age OF Europe-it begins later
and ends later-i, Is no less clearly defined.
1t begins when the immemortal customs
and political. social and religious systems
of ancient India were superseded or modi-
fed by a succession Of foreign oonquerors.
who imposed a new rule and introduced an
exotic creed. strange languages and Tor
eign art. These conquerors were moslems'
and, although the Arabs, who entered India
AZ early as A. d. 7I2, made no impression
outside of Sind. and even there have lett
scarcely vestise OF their presence, yet,
with the arrival Of the Turks under Mahmud
Of Ghazni. at the beginning Of the eleventh
century, India entered definitely upon her
Middle Age. From that date for nearly
eight hundred years her history 10 grouped
around the Mohammedan rulers, who grad
ually brought under their control nearly
the whole country from the Himalayas 70
the Krishna River. The period ends when
one Of the last of these rulers, dreading
revival OF Hindoo ascendency. placed HIM
elf under English protection Then II
was, namely, in 1894, that modern India
came into being.
The author does not omit 10 offer the
preliminary caution that, under the MO-
hammedan rulers. the ancient Indian civil
lizaton suffered change much less pro-
found than tia which the Roman civiliza-
tion underwent in Western and Southern
EUROPE at the hands OF the s0-called bar
barians. The traditions Of ancient India
were too deeply rooted 10 wither, even un-
der the storm OF Moslem conquest and the
influence Of age-long Moslem domination.
On the contrary. the old Indian life sur
vived the shock OF the new ideas, which II
modified at least az much az II was Itself
modified by them, it outlived the Moslem
period. and still endures. but little altered.
in the modern age Of English sscendency.
II never really assimilated the foreigners.
however, any more than II was revolu-
tionized by them. Despite the efforts OF
few wide seeing men. like the Emperor
-Akbar, no true or permanent union. except
occasionally among individuals OF the
Official and ruling classes, ever took place
between the Moslems and the Hindoos.
The temporarily ascendant races. whether
Turks, Persians, Afghans or Moguls. re
mAined essentially an army OF occupation
among O hostile. or at least. repeHent'
population, II follows that the history
Of the Mohamrnedan period In necessarily
Q chronicle Of kings, and courts. and oon-
quests, rather than OF organic or national
growth. The vast majority Of tho people
he'd no history. because they exhibited no
deyelopment There has not even been
any such marked change in the principles
and methods OF government as might be
sxpected from the clinical diversity OF
successive rulers. English Collector Mag
istrates follow to-day much the safne sys-
ten, In essontial outlines. az that which
Akbsr adopted from his Hintoo Chancellor,
and many executive details and most OF
the priucir,eS Of local administration have
probably their origin in prehistoric Gus
toms, In tho character and life OF the
rulers, however. there In infinite variety.
Such contrsstFd individualdies as thoss
OF Ala lad din. Mohsumed Taghlak. Babar,
Akbar and Aursngzib may rival in respect
o. distinctuess and interest those OF any
portrait gallery that could he collected
I'm Europe during the same four centuries.
The story OF the Mohammsdan invasions
Of India that took place between 7i2 and
1909 Of our era IL condensed In less than
sixty pages Of the book before N. When
our author says that there Ia now no trace
Of direct Arabic influence in India, he does
not mean. OF course. to Assert that the
peninsula was unknown to the Arabs. or
that they made no effort to effect q lodg-
ment in II. To the sea-faring traders OF the
Arabian coasts the ports Of Western India
haf i,een familiar from times preceding the
Christian era. Then and afterward Arab
merchants sailed from siraf and Hurmus
(Ormuz, on the Persian Gulf. coastinG along
Tin they came 20 the mouth Of the Indus,
and thence on to sspera and Cambay; or
they even struck boldly across from their
harbors AT Kalhat and kurayyst In Oman
A ~ AalahAr