page_title: Bengali Muslims
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Bengali Muslims / Culture
caption_attribution_description: বাংলা: ১৯৫৫ সালের শীতকালে কার্জন হলে সারোদ বাজাচ্ছেন ওস্তাদ আলাউদ্দিন খান, সঙ্গে সেতারে ওস্তাদ খাদেম হোসেন খান। English: Winter 1955. Ustad Alauddin Khan playing sharod in Karjon hall, accompanied by Ustad Khadem Hossain Khan playing setar.
context_page_description: Bengali Muslims are an ethnic, linguistic and religious population who make up the majority of Bangladesh's citizens and the largest minority in the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. They are Bengalis who adhere to Islam and speak the Bengali language. They form the largest Bengali and the second largest Muslim ethnic group in the world.
  Bengal was a leading power of the medieval Islamic East. Europeans traders identified the Bengal Sultanate as "the richest country to trade with". During Emperor Aurangazeb's rule, the Bengal Subah, as the richest region of the Mughal Empire, was described as the Paradise of Nations and its citizens, chiefly Muslims, had the highest standard of living and real wages in the world. Two Bengal viceroys – Muhammad Azam Shah and Azim-us-Shan – assumed the imperial throne. Mughal Bengal became increasingly independent under the Nawabs of Bengal in the 18th century.
  The endogamous Bengali Muslim population emerged as a synthesis of Islamic and Bengali cultures. After the Partition of India in 1947, they comprised the demographic majority of Pakistan until the independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh in 1971.
caption: Ustad Alauddin Khan (centre), one of the greatest maestros of South Asian classical music, performing with his ensemble at Curzon Hall in Dhaka, 1955
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