Part of Gendun Chopel’s purpose in writing Grains of Gold was to bring Tibetans up to date on what had occurred in India since the last Tibetan pilgrims studied there in the thirteenth century, a period that coincided with Muslim raids into northeast India. Much of the subcontinent would eventually come under Muslim rule during the long Mughal Dynasty. To explain this period, Gendun Chopel made a study of Islam, producing the longest description of the religion to appear in Tibetan.171
Now, I will write about the origins and histories of the Muslims who ruled India for a long period in the later times, exactly as they appear in the chronicles, without slipping into even the least criticism stemming from my own personal [feelings]. Now, with respect to them, the Indians call them mleccha, which means “barbarian” or “bandit,” a derogatory name. Their actual name is Musulman and their religion is Islam; some of their later kings who ruled India are called the Mughal kings. The religion of those called Jew or Yehuda, which appeared prior to Jesus, and the system of the Musulmans have the same root. Thus the religions of Jesus and Islam also have the same original source. When slightly modified, it is possible even to combine them with the fundamental views of the Indian Hindus. Thus, latter-day Indian teachers such as Nanak and Ramakrishna combined the three religions [Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam] into one, founding new religions.
All three—Christians, Jews, and Musulmans—say that there is one principal God who is the creator of the entire world of appearance and existence, who controls all happiness and suffering, and that he alone must be held as the object of refuge. The Hindus of India understand Brahman in the same way. However, influenced by Buddhism, they sometimes describe Brahman as something like the expanse of reality (dharmadhātu), thus making it an object of much meditation and analysis for the wise. Given this, if we refer to the God who is their object of refuge with the term “creator,” it is a more convenient description for us, so I will do so. However, the Jews and Christians call him Yahova or Jahova; the Musulmans call him Allah. The nature or idea [of God among them] is the same [despite these different names].
The religion of the Jews is accepted as valid by the Muslims. For example, in the Kālacakra, in the chapter on the elements, a Muslim teacher named Mouse [Mūṣa or “mouse” in Sanskrit] appears before the name of Madhumati [Muhammad]. I think this is the translation of Nabī Mūsā, which is what Muslims call Moses, the first teacher of the Jews. There [in that chapter], when the earlier Muslim teachers are cited, the names ā dra a no gha, “possessor of pigs,” and so on appear [in the Tibetan translation]. These are undoubtedly what appears in the Indian text as Adam, Nogha, Varāhī, and so on; confusing the division between the former and latter names, the word “Nogha” was translated as labden (“river”). In general, it seems that one of our [i.e., Tibetans’] great mistakes is to think that any name that happens to appear in an Indian text is Sanskrit. These seem to be the names Adam, Noah, and Abraham (= A bar haṃ bār hm); these are the famous teachers who appeared before Muhammad. Thus, I think an error was made in the break in the last word and Varāhī was translated as “possessor of pigs” (phagden).
The first teacher of the Muslims is Muhammad; Mamathar is clearly a corruption of this. In [the Tibetan translation of] the Kālacakra, the name appears as Drangtsi Lodro (Madhumati or “mind of honey”). In the Kālacakrottaratantra, the line “the savior of the Muslims Madhumati” explicitly occurs, and there is no doubt that this [name] was translated thinking it was Sanskrit. There, some of the names of Arab Muslim cities are written as if they were Indian words and translated accordingly, such as Vāgdā [for Baghdad], which is translated as “giver of speech” (ngag chin), and so on. Similarly, although [the text] says that Makka [Mecca] is in India, from the perspective of today’s borders, it lies even beyond Persia, at about the distance from Amdo to India. In actual fact, “Muhammad” is an Arabic word and both names, Madhumati and Mamathar, are just corruptions of this.
Regarding the history of their teacher, [in our sources] it is written that he was a disciple of Nāgārjuna who violated the rules and created a false religion and so on; I think that most of this is prejudiced talk. Similarly, it is said that a monk who was expelled from the monastery volunteered to leave with the drum being beaten. When no one listened, he became resentful and created a barbarian religion. In an old Tibetan commentary on the Kālacakra, it is written that when the precepts of the abbot of Sanchi monastery degenerated, out of resentment he authored a false religion and called on the king to disseminate it. This story is told in connection with how Islam first spread to Khotan. It says that when the Islamic religion had existed for about six hundred years, it declined, and was then revived. I think this could be true.
Muhammad was born in the city of Makka or Mecca in the land of Arabia. He was born into a noble family that had become poor and was the son of Abdullah, his father, and Aminah, his mother. While he was still in the womb, his father died. Shortly after he was born, his mother also died. Left as an orphan, he was then cared for by his grandfather. When he also died, his maternal uncle cared for him and he grew up. He worked as a servant of a wealthy widow named Khadijah and, leading camels, he went to do trade in Syria, Persia, Egypt, and so on. Eventually, he and the widow became husband and wife. At that time, it is said that Muhammad was twenty-five and she was forty years old. Not long after that, he began hearing someone calling him by name, Muhammad. Each time he heard that voice he would faint, tormented by suffering. Unable to remain at home, he fled to a cave called Hira. Remaining in a kind of meditation, he stayed there for a long time. However, it is said that when he was about forty-two he actually became the paigambhar or “messenger of the word.”
Because he said, “There is only one object of refuge in this world, it is Allah, and I, Muhammad, am his messenger,” most people took him to be insane. But after a while, his wife came to believe in him and she became his first disciple. Because at that time the religion of the Arabs involved the worship of fire, the sun, and various images, the people of the land inflicted much suffering on him, such as arresting him and putting him in prison. Then, not being able to remain there in peace, he fled to the city of Yathrib [Iatribu], called Medina today. The year of his flight is called Hijarah or “moving the abode.” It is the basis of the Muslim calendar. This is the one thousand one hundred and sixty-sixth year after the passing of our Teacher [622 CE, which is correct]; up to now one thousand three hundred twenty-four years have elapsed [in the Muslim calendar]. The residents of Medina quickly converted to the new religion. Then, they all formed an army and, led by Muhammad, forcibly brought all corners of Arabia under his control by the time of his death.
Because it is stated that both those who kill and are killed for the sake of the religion attain the supreme state in heaven, they go into battle without concern for their own life or the least compassion for the enemy. Thus, people say there has never been an army more powerful than this. The teacher’s own grandson, Hussein, was asked why on the eve of battle he bathed and anointed himself with perfumes. He said, “I do so because there is nothing between us and the black-eyed divine maidens.” They believe that if you die in battle you are born in heaven. It is known that because Muhammad loved his wife, he respected her feelings and did not take other wives until she died. When she had died, he took about seven very young women, in the earlier and later stages [of his life]. Saying, “I have permission from Allah,” he enjoyed the wives of others and even his own daughters-in-law, and said, “Apart from me, no one else has permission to do so.” He said, “I went to the seventh heaven and met Allah. He said that his followers must worship him fifty times a day.” Muhammad said that this was too much, so in the end, it was decided that they would worship five times each day; this is exactly what they do. He said, “For me, in this world, there is nothing more pleasing than three things: sweet fragrance, maidens, and worship.” He died in the one thousand one hundred and seventy-sixth year after the passing [of the Buddha; 632 CE, which is correct]. Since he was said to be sixty-two years old at that time, he was born in the one thousand one hundred and fourteenth year after the passing [of the Buddha or 570 CE, which is correct].
If we take their Hijarah to be the beginning of the spread of the Muslim religion in the land of Mecca, given that here we are using the Sinhalese tradition of the year of the Buddha’s nirvāṇa [544 CE], an incompatibility [of dates] arises on the question of in what year after the Buddha’s passing the Muslims began. However, the beginning of the Muslims according to [the Kālacakra calendar], where the sixty-year cycles of the nirvāṇa year are integrated with its “fire, space, and ocean” years, seems to fit [with the Hijarah year] except for a discrepancy of about two years. It is said that when [Princess] Wencheng was dispatched to Tibet, it had been three years since this teacher of the Muslims had died. Thus, it was during the lifetime of Songtsen [Gampo]. Although it is said that Songtsen took [Wencheng] as his wife when he was sixteen years old, when one compares the various chronicles, it appears that he did so when he was very old. This should be researched.
The words that the Creator is said to have spoken to Muhammad were written on walls, on stone, in books, on bones, and so on in the land of Arabia. All of these were later compiled by Abu Bakr in a rough way and in their entirety by Caliph Uthman. This is the root scripture of the Musulmans known as the Koran. It has one hundred and fourteen chapters. The Koran is not only a root text; a commentary on it also exists with it. It primarily teaches the practice of the religion and the system of laws. It sets forth many things that are like reasonings. For example, [it states that] it is incorrect to say that Jesus is the son of the Creator and that he is an object of worship; it is a lie to say that he rose again after his death, and so on. However, it is written that Jesus must be recognized as a chosen prophet of the Creator. This Koran is written only in the Arabic language, and they vow not to permit its translation into another language. However, in recent times a powerful man named Pasha translated it into his own Turkish language. It has similarly been translated into English, and I have read it carefully.
The followers of Islam who spread to other countries separated into the two groups of Sunni and Shia. The majority that spread to other countries are Sunni. It is said that in India and Persia, there is also the Shia group. The primary holy place for all Muslims, however, is Mecca. At its very heart is a great black stone called the Kaaba, a stone said to have fallen there from the sky. All the Muslims in the world bow down to it. It is said that Muhammad himself went on pilgrimage to it seven times. Even Muslims in such places as China bow down toward the west, the direction of that stone.
After the death of Muhammad, his disciples led a great army, as they had done before, to Egypt and so forth in North Africa, to Syria, to Persia, and crossing the ocean to distant western countries such as Spain. Within a single decade they controlled these [lands] and placed them under their religion. Within a cycle of sixty years they had even reached the western part of India, such as Oḍḍiyāna and Sindhu. At that time, the Muslim kingdom stretched from Arabia to Sindhu, and the caliph Umar held the throne as the regent of Muhammad. What was under his sway was known as the kingdom of the caliph. Prior to this period, although they had raided many parts of western India, there was not much impact. The period when all the lands of Sindhu were firmly under their control was around the one thousand two hundred and fifty-sixth year after the passing of our Teacher. Some parts of Arabia had been raided by the Sindhus.
When a minister from the eastern province of the caliphate named Hussein sent an envoy to the Sindhu king Dāhir, saying that his people and goods must be returned, [the king] would not listen, causing a war. The Musulmans sent an army twice and defeated the Indians. Then Muhammad bin Qasim was made general and sent. The Buddhists in Sindhu, who had been suffering under the hands of the Hindus before that, sought refuge with the Muslims out of desperation. Eventually, Dāhir’s ministers together with other leaders went over to the enemy. Dāhir himself acted as general and fought near the iron-walled city of Arore. But in the end, the king died in battle. The queen barricaded the doors and attempted to defend the castle but failed, and so threw herself into the fire and died. The army destroyed the cities. Not long after that, the capital of Alor also fell. Thus Sindhu came under their control. However, the minister of Dāhir, who had become a friend of Muhammad, appealed to the king and was granted permission for the Hindus to practice their own religion for the time being. The damaged temples were restored as well. However, because the Buddhists had no protector whatsoever, [their temples] remained in ruins. Muhammad bin Qasim acquired limitless wealth from looting; from the destruction of one single temple he obtained gold weighing thirteen thousand mon. The fame of India as a land of riches spread to other regions. Thus, for a rather long period, the Musulmans of Arabia and the Indians who lived in Sindhu practiced their own religions and lived in harmony without doing great harm to one another.
The first [Muslims] to control the land of India were the Turks. Alp Tigin, a young Turkish slave of the Samanid king, over time became the king’s favorite. Establishing a small kingdom in the land of Ghazni, he remained there as a vassal king. That was the one thousand two hundred and sixth year after the passing of the Teacher. Then, about fifteen years later, Sabuktagin, the dearest slave of Alp Tigin, who would later become his son-in-law, gained the throne after his master’s death. Leading armies several times to the northwestern edge of India, he captured some fortresses.
Now, the Turks and the Arabs both have the same religion of mleccha or Islam. Because the Turks were especially devoted to that religion, they referred to Indians and others as “idol worshippers” and considered them to be in the category of those who hold the most evil views. Forsaking even the smallest compassion for those who belonged to religions other than theirs, they did whatever they could to persecute them, including torture. They have irreversible faith in their scriptures, including the certainty that one needs no greater virtue than being able to kill a few idol worshippers who do not seek refuge in Allah. Thus, their courage was greater than that of a demon. Each time they led an army, they killed innocent men, women, and children beyond number. Thinking, “They have abandoned Allah and follow other teachers,” they killed them without mercy, as if they had caught the murderers of their father red-handed. Eventually, they came to control all of India. Muhammad himself is said to have cut off the limbs of six hundred Jews in one day; plucking out their eyes, he cast them into the desert and made a law that no one was allowed to give them water. For the merciless deeds of the kings who will be described below, one must understand that they rely on such scriptures.
In that scripture, whatever is clearly visible is not falsified by direct perception. It does not say anything concerning slightly concealed facts [known by reasoning]. Thus [what is not visible] only [falls into the category of the] very concealed. In that [text], one should understand that there is no fault at all of contradiction between earlier and later words. Furthermore, whatever discussions there are of compassion, charity, decency, and so forth in the Christian and Muslim scriptures, it is taught that they are only to be directed to those known to be brothers who belong to their own religion. They do not teach anywhere that there is even the slightest sin in committing such acts as killing, beating, and deceiving other people who belong to different religions.