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Bengali Muslims are adherents of Islam among the Bengali people. The Muslims of Bengal are the second-largest ethnic Muslim community in the world.〔 They speak the Bengali language and are native to modern-day Bangladesh and the eastern states of India, including West Bengal and Assam. Most Bengali Muslims are members of the Sunni branch of Islam. A minority are members of the Shia and Ahmadiya branches. The people of the Bengal Delta have multiracial origins, including a hybrid mixture of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austronesian ancestry. The region was historically separated from India by the mighty Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, allowing the Bengali people to develop an independent language and culture. The delta was a hub of trade routes, including Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean trade; the Silk Road; and the Grand Trunk Road. Islam arrived in the first millennium and greatly influenced Bengali culture and civilization. The influx of Persian, Turkic, Arab and Mongol settlers further added to the rich cultural melting pot of Bengal. The Sultanate of Bengal was a major eastern frontier state in the medieval Muslim world.〔 The Mughal Empire witnessed the further crystallization of Bengali Muslim identity. In the British Indian Empire, Bengali Muslims played a key role in developing modern political and artistic expression in South Asia. They compromised the demographic majority of East Pakistan, which became independent after a revolutionary liberation war in 1971. Bengali Muslims share strong cultural similarities with Bengali Hindus, Christians and Buddhists. Within wider Bengali culture, they have distinct social, linguistic and culinary characteristics. Bangladesh has a dominant Bengali Muslim-majority. They are the second largest community in the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. ==History== During the Iron Age, the Bengal delta was a hub of maritime city states, including the kingdoms of Samatata, Pundra and Vanga. They were based in the cities of Wari-Bateshwar, Mahasthangarh and Chandraketugarh. The Greeks and Romans described the land as Gangaridai (nation of the Ganges). According to Greek legends, the region’s military prowess deterred Alexander from pursuing a full-scale invasion of India. Hinduism and Buddhism tussled for dominance in Bengal. The Mauryans, Guptas, Palas, Candras, Senas and Devas ruled the region until Muslim conquest in the 13th century. Islam first came to Bengal during the latter part of the first millennium. A center of the Silk Road since antiquity, the Ganges delta received the earliest Muslim missionaries during the seventh and eighth centuries. Sufis settled in numerous Bengali ports, towns and cities. Coins of the Abbasid Caliphate found in Bangladesh and West Bengal indicate flourishing mercantile and intellectual contacts during the Islamic Golden Age. The exchange of knowledge and science saw the House of Wisdom absorbing South Asian mathematics and astronomy, including the concept of zero. Arab trade with Bengal flourished since the 9th century. In 1154, Al-Idrisi noted that merchants from Baghdad and Basra regularly traveled to the Bengali gateway of Chittagong.〔〔Essays on Ancient India by Raj Kumar p.199〕 After the Delhi Sultanate was established in North India, the Turkic general Bakhtiar Khilji launched the Islamic conquest of Bengal in 1204 after defeating Lakshman Sena of the Sena dynasty. Bengal was incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate and ruled by Persianate Mamluk, Khilji and Tughluq dynasties for a century. In 1342, Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah proclaimed the independent Sultanate of Bengal. The era was a turning point in Bengali history. Muslim rule united the whole region into a single Bengali political entity under a long-lasting administration. Muslims and Hindus jointly formed the civil and military service. The achievements of previous civilizations were not lost, but absorbed into the new Islamic polity. The construction of mosques, madrasas and Sufi khanqahs reinforced the process of conversion. The people of the fertile East embraced conversion due to Islamic agrarian reform and synthetic Sufi mythology.〔 Bengali Muslims also maintained their Indo-Aryan language and script. The Bengal Sultanate was one of the leading states in the eastern frontier of the Muslim world. Sultans from the Ilyas Shahi dynasty engaged in active diplomacy. Embassies were exchanged with Ming China, the Malay sultanates, Safavid Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and the Ajuraan sultanate.〔 Arakan in Burma was brought under Bengali suzerainty for 100 years. The Yongle Emperor of China built a special relationship with the Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah. The Chinese sent Admiral Zheng He as an envoy to Bengal several times as part of the treasure voyages in the 15th century. During the Hussain Shahi dynasty, the Sultans strongly patronized medieval Bengali literature. This marked the start of a renaissance in Bengali culture. Muslim and Hindu poets produced numerous epics, translations of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian texts and pioneered secular works. The region also came under heavy Turkic and Persian influences in administration and architecture. The Sultans built a grand capital city in Gaur, including the imperial mosque in Adina- the largest mosque ever built in the subcontinent.〔 They also built the Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat. Islamic architecture was shaped by local Bengali terracotta aesthetics. Gold and silver taka were minted in dozens of towns and cities, including Fatehabad, Sonargaon, Jalalabad, Chatgaon and Hughli. The 14th century traveler Ibn Battuta compared the sultanate to the Nile delta for its wealth and prosperity.〔Dunn, Ross E (1986). The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century〕 Many Sufi dervishes and saints were instrumental in conversion and missionary activities. Hazrat Shah Jalal in Sylhet achieved one of the largest conversions in the subcontinent. The Baro-Bhuyan landlords led by Isa Khan also exerted significant influence in the region, especially in the eastern frontier with Assam. By the 16th-century, the Mughal Empire controlled most of Bengal. The Mughals instituted agrarian reforms and readapted the Bengali calendar. Mughal rule reinforced the emergence of Bengali Muslim identity. Sufficient autonomy was given to subjects to cultivate their own customs and literature. Bengal became a worldwide trading center in shipbuilding, cotton muslin textiles and fine silk. It generated 50% of the Mughal Empire's GDP, which at the time constituted 25% of global GDP. Dhaka became the commercial capital of the Empire and one of the most wealthiest cities in the world.〔 The Nawabs of Bengal gained prominence in the early 18th century, with their capital in Murshidabad. They gave increasing concessions to European trading powers, including the Dutch, French, Danish and English. The British East India Company took control of Bengal in 1757 after defeating Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey. The British looted the Bengal treasury, appropriating wealth valued at US$40 billion in modern-day prices.〔 Due to high colonial taxation, Bengali commerce shrank by 50% within 40 years; while British imports flooded the market. Spinners and weavers starved during famines. Bengal's once industrious cities became impoverished. The East India Company forced opium and indigo cultivation. The permanent settlement dismantled centuries of joint Muslim-Hindu political, military and feudal cooperation. Historians generally regard the period as the most oppressive colonial administration in history.〔 The Bengal Presidency was established in 1765. Rural eastern Bengal witnessed the earliest rebellions against British rule, including the Faraizi movement led by Haji Shariatullah and the activities of Titumir. The mutiny of 1857 engulfed much of northern India and Bengal, including in Dhaka and Chittagong. Following the mutiny, the United Kingdom gained direct authority and established the British Raj. At one point in the 19th century, the Bengal Presidency covered all British possessions from the Khyber Pass to the Straits of Malacca. The colonial capital Calcutta, where Bengali Muslims formed the second largest community, became the second largest city in the British Empire after London. The late 19th and early 20th-century Indian Renaissance brought dramatic social and political change. The imparting of Western law, government and education ushered modern enlightenment, creating a new politically conscious middle class and a new generation of leaders in politics, arts and science. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan pioneered English education among British Indian Muslims, with many Bengali Muslims enrolling in Aligarh Muslim University. The First Partition of Bengal incubated the broader anti-colonial struggle. In 1906, the All India Muslim League was formed during the Muhammadan Education Conference in Dhaka. The University of Dhaka played a key role in emancipating Bengali Muslim society, with progressive groups like the Freedom of Intellect Movement and the Muslim Literary Society. Bengali Muslims were at the forefront of the Indian Independence Movement, including the constitutional struggle for the rights of minorities. The Partition of British India in 1947 divided Bengal on religious grounds between Hindu-majority West Bengal and Muslim-majority East Bengal, despite calls for a United Bengal. With the creation of the Dominion of Pakistan, the exclave of East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan) became a stronghold of Bengali nationalism. The Awami League was formed in 1949. The Bengali Language Movement reached its peak in 1952. The Six point movement led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demanded autonomy in the 1960s. Bengali calls for self-determination were met by a brutal military crackdown from West Pakistan. The nine month-long Bangladesh war of independence took place in 1971. The People’s Republic of Bangladesh was established as a secular parliamentary democracy in 1972. However, the new state endured political turmoil and several military coups. The restoration of democracy in 1991 has brought relative calm and economic growth. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bengali Muslims」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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