Question

Which of the following fearful weapons arrived with the Arabs when they invaded Sind in 712?

(A) Naphtha

(B) Hawai

(C) Ban

(D) Manjaniq

Choose the correct answer from the options give below:

1. (A) and (B) only
2. (B) and (C) only
3. (C) and (D) only
4. (A) and (D) only

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : (A) and (D) only

• The only Arab attempt upon India came from a different quarter. Little as the Muslims of the desert relished the wonders of the deep, there were sea- faring traders on the Arabian coasts to whom the ports of western India had been familiar from the earliest times.
• Arab merchants sailed from Siraf and Hurmuz in the Persian gulf, coasting along till they came to the mouth of the Indus, and thence on to Sapera and Cambay ; or they even struck boldly across from their harbours at Kalhat and Kurayyat in Oman to Calicut and other ports on the Malabar coast.
• These men brought back tidings of the wealth and luxury of India, of gold and diamonds, jewelled idols, gorgeous religious rites, and a wonderful civilization. These were however mere raids.
• The first and only Arab invasion coincided in date with two other signal successes in distant parts of the globe.
• Gothic Spain was shattered at the battle of the Guadalete in 710; the standards of Islam were carried from Samarkand to Kashghar in 711-714 ; and the valley of the Indus was invaded in 712.
• These three steps mark the apogee of the power of the Omayyad caliphate, and coincide with the administration of one of the ablest and most relentless of all Muslim statesmen.
• There in the spring of 712 Mohammad Kasim set up his catapults and dug his trench. 
• After the storming of Daibul, the young general marched up the right bank of the Indus in search of the main body of the enemy. Discovering their outposts on the other side, he tied a string of boats together, filled them with archers, made one end fast to the west bank, and then let the whole floating bridge drift down and across, like an angler’s cast of flies, till it touched the opposite side, where it was made fast to stakes under cover of the archers’ arrows.
• The enemy, unable to oppose the landing, fell back upon Rawar, where the Arabs beheld for the first time the imposing array of Hindu chiefs, mounted on armoured war-elephants, and led by their king Dahir.
• Naphtha arrows, however, threw the elephants into confusion and set fire to the howdahs; the king was slain, the Hindus fled, and “the Moslems were glutted with slaughter.” The Indian women showed the desperate courage for which they were famous.
• The king’s sister called them together, on seeing the defeat of their men; and, refusing to owe their lives to the “vile cow-eaters” at the price of dishonour, they set their houses ablaze and perished in the flames.
• Another victory at Brahmanabad opened the way to Multan, the chief city of the upper Indus, which surrendered at discretion, but not without an exhausting siege. The fighting men were massacred, and the priests, workmen, women, and children were made captives.