The year 712 marks one of those rare freak but pivotal coincidences in history. In the Western Hemisphere, the young Muslim general Tariq bin Ziyad leading an army of seven thousand troops had inflicted a crushing defeat on and killed the Visigoth chief Roderick and proceeded to conquer most of Spain and Portugal: both these Christian countries offered almost no resistance to the marauding onslaught of the invading Muslim armies. Meanwhile, in faraway Iraq, Muhammad bin Qasim had received blessings to embark on a similar mission to Sindh. It was the initiation of a campaign that unleashed a
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