Early Conversions to Islam: Difference between revisions

===Persia===

Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty in Persia, decreed Twelver Shia Islam to be the official religion of state and ordered executions of a number of Sunni intellectuals who refused to accept Shiism.<ref>{{Cite book|authors=Savory, R.M., Gandjeï, T.| year=2012 | title=Ismāʿīl I|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editors=P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs|volume=4|page=186}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| author=H.R. Roemer| entry=The Safavid Period |title=The Cambridge History of Iran|volume=Volume 6|publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=harv |year=1986 |editors=William Bayne Fisher, Peter Jackson, Lawrence Lockhart|page=218}}</ref> Non-Muslims faced frequent persecutions and at times forced conversions under the rule of his successors.<ref>Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-00807-8}}. p.52</ref> After the capture of the Hormuz Island, Abbas I required local Christians to convert to Islam, Abbas II granted his ministers authority to force Jews to become Muslims, and Sultan Husayn decreed forcible conversion of Zoroastrians.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Lapidus | first = Ira M. | authorlink=Ira M. Lapidus | title = A History of Islamic Societies | publisher = Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition) | year = 2014| isbn=978-0-521-51430-9 | pages=385–386}}</ref> In 1839, during the Qajar era the Jewish community in the city of Mashhad was attacked by a mob and subsequently forced to convert to Islam.<ref name="JadidAlIslam">{{cite web|first=Jaleh |last=Pirnazar |url=http://www.fis-iran.org/en/irannameh/volxix/mashhad-jewish-community |title=The "Jadid al-Islams" of Mashhad |work=Foundation for Iranian Studies |location=Bethesda, MD, USA |publisher=Foundation for Iranian Studies |accessdate=2012-11-13}}</ref> Bagrat V was an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Timur invaded Georgia and defeated and captured him. Bagrat agreed to convert to Islam.<ref>'': At the Crossroads of Empires : 14th - 15th Century Eastern Anatolia''. {{cite book | author=Andrew Peacock | title=Between Georgia and the Islamic World : The Atabegs of Samc'xe and the Turks | location=Istanbul | page=55}}</ref> Only after this, he was released. Timur plundered state of Jammu in 1399. He forced the Hindu ruler of Jammu to become a Muslim.<ref>Bawa Satinder Singh. The Jammu Fox. A Biography of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Kashmir 1792-1857. Southern Illinois Press, Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1974.</ref><ref>Prof. Sukhdev Singh Charak. Life and Times of Maharaja Ranbir Singh (1830-1885). Jay Kay Book House, Jammu-Tawi, 1985.</ref><ref>Prof. Sukhdev Singh Charak. Maharaja Ranjitdev and the rise and fall of Jammu Kingdom, from 1700 A.D. to 1820 A.D. The Dogra-Pahari Itihas Kendra, Pathankot, 1971.</ref><ref>Sorabji Jehangir and F.S. Jehangir Taleyarkhan. Princes and Chiefs of India: A Collection of Biographies, with Portraits of the Indian Princes and Chiefs and Brief Historical Surveys of their Territories. Waterlow and Sons Limited, London, 1903.</ref><ref>Prof. M.L.Kapur (ed.). Maharaja Hari Singh (1895-1961). Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi, 1995.</ref><ref>Revised List of Ruling Princes, Chiefs and Leading Personages of the Jammu and Kashmir State and the Gilgit Agency. The Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1939.</ref><ref>Karan Singh. Autobiography 1931-1967. Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994.</ref><ref>Mohinder Singh. Raja Ram Singh, the forgotten prince and his times (1861-1899). Gajral Printers, Sanyaj Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, 1990.</ref><ref>G.M.D. Sufi. Kashīr, Being a History of KashmirFrom the Earliest Times to Our Own. 2 Vols. Light & Life Publishers, New Delhi, 1974.</ref>

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