The Muslim Arabs control most of northwest India by 900.

Unlike previous settlers in India, the Muslim immigrants are not absorbed into Hindu society.

The millions of Hindus who had been converted to Islam augment their ranks.

Although there is cultural interchange between Hindu and Muslim, no homogeneity emerges.

The significant and permanent military movement of Muslims into North India is accomplished by a Turkish dynasty that arises indirectly from the ruins of the 'Abbasid caliphate.

The establishment of Turkish power in India is initially tied up with politics in the Punjab.

The Punjab is ruled by Jayapala of the Hindu Shahiya dynasty, which had in the ninth century wrested the Kabul Valley and Gandhara from a Turkish Shahiya.

Political and economic relations are extremely close between the Punjab and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan in turn is closely involved with Central Asian politics.