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Chapter 4. Jihad
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CHAPTER FOUR Jihad Fight against such as those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low. —Qur’an 9:29 As the living being (sattva) does not exist, the sin of murder does not exist; and since there is no sin of murder, there is no regulation to forbid it. . . . We commit no fault by killing the five aggregates that characterize emptiness and are similar to dreamlike visions or mirror reflections. —Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa M uch like his Mongol ancestors the Sultan Sa‘id Khan had a drinking problem,1 but even so he was a firm believer in jihad. He ‘‘was always on the look-out to participate himself in holy war, and his thirst and hunger were never assuaged by sending out military expeditions every year to acquire heavenly reward.’’2 Thus after becoming sober in 1532 he launched a Muslim holy war against the infidels of Tibet. Although this was not the first Muslim invasion of the roof of the world, no one had envisioned as grandiose an invasion as Sultan Sa‘id Khan,3 who wanted to march all the way to Lhasa and destroy its holy temple because he believed it was the qibla, the direction of prayer, for all the Buddhists of China and Tibet.4 In his mind, taking the fight to Lhasa would greatly advance the cause of Islam. To this end the sultan began amassing his troops in late summer. Although this was not the best of time year to launch a campaign onto the 176 Chapter Four high Tibetan plateau, his commanders and troops were ready and willing. For them nothing could have been greater. Having been forged in the ideology of jihad these battle-hardened soldiers cherished the idea of assaulting the Mecca of the infidels, as is well captured in the inspiring words of the commander who was to lead the jihad against Lhasa, Mirza Haydar—first cousin of Babur (1483–1530), Mughal ruler of India. Among the pillars and precepts of Islam, the chief pillar and firm basis is holy war. The Koran is eloquent in the excellence and necessity of holy war, and the sayings of the Prophet confirm this. Any act of worship that has the good quality of training the self and in which the self is exposed to death is necessarily beyond comparison with any other. In addition, for preserving the religion and spreading the community, under which holy war is subsumed, no other act of worship can be compared. Another good quality is that holy war is peculiar to the [Muslim] nation, and if it existed among the nations and communities of the past it was not of this sort. If occasionally others were commanded to undertake holy war, the only thing belonging to the infidels that was licit to them was their blood. Self-sacrificing lovers of the court of eternity and those allowed in honorable proximity to the court of the One always hope to attain the felicity of martyrdom in holy war. If one could buy union with the beloved with the cash of the soul, everyone who possesses a soul would be searching for union with you.5 Perhaps on account of these motivational words the invasion started out well. As Mirza Haydar and his three thousand troops moved into Ladakh in western Tibet they met little resistance. On September 2, 1532, they sent out a blanket invitation for everyone to convert: ‘‘There is a general invitation to Muhammad’s religion: happy the lot of him who enters it.’’ Supposedly some locals complied; other ‘‘wretches,’’ however, tried to resist. They were all put to the sword. Yet this initial success came to a halt as the winter started setting in. Moreover, word came that Sultan Sa’id Khan, who was leading two thousand troops into Tibet from Khotan, was suffering severe altitude sickness. He had been unconscious for days but still refused to give up the fight, declaring, ‘‘While there is yet life in me, take me to the field of war so that there may be a victory in my intention to carry out holy war.’’ [44.223.94.103] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:08 GMT) Jihad 177 When he heard this...