Islam in Pakistan: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Pakistan

The Muslim conquest of lands occupied by current Pakistan started in644AD during the reign of Caliph Omar bnul Khattab and completed in711AD during the reign of the sixth Umayyad Caliph al Walid I bnu Abdel Malik bnu Marwan. Indeed, in 23H or 644AD Caliph Omar senttroops under the leadership of Suhail bnu Adiy al Khazraji whoconquered the eastern half of current Pakistani up to the Indus River.The conquest continued in 92H or 711AD under the leadership ofMuhammad bnul Qassim Athaqafi by capturing the Sind and parts ofthe Pakistani Punjab. The Muslim conquest of current Pakistan wascompleted in 1021 by the conquest of Lahore during the reign ofMahmud ben Sebük Tegin al Ghaznawi. He was the fourth ruler of theGhaznavid Dynasty who ruled from 998 to 1030. Currently, the IslamicRepublic of Pakistan has an area of 796,095 sq km and its map ispresented in Figure 2.5.6. It was occupied by the British in 1849 andgained its independence from the UK in 1947.

Based on census data, we obtain the following estimates: For 1871and 1881, the total population is derived by two-third, one-sixth and halfof the population in Punjab and Bombay provinces (excluding PrincelyStates) and Kashmir State, respectively. The Muslim population isobtained by all and two-thirds of the Muslim population in Punjab andBombay provinces, respectively, and half the population of KashmirState. For 1891, we used total population and Muslims of Sind provinceinstead of Bombay. The total population from 1901 to 1961 was obtainedfrom [PK61]. The Muslim population in 1901 till 1941 was obtained from[INH]. The population of the Frontier Regions of 1,622,000 recorded in1911 was added to the total population of 16,576,000 recorded in 1901which excluded the Frontier Regions. All these were assumed Muslimand added to the number of Muslims in 1901.

Thus, as shown in Table 2.5.6, before independence the Muslimpopulation increased from 11.8 million or 78.5% in 1871, to 13.3 millionor 77.5% in 1881, to 15.1 million or 83.8% in 1891, to 18.2 million or 85.3%in 1901, to 16.4 million or 84.4% in 1911, to 17.6 million or 83.5% in 1921,to 18.8 million or 79.7% in 1931, to 22.3 million or 78.8% in 1941. Afterindependence, the Muslim population jumped to 33 million or 97.1% in1951 due to forced population exchange with India. The Muslimpopulation continued to increase to 42 million or 97.2% in 1961, to 63million or 96.9% in 1972, to 81 million or 96.7% in 1981, to 127 million or96.3% in 1998, to 200 million or 96.5% in 2017.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Pakistan

The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.

For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.