ABSTRACT
In the stereotype image medieval warriors from Central Asia-hard men with sullen temperaments, sword in one hand and the holy Quran in the other-were the main cause of the conversion to Islam in India. This was not the whole picture. Separately, sometimes alone, sometimes with a few disciples, came Sufi scholars and saints. Their modes of attack were contrary: uncompromising rigorism for the soldier and adaptive, absorbent and pragmatic for the Sufi. With the former Islam secured followers in spite of insisting on purity, with the latter by compromising it.
