ABSTRACT
The divisive dynamics of ethnic, regional, and class differences were continually at work within all of the civilizations. One was the test of unity among the various cultural and geographical subdivisions of the civilization, the challenge of maintaining internal integration in the face of centrifugal forces that often led to regional fragmentation—the breakup of a civilized region into subregions. This chapter deals with the decline of the Abbasids during the ninth and tenth centuries and extends through the periods of Turkish hegemony during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It discusses the South Asia fragmentation separately in northern India and southern India. Northern India came under the control of Turkish invaders from Central Asia, and the period 1193-1526 is commonly, if inaccurately, referred to as that of the Delhi sultanate. To understand the history of Eurasian civilizations following the rise of the universal religions it is necessary to recognize that they cannot be considered as unified and integrated units.
