The overwhelming evidence strongly indicates that there was a gradual transition of the largely local Buddhist population, and Hinduism and other indigenous religions in Bengal to Islam starting in the thirteenth century facilitated by Sufi missionaries.

“The journey of Islam from the Middle East to the land of India has remained to be one of the most remarkable turning points in world history. India has been a land well protected by its natural barriers with the Arabian Sea in the West, the Himalayas in the North and the Indian Ocean in the South. Overcoming these hurdles, a series of invasions and migrations took place over centuries by countless civilizations such as the Huns, the Aryans and the Arabs. Although trade relations between Arabia and India existed in the pre-Islamic era, the first incursion to India by Muslim through sea occurred in the mid-7th century during the Rashidun Caliphs, long before any Arab military entered India by land. Arab visitors and traders became the leading carriers of the Arab culture and Islamic values to India. They passed these values to locals wherever they visited in India.”