<P> Contrary to popular belief, Islam came to South Asia prior to the Muslim invasions of India . Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinent during the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders . Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region, which was a link between them and the ports of South East Asia to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia . According to Historians Elliot and Dowson in their book The History of India as told by its own Historians, the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 CE . The first Indian mosque is thought to have been built in 629 CE, purportedly at the behest of an unknown Chera dynasty ruler, during the lifetime of Muhammad (c. 571--632) in Kodungallur, in district of Thrissur, Kerala by Malik Bin Deenar . In Malabar, Muslims are called Mappila . </P> <P> In Bengal, Arab merchants helped found the port of Chittagong . Sufi missionaries settled in the region as early as the 8th century . </P> <P> H.G. Rawlinson, in his book Ancient and Medieval History of India (ISBN 81 - 86050 - 79 - 5), claims the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century . This fact is corroborated, by J. Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals, and also by Haridas Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV . </P> <P> The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went . It was however the subsequent expansion of the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent over the next millennia that established Islam in the region . </P>

Where did islam spread after its beginnings in southwest asia