Bengali Muslims
Bengali Muslims (Bengali: বাঙালি মুসলমান; pronounced [baŋali musɔlman]) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ethnic group among Muslims after Arabs. Bengali Muslims make up the majority of Bangladesh's citizens, and are the largest minority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam.
বাঙালি মুসলমান | |
|---|---|
Muslim-majority districts of Bengal highlighted in green on a map of 1909 | |
| Total population | |
| 200 million (2013) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Bangladesh | 150,360,405 (2022) |
| India (West Bengal, Assam, Tripura only) | 35,000,000 (2011) |
| Pakistan | 2,000,000 (2021) |
| Saudi Arabia | 2,200,000 |
| United Arab Emirates | 700,000 |
| England | 376,130 |
| Malaysia | 552,000 |
| Qatar | 550,000 |
| Kuwait | 445,000 |
| United States | 643,620 |
| Italy | 415,750 |
| Oman | 130,000 |
| Languages | |
| Bengali, English (gained significance after the Bengali Renaissance), Urdu (secondary language especially those resident in Pakistan for official purposes as well as being used as a literary medium of Northern India, particularly in West Bengal), Arabic (liturgical language) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bengali people, Bangladeshis, Bangladeshi Muslims, Pakistani Muslims, Indian Muslims | |
| Part of a series on |
| Islam |
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| Part of a series on |
| Bengalis |
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They speak or identify the Bengali language as their mother tongue. The majority of Bengali Muslims are Sunnis who follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.
The Bengal region was a supreme power of the medieval Islamic East. European traders identified the Bengal Sultanate as "the richest country to trade with". Bengal viceroy Muhammad Azam Shah assumed the imperial throne. Mughal Bengal became increasingly independent under the Nawabs of Bengal in the 18th century.
The Bengali Muslim population emerged as a synthesis of Islamic and Bengali cultures. After the Partition of India in 1947, they comprised the demographic majority of Pakistan until the independence of East Pakistan (historic East Bengal) as Bangladesh in 1971.