The latter group are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD. The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. He played a major role, politically and militarily, in Indian history by limiting the penetration of the Mughal power into the Deccan Plateau. The most famous Siddi, Malik Ambar, effectively controlled the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in the Deccan. Īlthough often economically and socially marginalised as a community today, Siddis have played large roles in the politics of the subcontinent. Siddis are primarily Muslims, although some are Hindus and others belong to the Catholic Church.
The Siddi population is currently estimated at around 850,000 individuals, with Karnataka, Gujarat and Hyderabad in India and Makran and Karachi in Pakistan serving as the main population centres. They are primarily descended from the Bantu peoples of the Zanj coast in Southeast Africa, who were merchants, sailors, indentured servants, slaves and mercenaries. The Siddi ( pronounced ), also known as the Sheedi, Sidi, or Siddhi, or Habshi are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. Predominantly: Sunni Islam minority: Hinduism Christianity ( Catholic) 570,000–1,950,000 (estimated) īalochi (Makrani dialect), Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada,
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