Uttar Pradesh has more Muslims than any Muslim-majority country in the world except Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan.

When the Mongols rose to power under Genghis Khan, there was an influx of Muslim refugees into North India, many of whom settled in the provincial kasbahs and brought administrators from Iran; painters from China; theologians from Samarkand, Nishapur and Bukhara.

In Azamgharh, Mubarakpur, Mau, and Vanaras, a number of cultural norms arose over time which typified many Uttar Pradesh Muslim traditions.

[5] The Turkic Sultans of Delhi and their Mughal successors patronized the émigré Muslim culture: Islamic jurists of the Sunni Hanafi school, Persian literati who were Shia Ithnā‘ashariyyah, and Sufis of several orders, including the Chishti, Qadiri and Naqshbandi.

After the First Battle of Panipat, Mughal Emperor Babur defeated the Lodi dynasty with Chagatai or Gurkani Türks, Uzbek, Turkmen and Uyghur soldiers and nobility.

The Rohilla leader Daud Khan was awarded the Katehar (later called Rohilkhand) region in the then-northern India by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled 1658–1707) to suppress the Rajput uprisings.

Bareilly was made the capital of the Rohilkhand state and it became a major Pashtun city with Gali Nawaban as the main royal street.

[11] Occasionally, important convert communities such as the Kayastha Muslim and manihar of eastern Uttar Pradesh, were also granted Ashraf status.

[13] With the collapse of the Sultanate of Delhi, the Mughal established control and Uttar Pradesh became the heartland of their vast empire; the region was known as Hindustan, which is used to this day as the name for India in several languages.

They were descended from a Persian adventurer called Sa'adat Khan, who was originally from Khurasan in Persia, one of many Khurasanis in the service of the Mughals, mostly soldiers, who hoped for rich rewards if successful.

Under the guidance of Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan, the Urdu speaking Muslim elite sought to retain their position of political and administrative importance by reconciling their Mughal and Islamic culture with English education.

A somewhat different educational movement was led by the Ulema of Deoband, who founded a religious school or Dar-ul-Uloom designed to revitalize Islamic learning.

According to Ashraf Ali Thanwi the Shari'a norms mandate "distinguishing the Muslim community[qawm], the maintenance of difference in our clothing, our manners, our way of speaking, and our behavior."

He forbade the wearing of the English coat and pants, tying a Dhoti[worn by Hindu men], Gurgabi shoes and Lehenga, which were "things that are purely characteristics of other communities[aqwam]".

The abolishment of the zamindari system also had a profound impact on culture as these large landowners provided patronage to local artisans; this was especially true in the Awadh region.

Mandir refers to the construction of a Hindu temple supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the town of Ayodhya in eastern Uttar Pradesh, on the site of Babri Mosque.

However, students making empirical studies of Muslim communities in different parts of India found that this distinction is not really meaningful in understanding the existing pattern among the diverse social groups in any locality.

[33] Among other traditional artisan biradaris in UP are the Mansoori, Bhatiara, Bhisti, Dhobi, Muslim Halwai, Teli and Raj, which were at one time associated with a particular craft or trade.

For example, the Doab region is home some cultivation biradaris, such as the Baloch, Dogar, Garha, Gujjar, Turks, Kamboh, Rajput, and Muslim Tyagi.

Muslims in Uttar Pradesh speak Urdu, as well as also local Hindi dialects, such as Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kauravi, and Braj Bhasha.

Most of a dastarkhawan dining table includes chapatti, rice, dal, vegetable and meat (beef, lamb, chicken, fish) dishes.

They were successful in spreading Islam, as many aspects of Sufi belief systems and practices had their parallels in Indian philosophical literature, in particular nonviolence and monism.

Gradually, the need to communicate with local inhabitants led to a composition of Sanskrit-derived languages, written in the Perso-Arabic script with literary conventions and specialized vocabulary being retained from Persian, Arabic, and Turkic; the new standard was eventually called Urdu.

[40] According to the Tashih Gharaib-ul-Lughat by Khan-i Arzu, the "zaban-e Urdu-e Shahi [the Imperial Urdu] had attained special importance in the time of Alamgir"(1658-1707).

Due to religious nationalism since the partition of British India and consequent continued communal tensions, native speakers of both Hindi and Urdu increasingly assert them to be completely distinct languages.

Studies including the Sachar Report have claimed that the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh lags behind in terms of economics, educational attainment and political representation.

The general political consensus in India has been, for a number of historic reasons, that the Muslim community as whole should not be subject to any affirmative action policies, such as other socially deprived groupings like the Scheduled Castes.

However, the state has conceded that certain baradaris within the larger Muslim community of Uttar Pradesh deserve reservations in jobs and quotas in educational institutions.

[51] Many of these baradaris that have been traditionally associated with a particular craft have been granted Other Backward Class (OBC) status, which in theory makes them eligible for a number of affirmative action schemes.

These people are making tall claims just to win elections"[56] Notable Muslims from Uttar Pradesh include actress Shabana Azami, Vice President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice President of Muslim Personal Law Board Dr. Kalbe Sadiq, actor and director Muzaffar Ali, journalist Saeed Naqvi, Persian scholar Dr. Naiyer Masud Rizvi, linguist Masud Husain Khan, Governor Syed Sibtey Razi, historian Irfan Habib, politician Salman Khursheed, and cricketer Mohammad Kaif.