Within a century of the Prophet’s death, Arab armies dismantled the Sasanian empire and absorbed its heartlands. Yet the same expansionary momentum, directed eastward beyond the Iranian plateau toward the Indus basin and the Afghan frontier, produced a strikingly uneven set of outcomes. While Arab rule consolidated in Sindh and the lower Indus valley, the political formations of Zabulistan, Kabul, and the approaches to western India resisted territorial incorporation, remaining a persistent zone of contestation, negotiation, and accommodation.

Tārikh-i-Pāydāri addresses this long-standing historical puzzle. Refusing simplistic narratives of heroic defense or relentless conquest, Amit Anand presents a comparative institutional analysis of early Islamic expansion into South Asia (c. 640–800 CE). Grounded in a rigorous cross-reading of ninth-century Arabic conquest narratives, the Persian Chachnama, contemporary Sanskrit inscriptions, and archaeological evidence, this monograph demonstrates that imperial reach was determined not merely by battlefield outcomes, but by the alignment of fiscal structures, logistical capacities, and local elite accommodation.

Re-examining key encounters—from the disaster of the "Army of Destruction" in Zabulistan to the Brahmanabad settlement in Sindh—Tārikh-i-Pāydāri reveals how frontier societies adapted to, constrained, and reshaped expanding imperial power, offering a vital contribution to early medieval South Asian history and the comparative study of pre-modern empires.