"Iconoclastic activity is already in evidence in Sind and Afghanistan under the Arabs. Unfortunately, for a long time it has been all too common among Sindi archaeologists to explain almost every ruin as the result of Arab iconoclasm.loo The evidence, dating from this early period, is in fact still quite limited. At Debal, the budd temple was destroyed, and in the construction of a mosque, the earliest inscription of which goes back to 727-8 AD, Shaivite lingams were used as a step in front of the threshold. In other cities of Sind we know that mosques were built to replace 'idolhouses'. In the shrine of Zun, an Arab general broke off a hand from the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes. Muhammad al-Qasim is reported to have hung a piece of cow's flesh on the neck of the great budd statue at the Sun-temple of Multan, while he confiscated its wealth and made captives of its custodians. Later Muslim governors always threatened to break the idol or mutilate it when they were confronting the hostility of neighbouring Hindu powers; until in the late tenth century the Isma'ilis finally did break it and killed its priests, erecting a mosque on its site. The Arab chiefs who ruled Sind in the ninth and tenth century, rather than transmitting revenue, on occasion sent cartloads of idols to Baghdad.106 This is about all we know. And it is in contrast to the general practice of the Arabs in Sind which allowed for old temples to be re-built, new ones erected, and Hindu/Buddhist practices to be continued."