"Sufis were especially important in the development of Indian Islam... Sufism arrived in northern India during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and Sufis played a significant part in the Islamization of the Indian subcontinent.48 Wherever Islam gained a foothold, Sufis often served as teachers, proselytizers, and reformers, and their status as such continued throughout the premodern period. In addition to these social roles, Sufis also took part in the military jihad to expand the Abode of Islam in India.49 The tradition of ghazi friends of God has remained an important component of popular Sufi shrine worship in the subcontinent and gives some credence to the military role of Sufis in the history of Muslim India."