Arab trade with India had long since whetted the appetites of the Muslims ; when Indian pirates plundered their ships off the coast of Sind in 711 , it provoked the Governor of Chaldea ( now Iraq ) to send troops with 6,000 horses and 6,000 camels to conquer the Sind rajas and offer the alternative of converting to Islam or death .
Had the Indian pirates not attacked their ships , none of this would have happened .