Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests or Rajput opposition to Islamic invasions was a series of military resistance by several ruling Rajput houses of northern and western India against Islamic invaders of Central Asia in Medieval India. Before the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent, much of northern and western India was being ruled by Rajput dynasties, who were a collection of martial Hindu families. The Rajput kingdoms contended with the rising and expansionist empires of the Muslim world, be they Arabs, Turks, Pashtuns, or Mughals. The Rajputs held out against the Caliphates and Central Asian empires for several centuries.