| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ( Aubert 1938). For a copy of a covenant addressed to the Christian Jacobites, see Akyüz 2002. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Gabriel, ibid., p. 593; ( Aubert 1938), Le Serment du Prophète, image between pp. 40–41. |
| 9 | ( Ar. 202 2008). The Covenant is on pages 155b–162a. The Prophetic warning is on p. 161b. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ( Ar. 202 2008), p. 155b reads “katabahu lil-sayyid” which may be an allusion to al-Sayyid Ghassānī who received a number of covenants from the Prophet and which he distributed to other Christian denominations. As for the Morrow recension which was discovered in Egypt, it reads “katabahu al-Asad” being a reference to ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (see Morrow, ibid., Covenants, p. 255). For more background information see ( El-Wakil 2016). |
| 12 | See ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi, pp. 158–61. |
| 13 | ( Graf 1914), “Ein Schutzbrief Muḥammeds für die Christen,” p. 562. ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi, p. 159. |
| 14 | ( Graf 1914), “Ein Schutzbrief Muḥammeds für die Christen,” p. 565; ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi, p. 160. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Cheikho ibid. |
| 17 | Cheikho, ibid. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The early dating of the covenants is certainly problematic, but these dates should nevertheless be accepted as genuine despite the lack of historical data to justify them. The Prophet had good relations with the Christians of Najran from the time he was in Makkah, and it appears that the latter played a key role in conveying his covenants to the main mother churches which were represented in South Arabia i.e., Miaphysite, Chalcedonian, and Nestorian. We also have two Christian texts prophesizing Muḥammad’s future by monks who either visited or resided in Mount Sinai. The first is the apocalypse of Sergius Baḥīra who was shown the future of the Arab empire by an angel who visited him on Mount Sinai. See ( Roggema 2009). The second is a text reported by Aḥmad Zakī Basha and recorded by Hamidullah in which a monk residing on Mount Sinai and knowledgeable in astrology accurately prophesised the future of the young Muḥammad. See ( Hamidullah 1987), Majmūʿat al-Wathāʾiq al-Siyāsiyya, p. 565. Though deemed credulous in our day and age, prophecies, visions, and miracles were taken very seriously in late antiquity’s cultural milieu. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ( Ahroni 1998, pp. 78–79). Ahroni’s translation was edited by me. For a slight variant where the verb “khaṣama” is used, see ( Rivlin 1935, p. 152). The expression therein reads “kuntu anā ḥajījahu wa khaṣmahu yawm al-qiyāma.” Also see ( Goitein 1993, p. 509). The verbal noun “khaṣmahu” is omitted and the phrase reads instead “wa lā bārak Allāhu lahu li-man ẓalama banī isrā’īl mithqāl dhara wa anā ḥajījuhu yawm al-qiyāma”. Also see ( Nini 1983, p. 196). Nini reads the last clause as “fa-innanī khaṣīmahu wā ḥajījahu yawm al-dīn, yawm al-Ākhir.” One criticism of the Covenant with the Children of Israel is that the Imām should be of the progeny Fāṭima, giving us the impression that it was written during Zaydī rule. However, this may have been an explanatory note to the original covenant which was added to it by the Jews of Yemen. It certainly does not affect the overall authenticity of the text. |
| 23 | Ahroni, ibid., pp. 88–89. Ahroni’s translation was edited by me. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ( Rivlin 1935), “Ṣava’at Muḥammad le-’Alī ben Abī Ṭālib,” p. 152. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | |
| 28 | |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Sharon, ibid., p. 101. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | ( Mingana 1908), ibid., p. 179. English translation by Roger Pearse. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | |
| 35 | ( Tartar 1997). I was able to locate a copy of the letter of ‘Abdullāh al-Hāshimī and the response of al-Kindī appended to it in a leather binding completed on Sunday 22 Ṣafar 1093/1 March 1682 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. See “Dialogus de rebus Fidei Christianum Mohametanum,” Cod. XIV/MSS. Orientali No. 14, ff. 113, Collocazione 109. This manuscript appears to have been unknown to Tartar. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | To read the reconstructed Master Template, see ( El-Wakil and Nasrallah 2017). The exception to this is the Prophet’s Covenant with the Monks of Mount Sinai. This expression is in the singular form in the Morrow Covenant. Also see Gabriel, Tārīkh al-Kanīsa, p. 593. |
| 38 | ( Tartar 1997), Ḥiwār Islāmī-Masīḥī, p. 35. For more details see John Andrew ( Morrow 2017), “The Provenance of the Prophet’s Covenants,” pp. 185–88. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | |
| 41 | |
| 42 | |
| 43 | |
| 44 | |
| 45 | |
| 46 | ( Roggema 2009). Also see the Long Arabic Recension for a similar reference to the covenants: pp. 526–27. |
| 47 | Roggema, ibid., pp. 456–57. Roggema’s translation has been edited by author. |
| 48 | Roggema, ibid., p. 240. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | |
| 52 | ( El-Wakil 2016), “The Prophet’s Treaty with the Christians of Najran,” p. 334. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | |
| 55 | |
| 56 | |
| 57 | |
| 58 | |
| 59 | ( Hamidullah 1987), Majmūʿat al-Wathāʾiq al-Siyāsiyya, p. 563. Also see MSS 695 and 696 as well as the five scrolls in St. Catherine’s Monastery. |
| 60 | ( Ahroni 1998), “Some Yemenite Jewish Attitudes towards Muḥammad’s Prophethood,” pp. 50, 88–89. Also see ( Rivlin 1935), “Ṣava’at Muḥammad le-’Alī ben Abī Ṭālib,” p. 155; ( Goitein 1993), “Kitāb Dhimmat an-Nabī,” p. 509; ( Nini 1983), “Ketav ḥasüt la-Yehüdīm ha-meyüḥas lannavī Muḥammad,” p. 196. |
| 61 | ( El-Wakil 2016), “The Prophet’s Treaty with the Christians of Najran,” pp. 331–32. The Covenant with the Christians of the World was written on Monday 29 Rabī’ al-Thānī 4 AH and the Covenant with the Jews of Khaybar and Maqnā would have been on Friday 3 Ramaḍān 9 AH. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | |
| 64 | |
| 65 | al-Makīn, ibid., p. 11. |
| 66 | ( Hirschfeld 1903), “The Arabic Portion of the Cairo Genizah at Cambridge,” p. 172. |
| 67 | ( Jejeebhoy 1851), Tuqviuti-din-i-Mazdiasna, pp. 12–18; Kalima Ṭayyiba, p. 64. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | ( al-’Ārif 1999). Also see ( Gabriel 1900), Tārīkh al-Kanīsa, pp. 585–87. ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi, pp. 146–147; Ottoman Archives in Istanbul, The Church Registers ( Kamame Kilisesi Defteri), Register No. 8 (A.DVNS.KLS.d; 1171 AH), p. 5. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | |
| 72 | |
| 73 | ( Hansu 2009), “Notes on the Term Mutawātir and its Reception in Hadīth Criticism,” p. 395. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | |
| 76 | |
| 77 | ( Schacht 1953), The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, p. 165. |
| 78 | Schacht, ibid., pp. 171–172. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | |
| 81 | |
| 82 | |
| 83 | |
| 84 | |
| 85 | |
| 86 | |
| 87 | |
| 88 | |
| 89 | For these seven variants see Alī Ḥasan al-Jalabī’s work ( al-Jalabī 1999). |
| 90 | al-Jalabī, ibid., p. 191. It appears that the origin of this tradition lies with the word “adhā” having been misread as “adhmā”. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | |
| 93 | |
| 94 | al-Suyūtī, ibid., p. 141. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | |
| 97 | |
| 98 | ( al-Jalabī 1999), Mawsū’at al-Aḥādīth wa al-Athār al-Ḍa’īfa wa al-Mawḍū’a, vols. 10, p. 183. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Throughout this article, the term “Compact” is used to refer to documents emerging from Muslim sources, while the term “Covenant” is employed in reference to documents originating from non-Muslim sources. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | |
| 103 | |
| 104 | |
| 105 | Ibn Zanjawayh, ibid., ḥadīth No. 419, p. 277. |
| 106 | Ibn Zanjawayh, ibid., ḥadīth No. 733, pp. 451–52. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | |
| 109 | |
| 110 | |
| 111 | |
| 112 | |
| 113 | For a discussion of these anachronisms and the case for Mu’āwiya’s early conversion, see ( El-Wakil 2016), “The Prophet’s Treaty with the Christians of Najran,” pp. 286–92. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | |
| 116 | |
| 117 | |
| 118 | Ibn ‘Irāqa, ibid., vol. 6, p. 4. |
| 119 | Ibn ‘Irāqa, ibid., vol. 5, p. 4. |
| 120 | Ibn ‘Irāqa, ibid., p. 4. |
| 121 | Ibn ‘Irāqa, ibid., vol. 3, p. 4. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | |
| 124 | ( Schacht 1953), The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, p. 165. |
| 125 | Schacht, ibid., p. 152. |
| 126 | To find this expression in various covenants, see ( El-Wakil 2017), “Searching for the Covenants,” p. 102, sct. 8 for the Covenant with the Banū Zakān; p. 106, sct. 8 for the Covenant with the Jews of Khaybar and Maqnā; 124, sct. 6 for the Covenant with the Magi; p. 131 sct. 4 for the Covenant of ‘Alī with the Magi. Also see ( El-Wakil and Nasrallah 2017), “The Prophet Muḥammad’s Covenant with the Armenian Christians,” p. 504, sct. 54, where the concept of the protection of Allah and His messenger can be found. |
| 127 | |
| 128 | |
| 129 | |
| 130 | |
| 131 | |
| 132 | |
| 133 | |
| 134 | ( El-Wakil and Nasrallah 2017), “The Prophet Muḥammad’s Covenant with the Armenian Christians,” pp. 473–74. For Arabic, see sct. 32, pp. 33, 495–96. For the tax stipulation of 4 dirhams which was levied on the Samaritans, see Abulfathi ( al-Sāmirī 1865). |
| 135 | |
| 136 | ( Hamidullah 1987), Majmūʿat al-Wathāʾiq al-Siyāsiyya, pp. 209, 221. The Prophet’s letter to his governors in Yemen is, however, generic, stating that the jizya should be levied on every adult without specifying whether these should be male or female, free people or slaves (p. 201). The recension of the letter to Mu’ādh b. Jabal states that it should be levied on every adult male and female (p. 213), while the second recension merely states on every adult (p. 214). |
| 137 | ( Ahroni 1998), “Some Yemenite Jewish Attitudes towards Muḥammad’s Prophethood,” vol. 97, pp. 84–85. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | al-Qāḍī al-Nu‘mān, ibid., pp. 380–81. |
| 140 | |
| 141 | |
| 142 | |
| 143 | |
| 144 | |
| 145 | |
| 146 | ( Mālik 1985), Muwaṭṭā’, vol. 2, Book 17, ḥadīth No. 46, p. 281. |
| 147 | Ibid., ḥadīth No. 47, p. 281. |
| 148 | Ibid., ḥadīth No. 48, p. 281. |
| 149 | Ibid., ḥadīth No. 45, p. 280. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | |
| 152 | The Arabic word “kanīsa” can mean either a church or a synagogue. For the sake of simplicity, however, it has been translated as “church” throughout this paper. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | ( al-Iṣfahānī 1992), Ṭabaqāt al-Muḥadithīn bi-Iṣfahān, vol. 3, ḥadīth No. 355, p. 38. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | Abū ‘Ubayd, Kitāb al-Amwāl, ḥadīth No. 260, p. 176. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | ( Ibn Zabr 2006). For the first version of the Pact of ‘Umar, see pp. 22–23; for the second version, pp. 23–25. Three different versions with a full isnād can be found in Ibn ‘Asākir ( 1995). |
| 159 | It is significant that Mu’āwiya commanded that the Great Church at Edessa be rebuilt after it collapsed due the fact of an earthquake, most probably having done so based on the covenants of the Prophet which he had once scribed. See ( Hoyland 2011, pp. 170–71). |
| 160 | |
| 161 | |
| 162 | ( Mālik 1985), Muwaṭṭā’, vol. 2, Book 17, ḥadīth No. 42, p. 278. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | |
| 165 | ( El-Wakil 2017), “Searching for the Covenants,” p. 127, sct. 12, 13, 135. |
| 166 | ( al-Ṣan‘anī 1983), Muṣannaf, vol. 10, ḥadīth No. 19390, p. 367 and ḥadīth No. 19261, p. 327. Also see vol. 6, ḥadīth No. 9972, p. 49. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | ( El-Wakil 2016), “The Prophet’s Treaty with the Christians of Najran,” pp. 320–5. |
| 169 | ( Mālik 1985), Muwaṭṭāa’, vol. 2, Book 45, ḥadīth No. 18, p. 892. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | ( Mālik 1985), Muwaṭṭā’, vol. 2, Book 45, ḥadīth No. 17, p. 892. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | ( Ibn Ḥanbal 2001), Musnad, vol. 3, ḥadīth No.1691, p. 221; ḥadīth No. 1694, p. 223. |
| 174 | Ibn Ḥanbal, ibid., ḥadīth No. 1699, p. 227. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | |
| 177 | ( al-Ṣan‘anī 1983), Muṣannaf, vol. 10, ḥadīth No. 19365, p. 359; and vol. 6, ḥadīth No. 9985, p. 54. Also see ( Ibn Ḥanbal 2001), Musnad, vol. 1, ḥadīth No. 201, p. 329; ḥadīth No. 219, p. 343; ( Muslim 2006), Ṣaḥīḥ, vol. 2, ḥadīth No. 63, p. 846; ( al-Tirmidhī 1996), Jāmi’, vol. 3, ḥadīth No. 1607, p. 253. |
| 178 | ( al-Ṣan‘anī 1989). Also see ( al-Ṣan‘anī 1983) Muṣannaf, vol. 6, ḥadīth No. 9992, p. 57; ( al-Bukharī 2002), Ṣaḥīḥ, Book 64, ḥadīth No. 4431, p. 1087; Book 56, ḥadīth No. 3035, p. 702; and Book 58, ḥadīth No. 3168, p. 782; ( Muslim 2006), Ṣaḥīḥ, Book 25, ḥadīth No. 20, p. 772; and ( Abū Dāwūd 2009), Sunan, vol. 4, Book 14, ḥadīth No. 3029, p. 640. |
| 179 | Zayd b. ‘Alī 1999, Musnad, 332. |
| 180 | ( El-Wakil 2017), “Searching for the Covenants,” p. 133, sct. 8, 9. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | |
| 183 | Abū Yūsuf, ibid., p. 160. |
| 184 | Abū Yūsuf, ibid., p. 152. |
| 185 | To read the Treaty with the People of Damascus and how it was a model for all subsequent treaties see ( Eutychius 1909). Similar versions of the Treaty have been documented by Ibn ‘Asākir. See Ibn ‘Asākir, Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq, vol. 2, pp. 117–18; pp. 180–81; pp. 354–55; vols. 6, 59; p. 225. |
| 186 | |
| 187 | |
| 188 | |
| 189 | |
| 190 | |
| 191 | |
| 192 | |
| 193 | |
| 194 | For a brief overview of the history of the Monastery of St. Catherine, including the Prophetic covenant, see ( Atiya 1952). |
| 195 | ( Çolak 2013), “Relations between the Ottoman Central Administration and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchates,” pp. 53–54. |
| 196 | The General Directorate of State Archives of the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey (now renamed Republic of Turkey Presidency of State Archives) no longer has the exhibition on display; however, the image and text of the document can be consulted at Lastprophet.info, ( Treaty for Quds 15 AH) The Jerusalem Covenant was extracted from the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul, The Church Registers, No. 8, p. 5. |
| 197 | See ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi. |
| 198 | For example, one famous tradition states: “Do not write anything from me, for whoever of you writes anything from me other than the Qur’ān let him erase it. Narrate traditions from me instead for there is no harm in that, but whoever lies about me—the narrator Hammām added the word ‘intentionally’—then he will find his place in the fire of hell.” See ( Muslim 2006), Ṣaḥīḥ, Book 53, ḥadīth No. 72, p. 1366. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | |
| 201 | For an excellent discussion of the theory of abrogation, see ( Fatoohi 2013). |
| 202 | ( al-Dāraqutnī 2001). Al-Dāraqutnī mentions an alternative isnād for this tradition that reads ‘Āsim b. Abī al-Nujūd > Zayd b. ‘Alī > ‘Alī b. al-Ḥusayn. The hadīth is not raised to the Prophet, though its isnād is one of the most reliable. There is reason to deny this tradition, for the Prophet’s Household always advised their followers to weigh a hadīth’s veracity in relation to the Qur’ān. |
| 203 | ( al-’Ayāshī 1991). Al-’Ayāshī reports similar traditions on the authority of ‘Alī, al-Ḥusayn, Muḥammad al-Bāqir, and Ja’far al-Ṣādiq, see pp. 19–20. |
| 204 | al-’Ayāshī, ibid., p. 20. |
| 205 | al-’Ayāshī, ibid. |
| 206 | |
| 207 | Examples of this are too numerous to cite, though we may here draw the reader’s attention to the mutawātir tradition permitting a Muslim to wipe his leather socks during ablution and which has been reported by 66 authorities, see ( al-Kattānī n.d.). Despite its mutawātir status, this practice was rejected by the Ḥanafīs, the Zaydīs, the Ja’farīs, and the Ismā’īlīs. The same applies for the case of sadl al-yadayn, which was adopted by the Mālikis based on the practice of the people of Madīna, and by the Zaydīs, the Ja’farīs, and the Ismā’īlīs because of traditions they traced back to the ahl al-bayt which they considered more authoritative than the mutawātir traditions going back to the Prophet supporting that the hands be held together in prayer. For a good discussion see ( Dutton 1996). |
| 208 | |
| 209 | Hansu explains how, by the time of al-Kattānī, the definition of mutawātir itself changed and that, previously, this tradition was classified by al-Tirmidhī as ṣaḥīḥ ḥasan gharīb. See ( Hansu 2009), “Notes on the Term Mutawātir and its Reception in Hadīth Criticism,” p. 404. |
| 210 | |
| 211 | |
| 212 | ( Graf 1914), “Ein Schutzbrief Muḥammeds für die Christen,” p. 566. Names have been deciphered from high-resolution images of the original manuscript, not Graf’s transcriptions. |
| 213 | ( Akyüz 2002), Osmanlı Devletinde Süryani Kilisesi, pp. 160–61. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | |
| 216 | |
| 217 | |
| 218 | |
| 219 | |
| 220 | al-Bayhaqī, Sunan, vol. 9, ḥadīth No. 18715, p. 339. |
| 221 | ( Ibn Sulaymān 2003). It should here be noted that Muqātil b. Sulaymān was of the generation that preceded al-Kalbī. It, therefore, seems that the transmission of the Najran Compact is an addition to his original work by ‘Abd al-Khāliq b. al-Ḥasan. |