User:Rudrasharman/Notes/Constitution of Medina

Encyclopedia of Islam

From Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed. Article on Muhammad (F. Buhl and AT Welch):

Muhammad's task was to form a united community out of these heterogeneous elements. The first problem to be tackled was how to procure the necessary means of subsistence for the Emigrants, who for the most part were without resources of their own. This difficulty was alleviated at least temporarily through an arrangement by which Muhammad ordered a relationship of "brotherhood" to be created between each Emigrant and a man of Medina
[see mu'akhāt]. Sūra XXXIII, 6, dating from some time after the battle of Badr, is usually interpreted as abolishing this "brotherhood" arrangement, at least in matters of inheritance (cf. Ibn Hishām, 344-6; Ibn Sa'd, i/2, 1). A more significant factor in the termination of these early arrangements in Medina may have been the formal agreement established between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families. Fortunately, Ibn Ishāq preserved a version of this very valuable document, usually called the Constitution of Medina. This version appears not to date from Muhammad's first year in Medina, as is sometimes claimed, since it reflects the later, strained relationship between the Prophet and the Jewish people of the settlement. It reveals his great diplomatic skills, for it allows the ideal that he cherished of an umma (community) based clearly on a religious outlook to sink temporarily into the background and is shaped essentially by practical considerations. It is true that the highest authority is with God and Muhammad, before whom all matters of importance were to be laid, but the umma as portrayed in the Constitution of Medina included also Jews and polytheists, so that the legal forms of the old Arab tribes were substantially preserved (cf. R. Serjeant, The Sunnah Jāmi'ah, pacts with the Yathrib Jews, and the tahrīm of Yathrib: analysis and translation of the documents comprised in the so-called 'Constitution of Medina', in BSOAS, xli [1978], 1-42). The provisions stipulated in this document appear to have had little practical importance. It is nowhere mentioned in the Qur'an, although some commentators interpret sūra VIII, 56 as referring to it. In any case, it was soon rendered obsolete by the rapidly and radically changing conditions in Medina.

Wensinck

Wensinck on sources: only two quote the CoM, Ibn Ishāq and Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, with the latter citing the former and providing an isnād (Ibn Abī Khaythamah from Ahmad ibn Janāb Abū al-Walīd from 'Isā ibn Yūnus from Kāthir ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn 'Amr al-Muzanī from his father from his grandfather.) Later writers summarized only.

The words "when he came to Medina" occur three times in al-Wāqidī, twice each in al-Tabarī and al-Balādhurī, yet nowhere in Ibn Ishāq.
The words "he concluded a truce (with the Jews of Medina)" can be found in all writers. They are borrowed from Ibn Ishāq.
The words "he concluded ... a contract" are cited by al-Wāqidī (twice), al-Balādhurī, Ibn Khaldūn, and al-Halabī. Borrowed from Ibn Ishāq but with the noteworthy difference that the words which follow in Ibn Ishāq, "between the muhājirūn and the ansār", are omitted by al-Wāqidī and al-Balādhurī, who have instead, "between him and them" (namely, the Jews).
The words which then follow in Ibn Ishāq "and he made a contract with them and guaranteed them religion and property" are transmitted only by Diyār Bakrī and al-Halabī.
The penultimate words in Ibn Ishāq, "he imposed obligations on them", occur in al-Wāqidī, al-Tabarī and al-Balādhurī. All writers then give short summary of the contents and omit the last words, "and he guaranteed them rights."

Wensinck's conclusion:

Thus we must accept the fact that, beginning with al-Wāqidī, Arab historians completely omitted the constitution, ipissima verba of the Prophet, and in its place given the mutilated content under a misleading heading. How can this phenomenon be explained? It was Caetani who supplied the answer: The Muslims' dogmatic view of history could not imagine the Prophet to have put polytheists and Jews on equal footing with the believers. Because of such dogmatic bias, Muslim historians either could not or would not understand the content of the document.[...] Certainly al-Wāqidī, the direct successor of Ibn Ishāq, omitted the document; and al-Tabarī, whose biography of Muhammad is largely based on Ibn Ishāq, omitted it sua sponte and not merely to follow al-Wāqidī.

and

To 3: The omission of "between the muhājirūn and the ansār" purports to create the impression that Muhammad concluded the contract only with the Jews. There is no mention of the polytheists nor the muhājirūn and the ansār, although the latter two groups occupy the dominant place in the constitution.

As Caetani said, this concept certainly served to spread the opinion that the Jews, favoured by a contract, were so mean as to break it after the battle of Badr. Al-Balādhurī says this in a long-winded account.
To 1: The insertion of "upon his arrival at Medina" purports to present Muhammad as the lord and master when he arrived in the city and who, on account of his position, could lay down the law for the Jews. The traditional accounts of Muhammad's entry into Medina are based on this opinion. Ibn Ishāq has the Medinans break all ties with the Jews certainly at the second 'Aqabah.

To 4: That al-Wāqidī, al-Tabarī and al-Balādhurī ignored the words, "and he guaranteed them religion and property", is connected with their own view, namely that Muhammad, who later said that he would not tolerate two religions in Arabia, could not specifically have granted the Jews freedom of religion.

and

From this point of view the brief references to the document in the above mentioned writers are an important contribution towards the understanding of Muslim tradition and its partisan concepts.

Serjeant

Two articles:

"The Constitution of Medina", Islamic Quarterly, 8,1-2 (1964)
"The Sunnah Jāmi'ah, Pacts with the Yathrib Jews, and the Tahrīm of Yathrib: Analysis and translation of the documents comprised in the so-called 'Constitution of Medina'", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 41 (1978)

A compound of 8 documents, identified mainly by characteristic phrases used to end such documents:

A. The confederation treaty

B. Supplement to A (These two are the al-Sunnat al-Jāmi'ah cited in the arbitration treaty between 'Ali and Mu'āwiyah)

C. Treaty defining the status of the Jewish tribes in the confederation

D. Supplement to C

E. Reaffirmation of the status of the Jews

F. Proclamation of Yathrib as a sacred enclave (haram)

G. Treaty concluded prior to Khandaq among the Arabs of Yathrib and with the Jewish Qurayzah, to defend it from Quraysh of Mecca and their allies

H. Codicil to F

Re Ibn Ishaq's text (Abu 'Ubayd's is defective): Documents E-H are not in chronological order, initial clauses of E have been misplaced.