User:Rudrasharman/Notes/Constitution of Medina

Encyclopedia of Islam

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

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:

and

and

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.