The Ashtiname Of Muhammad
The Claim
Ashtiname is a Persian word meaning “Book of Peace”, and specifically refers to letter from Muhammad to St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai guaranteeing them – and Christians in general – toleration. Aside from the apologetic that this means that “Islam is a religion of peace”, etc., the supposed existence of the document (and others like it) is used to support claims for the historicity of Muhammad as portrayed in the Islamic sources; for the existence of “Islam” as such; for “Muslims” s such, as opposed to “Hagarenes”, etc. The claim is particularly linked to Imam Ilyas 'Abd al-'Alim Islam/John Morrow, a Canadian (Métis –French/First Nations heritage) convert to Islam, author of The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World (Angelico Press / Sophia Perennis, 2013). In his article “The Covenants of the Prophet and the Subject of Succession”, Religions, Volume 10; Issue 11, 593, 24 October 2019, he lists the covenants as follows (p. 2):
The Christian Covenants include: the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Monks of Mount Sinai, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World, which survives in two versions, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of Najran, which includes short, medium, and long versions, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of Persia, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Assyrian Christians, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Armenian Christians, the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Syriac Orthodox Christians, and the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Coptic Christians, among others. The Jewish Covenants include: the Covenant of Madınah, the Treaty of Maqna, and the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Children of Israel of which half a dozen versions survive. A single Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Samaritans survives as does a Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Parsis.
The last-mentioned is strange, since “Parsis” refer to Iranian Zoroastrians who fled to India to escape the Islamic/Arab invasion that came after the death of Muhammad! Perhaps he meant “Magians”. Morrow recognizes that his thesis is controversial, but states (Ibid.): “All in all, there is enough evident that the Covenants of the Prophet are “authentic” or “correct,” and hence credible, in the sense that they can be traced back, as far as is reasonably possible, to the Prophet, and in the sense that they are consonant with the spirit of the Qur’an.” The last clause is very subjective, so we will ignore it. How far can the covenants be traced back - according to modern standards of historical criticism?
The Problem: Dates
Significantly, on p. 4, Morrow writes:
In the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World (Mount Carmel manuscript), the Messenger of Allah describes his protection and his pact as “the most solid covenant that God has given a prophet sent or an angel drawn near” (Morrow 2017a, vol. 3, p. 20; Morrow 2013, p. 233).
The term malak muqarrab, angel of proximity or angel drawn near, is found in the following tradition attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: “There is a moment (waqt) for me with God, which neither an intimate angel (malak muqarrab), nor a messenger-prophet (nabı mursal) can share with me” (Hussainı 1983). This tradition, which is not found in canonical books of ahadıth, but which is frequently cited in Sufı works, is also translated as “I have a moment with God (lı ma‘a Allah waqt) in which no angel drawn near (malak muqarrab) or prophet sent (nabı mursal) rivals me” (Böwering 2012, p. 108).
Note the highlighted section. If the term is not even found in the Hadith literature, complied two centuries after the event, how late must be the tradition about the Covenants? Amazingly, on p.5, he quotes works where the phrase is used, none of which antedate the 10th century A.D., most being later:
References to the malak muqarrab are found in (Sa‘dı 1965) (d. 1291 CE) Gulistan or Rose Garden (119), the Ara’is al-bayan fı hada’iq al-Qur’an of Ruzbihan al-Baqlı (d. 1209 CE) (Godlas 1991), Mutannabı’s (d. 965 CE) Panegyrics (Hámori 1991), and the work of Hamıd al-Dın al-Kirmanı (d. 1021 CE) (Walker 1999), among many others. Since the malak muqarrab tends to be mentioned in early Sufı-Shı‘ite works, the Covenants of the Prophet seem to surface from the same current of Islam.
If the Covenants spring from a Sufi milieu, how can they go back to Muhammad himself? Again, note the dates of the sources for the Treaty of Maqna (p. 6):
Cited or mentioned in Waqidı (2013, d. 823 CE), Sa‘d (2001, d. 845 CE), Zanjaway (1986, d. 865 CE), Baladhurı (1866, d. 892 CE), Kathır (Kathır 2013, d. 1373 CE), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (Qayyim 1997, d. 1350 CE), among many others, and dated toward the end of the prophetic mission, the Treaty of Maqna promises the sons of Hanınah, which can also be vocalized as Habıbah or Janbah, who were Jews of Maqna, along with the rest of the inhabitants of the city located near Aylah…
Elsewhere, in The Prophet Muhammad and The Children of Israel by Dr. John Andrew Morrow, https://www.interfaithny.com/ICLIoct3.php, the author states concerning this Treaty:
The Treaty of Maqna was witnessed by God, the angels, and the Muslims who were present. It was written by ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and witnessed by ‘Ammar ibn Yasir, Salman al-Farsi, and Abu Dharr, three prominent Companions of the Prophet. Tragically, the version of the Treaty of Maqna found in Muslim sources such as Ibn Sa‘d and Baladhuri, which was supposedly a faithful copy of the original that was in the hands of Egyptian Jews in the 8th century, has been proven to have been altered. A comparison of the original document found in the Cairo Genizah, as completed by Ahmed El-Wakil, shows this to be the case. This confirms that Sunni hadith and historical sources are not necessarily accurate reflections of early Muslim material. Generally compiled several centuries after the passing of the Prophet Muhammad, they are, to a large extent, censored accounts of the primary sources, altered to make them accord with the interpretations and interests of the rulers of the time. As a comparison of the surviving copies of the Covenants of the Prophet with the Jews, Samaritans, Zoroastrians, and Christians shows, the versions included in canonical books of Muslim tradition were edited to make them less tolerant than the originals. This demonstrates that a process of white-washing took place at a later point and that conflicts that took place centuries after the rise of Islam were projected back to the time of the Prophet. An attempt was made to free the Prophet from any association with Judaism and Christianity, presenting him as an illiterate pagan, as opposed to a literate monotheist with an in-depth understanding of Abrahamic religions.
The Treaty of Maqna from the Cairo Genizah is only one of half a dozen copies of covenants reportedly concluded between the Prophet Muhammad and the children of Israel, many of which have been passed down by Yemenite Jews. If the Treaty of Maqna found in Ibn Sa‘d and Baladhuri is generally treated as authentic by the majority of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars who have studied it, the same cannot be said of the covenants transmitted by Yemenite Jews. The general consensus of the mostly modern, secular, Jewish scholars who have examined them is that they are forgeries created by the Children of Israel in an attempt to secure rights from Muslim rulers. Several scholars, however, such as Hartwig Hirschfeld, Ahmed El-Wakil, and myself, have argued in favor of the general authenticity of the documents in question.
Morrow’s argument is that the Sunni Hadith literature is late and has been altered, and so have some references to this treaty. Given either the concurrent or even later dating for the Treaty and other covenants, how can they be taken seriously as historically authentic? To return to The Covenants of the Prophet and the Subject of Succession, consider the dates for another covenant Morrow mentions (p. 8):
The Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Jews was known to Ibn al-Sabbagh (d. 1451 CE), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (Qayyim 1997, d. 1350), Dhahabı (Dhahabı 2001, d. 1348), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE), and al-Nawawı (d. 1277) (El-Wakıl 2017, pp. 27–31). It was invoked in Natan’el al-Fayy umı’s Bustan al-‘uq ul in the twelfth century CE. It was familiar to al-Khatib al-Baghdadı (d. 1071) (El-Wakıl 2017, pp. 27–28). The document was also cited in shortened form by Ibn Hibban in the tenth century, along with Baladhurı (d. 892 CE), Ibn Zanjawayh (d. 865 CE), Ibn Sa‘d (d. 845 CE), and Waqidı (d. 823 CE), in the ninth century CE. According to the analysis of Hartwig Hirschfeld, the antiquity of Version H, which was found in the Cairo Geniza, “is so great that we may safely date it from the tenth century, if not still earlier” (174). Clearly, the document, in one form or another, dates to the early days of Islam. Consequently, one cannot speak of forgeries. At the very most, one can speak of reworking of ancient material by contraction or expansion.
None of the dates are prior to the 9th century A.D., and most are later. Morrow seems to regard even these dates as “the early days of Islam”. His idea of “forgery” seems elastic – “reworking of ancient material by contraction or expansion” – omitting and adding ancient material, other than by a contemporary colleague – tends to be viewed as forgery.
Ahmed El-Wakil, Masters’ thesis, 2017, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Searching for the Covenants: Identifying Authentic Documents of the Prophet Based on Scribal Conventions and Textual Analysis, p. 49, observes that there are four recensions of the Covenants with the Magi: The first recension is that of Sorabjee Jamshetji Jejeebhoy which was first published in 1851 CE by his father Sir Jamshetji Jejeebhoy, a Parsi-Indian philanthropist.” The situation deteriorates further:
The litho-copy of the Covenant with the Magi (also known as the “Ahd Nāmah’) was reproduced by Hamidullah and extensively studied by ‘Abd al-Mu‘īd Khān. According to Khān “A member of the Jejeebhoy Family of Bombay is said to have in his possession a long roll of the ‘Ahd Nāmah, from which the one in this litho-copy has been transcribed. This roll of ‘Ahd Nāmah is reputed to have been copied from one on red leather owned by another Parsi gentleman in 1840 A.C., the trace of which has been entirely lost.”
If we examine the third and fourth recensions, the situation is not much better (pp. 50, 51):
A third recension was recorded by al-Sayyid ‘Alī Khān al-Shīrāzī (d. 1120 AH) in his book Al-Darajāt al-Rafī‘a fī Ṭabaqāt al-Shī‘a (The High-Ranking Stations of the Shia) of which a summary of its contents was made much earlier by Ibn Shahrashūb (d. 588 AH) in his Al-Manāqib (Virtues of the Family of Abū Ṭālib). Ibn Shahrashūb’s summary was copied out word for word by Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī (d. 1111 AH) in his Biḥār al-Anwār (Oceans of Light)…
The fourth recension was transmitted by Abū al-Shaykh al-Iṣfahānī (d. 369 AH) in his Ṭabaqāt al-Muḥadithīn bi-Iṣfahān (The Rankings of the Narrators of Isfahan) and Abū Nu‘aym (d. 430 AH) in his Dhikr Akhbār Iṣfahān (Narrations from Isfahan). The transmissions of Abū al-Shaykh and Abū Nu‘aym are so similar to one another and the differences among them so few that they should be considered as two separate transmissions of one recension. Al-Mustawfī records in Tārīkh Kuzīda a version of the Covenant with the Magi that is almost identical to the Abū al-Shaykh/Abū Nu‘aym recension except that it has a few incoherencies and so it has not been used as part of the cross-comparison.
We see again the pattern of late dates and textual inconsistency. The review of Morrow’s book by Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2015, Vol. 35, No. 4, also notes the late dates (pp. 589):
The covenants studied here by John Andrew Morrow were largely obtained from monasteries or archival repositories, and their copying history goes back to the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries (Father Scaliger’s 1629 [1538] edition of the Treaty with Mt. Sinai Monks, and Gabriel Sionita’s 1630 and Georg Nissel’s 1655 exemplar of same). The Arabic title given is al-‘Ahd wa-al-shurut. allatı sharat.aha Muhammad Rasul Allah li ahl al-millah al-nasraniyyah (The Treaty and Covenant which Muhammad the Messenger of Allah concluded with the Christian Community)…
…we find no evidence of pre-sixteenth century codices, even in Islamic sources (Ibn Sa‘d’s d. 845 alleged citation from the “covenant” is unsubstantiated, p. 69)…
St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai
El-Wakil comments about St. Catherine’s covenant (p. 6):
The copy of the Covenant with the Monks of Mount Sinai also claims to be an exact replica (naql al-aṣl) and an unadulterated copy (naqlan muṣaddaqan) of the original covenant which was handed over to Sultan Selim I. That these two covenants are allegedly word for word replicas of the originals is a significant claim in favour of their authenticity and textual accuracy. The similarity of language between them and other Christian covenants indicates that they all derived from a Master Template which was copied out and slightly modified depending on the Christian communities to whom they were given.
Selim I reigned 1487 – 1510 – so the current Sinai document, even if it originates from that time, is very late. In no Sunni hadith is any reference to St. Catherine’s, either directly or obliquely, ever made, even in narrations dealing with Egypt. In the Sira, we read the following: (A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1955, 1967, 1998, p. 653):
Yazid b. Abu Habib al-Misri told me that he found a document in which was a memorandum (T. the names) of those the apostle sent to the countries and kings of the Arabs and non-Arabs and what he said to his companions when he sent them…
Then the apostle divided his companions and sent… Habib b.Abu Balta’a to the Muqauqis ruler of Alexandria. He handed over to him the apostle’s letter and the Muqauqis gave to the apostle four slave girls, one of whom was Mary mother of Ibrahim the apostle’s son…
This work was edited by Ibn Hisham (d. 833), so it is late, but there is no reference to the Sinai monastery there, even when it deals with the Egyptian Patriarch (usually identified as Cyrus, who was also Prefect). Modern academic scholars are skeptical of the authenticity of this tradition (Gabriel Said Reynolds, The emergence of Islam: classical traditions in contemporary perspective, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012, p. 49):
Most critical scholars question the tradition by which Muhammad sent out letters to world leaders — including the Byzantine and Persian emperors—with invitations to accept Islam. This episode is never mentioned in Byzantine or Persian (or any other non-Islamic) sources. If indeed it was a tradition developed by medieval Muslim scholars, it is still valuable for what it shows of their religious vision.
Morrow’s book was reviewed by Mubasher Hussain in Islamic Studies 57:3-4 (2018) pp. 311–322. On p. 312, Hussain notes:
Morrow has focused on six covenants, which are surprisingly not recorded in the classical Islamic sources, such as the Qur’an, the hadith collections, the sirah writings, books of Islamic history, and manuals of Islamic law. Four of them have no mention at all in Islamic sources. However, two of them (i.e., the first and the third) have a couple of indications which may lead one to trace some of their sentences back to Islamic sources. For that reason, the authenticity of these covenants has been questioned by both the Muslim and Western scholars.
Hussain then lists Morrow’s rather dubious criteria for authenticity:
First, some of these covenants have their shorter versions in the Islamic sources. For instance, the treaty of Najran, which is also cited in Ibn Sa‘d’s al-Tabaqat should be considered authentic on the ground that its version found in the Islamic sources is simply a summary of the complete covenant found in the Christian monastery (p. 354). Second, he holds that the content analysis of these covenants proves them to be sound (p. 353). Third, while they contain certain variations due to scribal negligence, the content of these covenants is in complete agreement with the true teachings of Islam (p. 353). Fourth, they are witnessed by a number of Prophet’s companions (p. 353). Fifth, with reference to certain covenants, the absence of definitive evidence of forgery, in author’s view, is a proof of their authenticity (p. 98).
Hussain also notes the vital problem in authenticating the St. Catherine’s document:
… the treaty titled “The Prophet Muhammad and the Monks of Mount Sinai” (65–98), about which the author admits that its original copy is lost (pp. 77, 82), contains an impression of a hand which is claimed to be of the Prophet (peace be on him) (see pp. 81, 222). However, the impression surprisingly shows the outer side of the hand, which is possible only if it is taken using a camera!
Absent the original document, verification is well-nigh impossible. In assessing documents, the criteria should surely be: Paleography; carbon dating; quotation in other documents from around the same age or just subsequently. Morrow’s criteria are highly subjective – not least stylistic analysis - and circular. Hussain also notes (p. 317) Morrow’s lack of engagement with the Sira:
Morrow has defended Islam and Muslims on several hot issues including jihad and terrorism (pp. 59–62, 111). However, he has strangely consulted only the secondary sources of the sirah (for instances, see pp. 45, 47, 49, 84, 113, 117, 118, 126) while the original sources are widely available. The reviewer could not find a single reference to primary sources of sirah throughout the book. Moreover, many citations lack the reference at all (see pp. 83, 115–116, 122) and some of them have incomplete references (see pp. 43, 47, 56, 78, 122).
In Morrow’s rebuttal to Hussain (The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad Continue to Cause Controversy, By John Andrew Morrow, October 16, 2019, https://themaydan.com/2019/10/the-covenants-of-the-prophet-muhammad-continue-to-cause-controversy/), he asserts:
As for the claim that the covenants of the Prophet Muhammad are not found in classical Islamic sources, this is inaccurate. The original copy of Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of Najran reportedly formed part of the collection of the Bayt al-Hikmah of Baghdad. Its rediscovery in 878/879 CE by Habib the Monk, as recorded in the Chronicle of Seert, was considered a major historical event at the time. None of the Muslim scholars from that period disputed it. Prior to that, the Covenant of Najran was cited in various fragmented forms by Abu Dawud (d. 889), Ibn Zanjawayh (d. 865), Ibn Sa‘d (d. 845), Abu ‘Ubayd (d. 825), al-Waqidi (d. 822), Yahya b. Adam (d. 818), al-Shaybani (d. 805), Abu Yusuf (d. 798), al-Balkhi (d. 767), and Ibn Ishaq (d. 761 or 770). It forms part of a continuum. It was transmitted, in one form or another, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the 21st century.
The authenticity of the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Monks of Sinai was confirmed by Muslim Caliphs from early Fatimid times until the end of Ottoman times. It is mentioned, quoted or reproduced in full in firmans, fatwas, and ahdnames from the 10th century until the 20th century…
The oldest surviving documents dealing with the ‘Ahd al-Nabi or Covenant of the Prophet from St. Catherine’s Monastery date from the same period as most prophetic traditions, namely, two to three centuries after the fact.
Even if this were true, it is clear that the St. Catherine’s covenant cannot be traced back to Muhammad’s time.
In Gabriel Said Reynold’s review of Morrow’s book in First Things, February 2014, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/02/briefly-noted, he notes the late dating, dismisses the covenants as forgeries, and states:
The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World is a translation of, and commentary on, documents that purport to be “covenants” the Prophet Muhammad made with Christian communities, assuring them of their protection. Forged by Christians intent on proving to their Muslim overlords that the Prophet himself had guaranteed their well-being and the preservation of their property, they are all quite late.
The earliest copies of “the covenant of the Prophet with the monks of Mt. Sinai” date to the sixteenth century (over nine hundred years after the death of Muhammad). The “covenant of the Prophet with Assyrian Christians” dates to the seventeenth century (and is in an Islamic Persian script that did not exist in Muhammad’s day), and the “covenant of the Prophet with the Christians of the world,” which includes twenty-two signatures meant to be those of the Prophet’s companions, dates to the sixteenth.
The fact that the supposed original copy of the St. Catherine’s covenant was sent to Selim I is perhaps explained by the following (Owen Chadwick, The Reformation, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964, 1977, p. 352):
From time to time a zealous sultan or mufti would declare that it was the duty of the Turks to exterminate all the Christians; and the bloodthirsty Selim I… is said to have been restrained with difficulty from killing Christians… They normally commandeered at least one church in every conquered town and transformed it into a mosque, and they might commandeer more if the city was big - at Constantinople itself they appropriated at least eight other churches beside the great St Sophia. In 1537 the Turkish muezzins in Constantinople declared that according to Moslem law all Christian churches in a conquered city must be destroyed, and that Constantinople was a conquered city. The Patriarch embraced with lamentations the image of the Virgin in Our Lady Pammacaristos, his cathedral since the loss of St Sophia, consulted the Grand Vizier and the legal authorities, distributed presents, and hired an ancient witness named Mustapha who said that he was 102 years old, had fought at the siege of Constantinople, and could testify that the city had not been conquered but had surrendered. The lawyers accepted the plea, and the passing of the danger was celebrated with litanies and thanksgivings.
It seems fairly obvious that the man Mustapha was bribed, and we can see why the monks of St. Catherine would want to manufacture something to dissuade Selim (and anyone else, before or after) from expropriating their property.
If we examine the tradition further, we see more legends (James Bentley, Secrets of Mount Sinai, London: Orbis, 1985; pp. 18-19):
As tradition has it, in AD 625 the monks sent a delegation to Mohammed himself, begging his protection. Later Mohammed allegedly visited the monastery, and travellers were and are shown the divinely enlarged imprint of his camel’s hoof on the rock. In any event the monks did obtain a document, purportedly from Mohammed, that guaranteed their safety. A later Sultan is said to have carried this away, leaving an authenticated copy still displayed in St Catherine’s.
Whatever the truth in these traditions, the monks of Mount Sinai undoubtedly managed to gain recognition and protection from the Sultans, and took great care not to jeopardize their precarious security. Yearly they persuaded the Sultans in Constantinople to renew their charter of protection. And these Christian monks developed a uniquely tolerant relationship with Islam.
Remarkable evidence of this is provided today by an Islamic mosque standing within the walls of the Christian monastery itself, to serve the religious needs of its Moslem servants. An immediately arresting sight in this singularly Christian context, it was built in the eleventh century, at a time of great danger to the monks Hakim was ravaging and pillaging Christian foundations or slightly later in the 1090s when Archbishop John the Athenian was murdered by hostile Moslems. One account has the monks building the mosque overnight, as a means of protection against marauders who might have burned St Catherine’s to the ground; the sight of the minaret rising above the monastery walls would turn away militant Islam.
CONCLUSION
The St. Catherine’s covenant and its parallels are obvious forgeries, produced for the reasons Reynolds suggests – security from Islamic violence or expropriation. The dating is too late, and the originals – not produced in an age of papyrus – are lost. The criteria for authenticity that Morrow suggests does not meet the standards of valid historical criticism. It is clear that the St. Catherine’s covenant does not provide evidence for the traditional understanding of Muhammad, Islam or Muslims.