The Ashtiname of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or Testament of Muhammad, is a document which is a charter or writ written by Ali and ratified by Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, given to the Christian monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand. Āshtīnāmeh is a Persian word meaning "Book of Peace", a Persian term for a treaty and covenant.
Document
English translation of the ''Ashtiname'' by Anton F. Haddad
For other translations of the Ashtiname, including the lists of witnesses, refer to The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World by Dr. John Andrew Morrow.
History
According to the monks' tradition, Muhammad frequented the monastery and had great relationships and discussions with the Sinai fathers. Several certified historical copies are displayed in the library of St Catherine, some of which are witnessed by the judges of Islam to affirm historical authenticity. The monks claim that during the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in the Ottoman–Mamluk War, the original document was seized from the monastery by Ottoman soldiers and taken to Sultan Selim I's palace in Istanbul for safekeeping. A copy was then made to compensate for its loss at the monastery. It also seems that the charter was renewed under the new rulers, as other documents in the archive suggest. Traditions about the tolerance shown towards the monastery were reported in governmental documents issued in Cairo and during the period of Ottoman rule, the Pasha of Egypt annually reaffirmed its protections. In 1916, Na'um Shuqayr published the Arabic text of the Ashtiname in his Tarikh Sina al-qadim or History of Ancient Sinai. The Arabic text, along with its German translation, was published for a second time in 1918 in Bernhard Moritz's Beiträge zur Geschichte des Sinai-Klosters. The Testamentum et pactiones inter Mohammedem et Christianae fidei cultores, which was published in Arabic and Latin by Gabriel Sionita in 1630 represents a covenant concluded between the Prophet Muhammad and the Christians of the World. It is not a copy of the Ashtiname. The origins of the Ashtiname has been the subject of a number of different traditions, best known through the accounts of European travellers who visited the monastery. These authors include the French knight Greffin Affagart, the French traveller Jean de Thévenot and the English prelate Richard Peacocke, who included an English translation of the text. Since the 19th century, several aspects of the Ashtiname, notably the list of witnesses, have been questioned by scholars. There are similarities to other documents granted to other religious communities in the Near East. One example is Muhammad's alleged letter to the Christians of Najran, which first came to light in 878 in a monastery in Iraq and whose text is preserved in the Chronicle of Seert.
Modern influence
Some have argued that the Ashtiname is a resource for building bridges between Muslims and Christians. For example, in 2009, in the pages of The Washington Post, Muqtedar Khan translated the document in full, arguing that The Ashtiname is the inspiration for The Covenants Initiative which urges all Muslims to abide by the treaties and covenants that were concluded by Muhammad with the Christian communities of his time. In 2018, the final legal judgement in the Pakistani Asia Bibi blasphemy case cited the covenant and said that one of Noreen's accusers violated the Ashtiname of Muhammad, a "covenant made by Muhammad with Christians in the seventh century but still valid today". On February 10, 2019, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan cited the covenant in his speech delivered at World Government Summit, 2019.
Citations
Primary sources
;Arabic Editions of the Achtiname
Morrow, John Andrew. The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World. Kettering, OH: Angelico Press / Sophia Perennis, 2013.
Amarah, Muhammad. al-Islam wa al-akhar. Maktabah al-Sharq al-Dawliyyah, 2002.
Moritz, Bernhard.
Shuqayr, Na‘um. Tarikh Sina al-qadim wa al-hadith was jughrafiyatuha, ma‘a khulasat tarikh Misr wa al-Sham wa al-‘Iraq wa Jazirat al-‘Arab wa ma kana baynaha min al-‘ala’iq al-tijariyyah wa al-harbiyyah wa ghayriha ‘an tariq Sina’ min awwal ‘ahd al-tarikh il al-yawm. : n.p., 1916.
;English, French, and German Translations of the Achtiname
Thévenot, Jean de. Relation d’un voyage fait au Levant. Paris, L. Billaine, 1665.
Pococke, Richard. 'Chapter XIV: The Patent of Mahomet, which he granted to the Monks of Mount Sinai; and to Christians in General.' Description of the East. Vol. 1. London, 1743. pp. 268–70.
Arundale, Francis. Illustrations of Jerusalem and Mount Sinai. London: Henry Colburn, 1837.28–29
Davenport, John. An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran. London: J. Davy and Sons, 1869. 147–151.
Naufal, Naufal Effendi. .
Moritz, Bernhard.
:fr:Greffin Affagart|Affagart, Greffin.
Haddad, Anton F., trans. . New York: Board of Counsel, 1902; H-Bahai: Lansing, MI: 2004.
Hobbs, Joseph J. Mount Sinai. Austin: University of Austin Press, 1995. 158–61.
Morrow, John Andrew. The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World. Tacoma, WA: Angelico Press / Sophia Perennis, 2013.
Secondary sources
Atiya, Aziz Suryal. "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the Mount Sinai Expedition." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96.5. pp. 578–86.
Lafontaine-Dosogne, Jacqueline. "Le Monastère du Sinaï: creuset de culture chrétiene." In East and West in the Crusader states. Context – Contacts – Confrontations. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in May 1993, ed. Krijnie Ciggaar, Adelbert Davids, Herman Teule. Vol 1. Louvain: Peeters, 1996. pp. 103–129.
