Achtiname of Muhammad

Achtiname of Muhammad
Author(s)	unknown
Ascribed to	Ali bin Abi Talib (scribe), Islamic prophet Muhammad (commissioner)
Authenticity	uncertain
Manuscript(s)	copies at Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, and Simonopetra monastery
First printed edition	Gabriel Sionita, Testamentum et pactiones inter Mohammedem et Christianae fidei cultores (1630)

The Achtiname of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or (Holy) Testament (Testamentum) of Muhammad, is a document or ahdname which purports to be a charter or writ ratified by the Prophet Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand.^[1]

History

The document claims that the Prophet (570-632) had personally granted by charter the rights and privileges to all Christians "far and near". It consists of several clauses on such topics as the protection of Christians living under Islamic rule as well as pilgrims on their way to monasteries, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from military service and taxes, and the right to protection in war.

The original charter does not survive, but several copies are now extant in the library of St Catherine, some of which are witnessed by the judges of Islam in order to lend some force to its semblance of authenticity. The traditional explanation which accounts for the loss of the original claims that during the Conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman sultan Selim I in 1517, the original document was seized from the monastery by Ottoman soldiers and taken to Selim's palace at Constantinople.^[2][1] A copy was then made to compensate for its loss at the monastery.^[1] On the other hand, it is also possible that the charter was simply renewed under the new rulers, as other documents in the archive suggest.^[3] Traditions about the tolerance shown towards the monastery were reported in governmental documents issued in Cairo and during the period of Ottoman rule (1517-1798), the Pasha of Egypt annually reaffirmed its protections.^[1]

In 1630, Gabriel Sionita published the first edition of the Arabic text, with Latin translation, under the title Testamentum et pactiones inter Mohammedem et Christianae fidei cultores.

The origins of the document has been the subject of a number of different traditions, best known through the accounts of European travellers who visited the monastery.^[1] These authors include the French knight Greffin Affagart (d. c. 1557), the French traveller Jean de Thévenot (d. 1667) and the English prelate Richard Peacocke,^[1] who included an English translation of the text.

Since the 19th century, several aspects of the Achtiname, notably the list of witnesses, have been questioned by scholars.^[4] There are similarities to other documents granted to other religious communities in the Near East. One example is Muhammad's letter to the Christians of Najrān, which first came to light in 878 in a monastery in Iraq and whose text is preserved in the Chronicle of Séert.^[1]

References

Primary sources

Editions of the Ahtiname

• Sionita, Gabriel (ed. and tr.). Testamentum et pactiones inter Mohammedem et Christianae fidei cultores. Paris, 1630.
• Nisselii, J.G. (ed.). Testamentum inter Muhamedem et Christianae religionis populos initum. Leiden, 1655.

Travel descriptions

• Pococke, Richard. Description of the East. Vol. 1. London, 1743. pp. 268-70. Includes an English translation.
• Thévenot, Jean de. Relation d’un voyage fait au Levant. Paris, L. Billaine, 1665.
• Affagart, Greffin. Relation de Terre Sainte, ed. J. Chavanon. Paris: V. Lecoffre, 1902.

Secondary sources

• Atiya, Aziz Suryal. "The Monastery of St. Catherine and the Mount Sinai Expedition." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96.5 (1952). pp. 578-86.
• Lafontaine-Dosogne, Jacqueline. "Le Monastère du Sinaï: creuset de culture chrétiene (Xe-XIIIe siècle)." 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.
• Ratliff, Brandie. "The monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai and the Christian communities of the Caliphate." Sinaiticus. The bulletin of the Saint Catherine Foundation (2008).

Further reading

• Atiya, Aziz Suryal (1955). The Arabic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai: A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts and Scrolls Microfilmed at the Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 
• Hobbs, J. (1995). Mount Sinai. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 158–61. 
• Manaphis, K.A., ed. (1990). Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine. Athens. pp. 14, 360–1, 374. 
• Moritz, B. (1918). "Beitrage zur Geschichte des Sinai-Klosters im Mittelalter nach arabischen Quellen". Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie: 6–9.  German translation
• Moritz (1928). Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 4: 6–8. 
• Mouton, Jean-Michel (1998). "Les musulmans à Sainte-Catherine au Moyen Âge". Le Sinai durant l'antiquité et le moyen âge. 4000 ans d'histoire pour un desert. Paris: Editions Errance. pp. 177–82. 
• Pelekanidis, S. M.; Christou, P. C.; Tsioumis, Ch.; Kadas, S. N. (1974-1975). The Treasures of Mount Athos [Series A]: Illuminated manuscripts. Athens.  A copy in the Simonopetra monastery, p. 546.
• Sotiriou, G. and M. (1956-8). Icones du Mont Sinaï. 2 vols (plates and texts). Collection de L'Institut francais d'Athènes 100 and 102. Athens. pp. 227–8. 
• Vryonis, S. (1981). "The History of the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem as Reflected in Codex Patriarchus No. 428, 1517-1805". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 7: 29–53. 

External links

• An English translation of part of the charter can be read here or here.
• http://www.islamicvoice.com/august.99/zakir.htm