THE CONSTITUTION OF MEDINA

Akira Gotō

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Islamic Thought and Society Studies Islamic Studies and History Archaeology and Historical Studies

Abstract

I There exists a written contract known as 'the Constitution of Medina', which the Prophet Muhammad exchanged with the people of Medina after the hijra.The original document of the Constitution is not extant now.It is preserved in Kitab Sira Rasul Allah written by Ibn Ishaq (d.151 A. H.In the followings, year of one's death is indicated by the Muslim calender), which was compiled and annotated by Ibn Hisham (d.218).(1)Although most of the leading Muslim historians like al-Tabari and the scholars in hadith such as al-Bukhari did not record the full text of the Constitution in their big volumes, most of the modern scholars did never suspect the authenticity of the text.W. M Watt suggests, however, that the text of Ibn Ishaq might be formed of some diffrent dated documents.(2) R. B. Serjeant assumes again that the text is a set of eight documents of different dates.(3)On the basis of his field works in South Arabia, he indicates that the contracts made among the tribes there have many points of similarities to the text.Although he states that his work is still preliminary one, it includes many valuable suggestions.It is J. Shimada of Chuo University in Tokyo who points out that beside the text of Ibn Ishaq there exists another version of the text.(4)It is recorded in Kitab al-Amwal by Abu 'Ubayd (d.224).( 5) Now, let us suppose that the text of Ibn Ishaq is the text A and that of Abu 'Ubayd is the text B. Shimada concludes that the texts A and B are the same in substance.Some stipulations of the text A, however, are left out in the text B. It is true that those stipulations are not essential parts of the Constitution, but the fact of dropping out of certain parts of it in the text B may mean that the text of the Constitution is the composite one.And it should be noted that the text B contains its isnad which is completely wanting in the text A.

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