The Mithaq al-Madina or the Constitution of Medina or the Charter of Medina (<!-- The use of دستور is anachronistic and a semantic borrowing) -->; or ; also known as the "Umma Document"), is a constitution that governed the affairs of Medina which formed the basis of the First Islamic State, a multi-religious polity under the Prophet Muhammad's leadership. Composed of approximately 47 clauses, the constitution established a legal, economic and political framework for the diverse communities living in Medina, declaring all citizens as one community.
According to Robert Bertram Serjeant, the Constitution of Medina consisted of eight distinct documents, issued on several occasions over the first seven years or so of Muhammad's Medinan period. Many of the texts were recorded by Ibn Ishaq and Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, though how they encountered the text is unclear. Although it does not fulfill any of the conditions of authenticity in the Islamic recording system (such as having a reliable chain of narrators up to the person who recorded it), it is widely accepted as authentic. It may have been preserved due to interest in its manner of administration. Many tribal groups are mentioned, including the Banu Najjar and Quraysh, as well as many tribal institutions, like vengeance, blood money, ransom, alliance, and clientage, and has striking resemblances with Surah 5 (Al-Ma'idah) of the Quran.
Historical sources
The Constitution is only known from excerpts in early Muslim sources, primarily the Al-Sīrah Al-Nabawiyyah of Ibn Hisham (early 800s CE), a recension of the Al-Sīrah Al-Nabawiyyah of Ibn Ishaq, though transmitted without a chain of narration, a crucial criterion for hadith scholars.|group=Note On the other hand, historians have variously characterized it as a "municipal charter” (Gemeindeordnung); or as a "unilateral proclamation" by Muhammad, whose "purpose was purely practical and administrative", rather than a treaty in the modern sense.
Most historians have accepted the authenticity of the Constitution of Medina. In the case of some historians, skepticism is constrained to particular aspects of the Constitution as well as the context of its emergence; disagreements persist on whether the documents resulted from negotiated settlements or were merely unilateral edicts by Muhammad, the identity of participants (including uncertainty about the inclusion of the three major Jewish tribes of Medina—Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, and Banu Qurayza), the quantity of documents, the precise timing of its creation (or that of its constituent parts), and the appropriate approach to its translation, among other issues.
Dating
thumb|upright=0.8|An early manuscript of [[Ibn Hisham's ]]
One 20th-century scholar, W. Montgomery Watt, suggested that the Constitution of Medina must have been written in the early Medinan period (i.e., in 622 CE or shortly thereafter), because if the document had been drafted any later, then it would have both had a positive attitude towards the Quraysh and given Muhammad a more prominent place. Malay scholars, Fadzilah Din and Mohamed Noh Abdul Jalil, as well as the noted Pakistani scholar, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, cite the 622 CE drafting. Others, such as Hubert Grimme, suggested that it must have been drafted after the 624 CE Battle of Badr. Still others, such as Leone Caetani, suggested that the document was written before that battle.
Portions of the constitution are corroborated by multiple sound hadith reports. Its validity in its stated single form, however, has been called into question, as there is no single sound chain of authorities (isnad) supporting it. There are differences of opinion as well as to how many documents the constitution comprises—from one to eight. It is also unclear with which Jews this agreement was made, whether it was only with some of the smaller Jewish social units that had lost their tribal structure and affiliated with the Arabs, with the Judaized Arabs, or also included what later sources described as the three major Jewish clans in the city, namely Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, and Banu Qurayza, Another question raised about the constitution is that though it gives a list of Jewish tribes/clans of Medina involved, not among them are three famous in traditional Islamic history for being driven into exile (the Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nadir tribes) or "massacred and dumped into pits" (the Banu Qurayza tribe), after conspiring and rising up against Muhammad. There is a suggestion, however, that if this constitution really existed, it was probably created after the elimination of the three major Jewish clans in Medina by Muhammad and his troops. (see Also:Jewish tribes of Arabia)
Background
According to traditional Islamic belief, in Muhammad's last years in Mecca, a delegation from Medina from its twelve important clans invited him as a neutral outsider to serve as the chief arbitrator for the entire community. There had been fighting in Medina involving mainly its pagan and Jewish inhabitants for around 100 years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, especially after the Battle of Bu'ath in which all the clans had been involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal conceptions of blood feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with the authority to adjudicate in disputed cases.
After emigration to Medina, Muhammad drafted the constitution, "establishing a kind of alliance or federation" of the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca and specifying the rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina, including that of the Muslim community to other communities: the Jews and the other "Peoples of the Book". making him as the foremost judicial authority responsible for resolving conflicts and overseeing judicial welfare in Medina. This later unified the diverse tribal groups, including the Jewish tribes, and ended long standing internecine tensions. In this role, prophet Muhammad exercised final decision making in dispute resolution, interpretation of law, and maintenance of public order.
Text
The following English translation is that of the Israeli writer Michael Lecker from 2004. It is based on the version of the document found in Ibn Hisham's recension of the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Abu Ubaid's Kitab-al-Amwal, and Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa l-Nihaya. The translation was aimed at being clear, with clauses numbered in line with international standards for ease of future reference. There is general agreement on the authenticity of the text.
L. Ali Khan says that it was a social contract derived from a treaty and not from any fictional state of nature or from behind the Rawlsian veil of ignorance. It was built upon the concept of one community of diverse tribes living under the sovereignty of one God.
It also instituted peaceful methods of dispute resolution among diverse groups living as one people but without assimilating into one religion, language or culture. Welch in Encyclopedia of Islam states: "The constitution reveals Muhammad's great diplomatic skills, for it allows the ideal that he cherished of an ummah (community) based clearly on a religious outlook to sink temporarily into the background and is shaped essentially by practical considerations." Tribal identities are still important to refer to different groups, but the "main binding tie" for the newly created ummah is religion. That contrasts with the norms of pre-Islamic Arabia, which was a thoroughly tribal society, but Serjeant postulates the existence of earlier theocratic communities. According to Denny, "Watt has likened the Ummah as it is described in the document to a tribe, but with the important difference that it was to be based on religion and not on kinship".