Evidence Library / Primary Sources
The Constitution of Medina
A set of clauses, preserved in Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad, establishing relations between the Emigrants, the Medinan Muslims, and Medina's Jewish tribes shortly after the hijra.
Preserved only in later compilations, chiefly Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad (via Ibn Hisham's recension), rather than as a surviving contemporary document, the text known as the "Constitution of Medina" sets out reciprocal obligations between the Meccan Emigrants, the Medinan Muslims (the Ansar), and the Jewish tribes of Medina.
Status as a source
No original document survives; the text is embedded in a much later narrative source. Scholars broadly treat its archaic language and awkward internal fit within Ibn Ishaq's narrative as evidence that he was reproducing an earlier written source rather than composing it himself, though the document's precise date and whether it represents one single agreement or several combined remain debated.
See The Constitution of Medina: A Primary Source Overview for a fuller discussion of the source-critical issues.
Bibliography
- Guillaume, Alfred, trans. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.
- Serjeant, R. B. "The Sunnah Jāmi‘ah..." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 41, no. 1 (1978): 1–42.