Constitution of Medina

Uncommon card · No. 190826

The Mithaq al-Madina or the Constitution of Medina or the Charter of Medina (Arabic: وثيقة المدينة, romanized: Waṯīqat al-Madīna; or صحیفة المدينة, Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna; 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, and has been called as the world's first constitution to establish pluralism, religious freedom, and collective defense. 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...

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