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  موسوعة تاريخ أقباط مصر - Coptic history

بقلم المؤرخ / عزت اندراوس

 The text of the Covenant of Omar

 إذا كنت تريد أن تطلع على المزيد أو أن تعد بحثا اذهب إلى صفحة الفهرس تفاصيل كاملة لباقى الموضوعات

أنقر هنا على دليل صفحات الفهارس فى الموقع http://www.coptichistory.org/new_page_1994.htm

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Covenant of Omar

 

 
*** We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.
*** Do not we make in our city and around the monastery with no church, no frying pan or monastery, and renew the ruined them and salute them what he plans to Muslims
لَا نُحْدِث فِي مَدِينَتنَا  وَلَا فِيمَا حَوْلهَا دَيْرًا وَلَا كَنِيسَة وَلَا قلاية وَلَا صَوْمَعَة رَاهِب وَلَا نُجَدِّد مَا خَرِبَ مِنْهَا وَلَا نُحْيِي مِنْهَا مَا كَانَ خُطَطًا  (شوارع أو أحياء)لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ
 *** and should not prevent our churches that inflicted one of the Muslims in the night and day and expand their doors to passers-by and the wayfarer
We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days.
َأَنْ لَا نَمْنَع كَنَائِسنَا أَنْ يَنْزِلهَا أَحَد مِنْ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي لَيْل وَلَا نَهَار وَأَنْ نُوَسِّع أَبْوَابهَا لِلْمَارَّةِ وَابْن السَّبِيل
And go down in our opinion, Muslims feed them three days

َأَنْ نُنْزِل مِنْ رَأَيْنَا مِنْ الْمُسْلِمِينَ ثَلَاثَة أَيَّام نُطْعِمهُمْ
Does not intend in our churches and our homes a spy nor conceal fraud of Muslims do not teach our children the Koran does not shirk show no call to anyone
We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy, nor bide him from the Muslims
We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it.
 
وَلَا نَأْوِي فِي كَنَائِسنَا وَلَا مَنَازِلنَا جَاسُوسًا وَلَا نَكْتُم غِشًّا لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ وَلَا نُعَلِّم أَوْلَادنَا الْقُرْآن وَلَا نُظْهِر شِرْكًا وَلَا نَدْعُو إِلَيْهِ أَحَدًا
we shall not prevent anyone with Qraptna entering Islam if they wanted
We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.
َلَا نَمْنَع أَحَدًا مِنْ ذَوِي قَرَابَتنَا الدُّخُول فِي الْإِسْلَام إِنْ أَرَادُوهُ
And Muslims and we decline to dignify them from our councils if they want to sit
We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit.
َأَنْ نُوَقِّر الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَأَنْ نَقُوم لَهُمْ مِنْ مَجَالِسنَا إِنْ أَرَادُوا الْجُلُوس
we shall not imitate them in anything from their clothes in the cap or turban and felt no difference Ni'lin
We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas.

وَلَا نَتَشَبَّه بِهِمْ فِي شَيْء مِنْ مُلَابِسهمْ فِي قَلَنْسُوَة (هى فى الأصل كلمة ليست عربية كلمة يونانية تسمى كولوليون أو كوكلس وهى عبارة عن غطاء للرأس وهى تشبه طاقية الفلاحين الآن أو قطعة قماش تغطى الرأس ) وَلَا عِمَامَة (غطاء الرأس الإسلامى) وَلَا نَعْلَيْنِ وَلَا فَرْق شَعْر
 we shall not speak their word and do not ride Nkina Pkinahm Ntqld saddles and swords do not take anything from the weapon does not bear with us
Will not take their own tongue
We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our- persons.
وَلَا نَتَكَلَّم بِكَلَامِهِمْ (ولن نأخذ بلسانهم / لن نتكلم بلغتهم أى لن نتعلم العربية) وَلَا نَكَتْنِي بِكُنَاهُمْ (أى لا نتسمى بأسمائهم العربية والإسلامية) وَلَا نَرْكَب السُّرُوج وَلَا نَتَقَلَّد السُّيُوف وَلَا نَتَّخِذ شَيْئًا مِنْ السِّلَاح وَلَا نَحْمِلهُ مَعَنَا
Not Nnakec Juatimna Arabic
We shall not engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals.
َلَا نَنْقُش خَوَاتِيمنَا بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ
********************************
We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children
لن نعلّم أولادنا القرآن

We shall not sell fermented drinks.
we shall not sell alcohol
وَلَا نَبِيع الْخُمُور
And Billings Mviadem our heads and to commit Zina, and where we squeeze our midst to Sashes
We shall clip the fronts of our heads.
We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be (In further humiliation do not wear white garments worn by Muslims and expensive clothes and the Ntezin)

, and we shall bind the zunar round our waists (In further humiliation A thick rope of palm fiber resulting from the meeting in the middle of each one of them was only women who associate their midst this cord is still used by some farmers Copts in Egypt so far)
وَأَنْ نَجُزّ مَقَادِيم رُءُوسنَا وَأَنْ نَلْزَم زَيِّنَا (أى لا نلبس البيضاء التى يلبسها المسلمين والملابس الغالية الثمن ونتزين بها ) حَيْثُمَا كُنَّا وَأَنْ نَشُدّ الزَّنَانِير (إمعاناً فى الإذلال حبل غليظ  من الليف الناتج من النخيل يعقده فى وسطه كل واحد منهم وكان النساء فقط هم الذين يربطون أوساطهم بهذا الحبل وما زال بعض الفلاحين ألأقباط يستعمله حتى الآن بمصر) عَلَى أَوْسَاطنَا
we shall not to show the cross on our churches and not to show our crucified nor in any of the methods of Muslims and their markets
We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims.
َأَنْ لَا نُظْهِر الصَّلِيب عَلَى كَنَائِسنَا وَأَنْ لَا نُظْهِر صُلُبنَا وَلَا كُتُبنَا فِي شَيْء مِنْ طُرُق الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَلَا أَسْوَاقهمْ
our bells not strike in our churches but lightly beaten
We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly

وَلَا نَضْرِب نَوَاقِيسنَا فِي كَنَائِسنَا إِلَّا ضَرْبًا خَفِيفًا
And not raise our voices in our churches in reading something in the presence of Muslims

وَأَنْ لَا نَرْفَع أَصْوَاتنَا بِالْقِرَاءَةِ فِي كَنَائِسنَا فِي شَيْء فِي حَضْرَة الْمُسْلِمِينَ
 we shall not go out and Haanin Bautha
(we will not go out outside the church to celebrate a Palm sun day not go out to celebrate Easter)
وَلَا نَخْرُج شَعَّانِينَ وَلَا بُعُوثًا
(أى لا نخرج خارج الكنيسة للإحتفال بعيد الزعف ولا نخرج للإحتفال بعيد القيامة)
we shall not raise our voices with our dead
We shall not raise our voices when following our dead

َلَا نَرْفَع أَصْوَاتنَا مَعَ مَوْتَانَا
we shall not show them fire in any of the methods of Muslims and their markets
We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets

وَلَا نُظْهِر النِّيرَان مَعَهُمْ فِي شَيْء مِنْ طُرُق الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَلَا أَسْوَاقهمْ
Not Njawarham Bmutana
We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.
وَلَا نُجَاوِرهُمْ بِمَوْتَانَا
we shall  not take a slave by the arrows of what happened and that the Muslims Muslims rationalize not we learn them in their homes.
We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims
We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims.

وَلَا نَتَّخِذ مِنْ الرَّقِيق مَا جَرَى عَلَيْهِ سِهَام الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَأَنْ نُرْشِد الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَلَا نَطْلُع عَلَيْهِمْ فِي مَنَازِلهمْ (أى لا تكون منازل المسيحيين أعلى من منازل المسلمين بل العكس)
Said when I reached the age the book has increased in that or hit one of the Muslims, our condition to you on ourselves and the people of our religion and accepted by the Security If we disobey in anything that Chertnah you Ozva on ourselves is not owed ​​to us has a solution for you from us what is happening to the people of tenacity and discord.
قَالَ فَلَمَّا أَتَيْت عُمَر بِالْكِتَابِ زَادَ فِيهِ وَلَا نَضْرِب أَحَدًا مِنْ الْمُسْلِمِينَ شَرَطْنَا لَكُمْ ذَلِكَ عَلَى أَنْفُسنَا وَأَهْل مِلَّتنَا وَقَبِلْنَا عَلَيْهِ الْأَمَان فَإِنْ نَحْنُ خَالَفْنَا فِي شَيْء مِمَّا شَرَطْنَاهُ لَكُمْ وَوَظَّفْنَا عَلَى أَنْفُسنَا فَلَا ذِمَّة لَنَا وَقَدْ حَلَّ لَكُمْ مِنَّا مَا يَحِلّ مِنْ أَهْل الْمُعَانَدَة وَالشِّقَاق .

 

The text of the Covenant of Omar
Age requirements as set out in the interpretation of the Koran by Ibn Katheer Repentance Verse 5
Author: Ismail bin Omar bin Abu al-Qurashi many redemption
The author's death 774

The Qur'anic foundation for this pact is seen as being Sura 9:29, which states, "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."


That came on the interpretation of Repentance Verse 5: "When the sacred months and then kill the polytheists where did you find them and take them and count them and wait for them each observatory if they repent and establish worship and pay the zakat, then leave their way Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."


They spoke on condition of the faithful Omar Bin Al Khattab may Allah be pleased with him those conditions known to humiliate them and Allaah caused the Thakaarham and that which was narrated by the Imams of the novel to maintain Abdul Rahman bin sheep-Ash'ari said: I wrote to Omar Bin Al Khattab may Allah be pleased with him, while the benefit of the people of the Christians of the Levant

This book by Abdullah Omar of the faithful of the city as well as Christians, as well as you what you gave us Salnakm security for ourselves and Dhirarina and our money and the people of our religion and our condition on ourselves that you

 

In the name of allah, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to the servant of Allah Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations toward you

 

 

 

We heard from Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 697 A.D.] as follows: When Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:

In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to the servant of Allah Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations toward you:

We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.

We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days.

We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy, nor bide him from the Muslims.

We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children.

We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.

We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit.

We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas.

We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our- persons.

.

We shall not sell fermented drinks.

We shall clip the fronts of our heads.

We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall bind the zunar round our waists

We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims.

We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly. We shall not raise our voices when following our dead.

We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.

We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.

We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims.

(When I brought the letter to Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, he added, "We shall not strike a Muslim.")

We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.

If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.

Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: "

"They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and

"Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact."


 

Following is the translated source:

Pact of Umar Al-Turtushi, Siraj al-Muluk, pp. 229-230.

We heard from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 78/697] as follows: When Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:

(When I brought the letter to Umar, may God be pleased with him, he added, "We shall not strike a Muslim.")

We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.

If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.

Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: "They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and "Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact."

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Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 9, “Repentance,” verse 29, Part 2

Verse 29 of chapter 9 of the Qur’an, as we saw last week, mandates that the Muslims fight against the Jews and Christians “until they pay the jizya [poll tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

Asad, Daryabadi and other Western-oriented commentators maintain that the jizya was merely a tax for exemption for military service. Asad explains: “every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to take up arms in jihad (i.e., in a just war in God’s cause) whenever the freedom of his faith or the political safety of his community is imperiled…Since this is, primarily, a religious obligation, non-Muslim citizens, who do not subscribe to the ideology of Islam, cannot in fairness be expected to assume a similar burden.” But they pass in silence over the latter part of v. 29, which mandates the humiliation of non-Muslims.

In explaining how the Jews and Christians must “feel themselves subdued,” Ibn Kathir quotes a saying of Muhammad: “Do not initiate the Salam [greeting of peace] to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley.” He then goes on to outline the notorious Pact of Umar, an agreement made, according to Islamic tradition, between the caliph Umar, who ruled the Muslims from 634 to 644, and a Christian community.

This Pact is worth close examination, because it became the foundation for Islamic law regarding the treatment of the dhimmis. With remarkably little variation, throughout Islamic history whenever Islamic law was strictly enforced, this is generally how non-Muslims were treated. Working from the full text as Ibn Kathir has it, these are the conditions the Christians accept in return for “safety for ourselves, children, property and followers of our religion” – conditions that, according to Ibn Kathir, “ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.” The Christians will not:

1. Build “a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk”;
2. “Restore any place of worship that needs restoration”;
3. Use such places “for the purpose of enmity against Muslims”;
4. “Allow a spy against Muslims into our churches and homes or hide deceit [or betrayal] against Muslims”;
5. Imitate the Muslims’ “clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles, speech, nicknames and title names”;
6. “Ride on saddles, hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry these weapons”;
7. “Encrypt our stamps in Arabic”
8. “Sell liquor” – Christians in Iraq in the last few years ran afoul of Muslims reasserting this rule;
9. “Teach our children the Qur’an”;
10. “Publicize practices of Shirk” – that is, associating partners with Allah, such as regarding Jesus as Son of God. In other words, Christian and other non-Muslim religious practice will be private, if not downright furtive;
11. Build “crosses on the outside of our churches and demonstrating them and our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets” – again, Christian worship must not be public, where Muslims can see it and become annoyed;
12. “Sound the bells in our churches, except discreetly, or raise our voices while reciting our holy books inside our churches in the presence of Muslims, nor raise our voices [with prayer] at our funerals, or light torches in funeral processions in the fairways of Muslims, or their markets”;
13. “Bury our dead next to Muslim dead”;
14. “Buy servants who were captured by Muslims”;
15. “Invite anyone to Shirk” – that is, proselytize, although the Christians also agree not to:
16. “Prevent any of our fellows from embracing Islam, if they choose to do so.” Thus the Christians can be the objects of proselytizing, but must not engage in it themselves;
17. “Beat any Muslim.”

Meanwhile, the Christians will:

1. Allow Muslims to rest “in our churches whether they come by day or night”;
2. “Open the doors [of our houses of worship] for the wayfarer and passerby”;
3. Provide board and food for “those Muslims who come as guests” for three days;
4. “Respect Muslims, move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in them” – shades of Jim Crow;
5. “Have the front of our hair cut, wear our customary clothes wherever we are, wear belts around our waist” – these are so that a Muslim recognizes a non-Muslim as such and doesn’t make the mistake of greeting him with As-salaamu aleikum, “Peace be upon you,” which is the Muslim greeting for a fellow Muslim;
6. “Be guides for Muslims and refrain from breaching their privacy in their homes.”

The Christians swore: “If we break any of these promises that we set for your benefit against ourselves, then our Dhimmah (promise of protection) is broken and you are allowed to do with us what you are allowed of people of defiance and rebellion.”

Of course, the Pact of Umar is a seventh-century document. But the imperative to subjugate non-Muslims as mandated by Qur’an 9:29 and elaborated by this Pact became and remained part of Islamic law. In the nineteenth century the Western powers began to pressure the last Islamic empire, the Ottoman Empire, to abolish the dhimma. In Baghdad in the early nineteenth century, Sheikh Syed Mahmud Allusi (1802-1853), author of the noted commentary on the Qur’an Ruhul Ma’ani, complains that the Muslims have grown so weak that the dhimmis pay the jizya through agents, rather than delivering it themselves on foot. In his Tafsir Anwar al-Bayan, the twentieth-century Indian Mufti Muhammad Aashiq Ilahi Bulandshahri laments that “in today’s times, the system of Atonement (Jizya) is not practised at all by the Muslims. It is indeed unfortunate that not only are the Muslim States afraid to impose Atonement (Jizya) on the disbelievers (kuffar) living in their countries, but they grant them more rights than they grant the Muslims and respect them more. They fail to understand that Allah desires that the Muslims show no respect to any disbeliever (kafir) and that they should not accord any special rights to them.”

The influential twentieth century jihadist theorist Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) emphasizes that these rules should be revived, for “these verses are given as a general statement, and the order to fight the people of the earlier revelations until they pay the submission tax with a willing hand and are subdued is also of general import” (In the Shade of the Qur’an, Vol. VIII, p. 126).

Likewise the Pakistani jihadist writer and activist Syed Abul A’la Maududi (1903-1979) states that “the simple fact is that according to Islam, non-Muslims have been granted the freedom to stay outside the Islamic fold and to cling to their false, man-made, ways if they so wish.” That heads off any potential contradiction between his understanding of v. 29 and 2:256, “There is no compulsion in religion.” Maududi continues by declaring that the unbelievers “have, however, absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines. For if they are given such an opportunity, corruption and mischief will ensue. In such a situation the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life” (Towards Understanding the Qur’an, vol. III, p. 202).

Islamic apologists in the West today commonly assert that 9:29 commands warfare only against the Jews and Christians who fought against Muhammad, and no others. I wish that every Muslim believed that, but unfortunately that has never been the mainstream Islamic understanding of this verse. Indeed, if it had been, the Pact of Umar, which I detail above, would never have been made — for it was made after Muhammad’s death with Christians against whom he did not fight. That in itself, as well as the teachings of all the schools of Islamic law, illustrates that this verse was always understood as having a universal application.

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The original Pact of Umar was apparently issued by caliph Umar bin al-Khattab (634–644). Though there is wide disagreement among scholars about the origins and development of this covenant, it seems clear that the Pact of Umar eventually became a composite statement that was central to the Muslim legal structure in terms of dealing with non-Muslim populations in the early Abbasid period and thereafter. As Muslim dominion rapidly expanded by military means in the 7th century, means of treating Non-Muslims as dhimma, or protected person were implemented, which would henceforth be used as a model.

According to the pact, conquered Jews and Christians under subjection were allowed the privilege of worshiping according to their own religion, albeit in a very subdued and non-evangelistic manner, to own property, and to pursue their occupations. In return they acknowledged the authority of the Muslim government, swore loyalty to the state, and paid the jizya as other financial assessments, and thus received some protection from molestation, provided they where found faithful to the Pact.

The pact prohibited Christians and Jews from marrying Muslim women or making any public religious displays, such as exhibiting statues, ringing bells, holding processions, issuing proclamations, and undertaking new construction of synagogues or churches. Jews and Christians were not allowed to evangelize, teach the Qur'an, prevent family members from converting to Islam, imitate Muslims in appearance, bury their dead in Muslim cemeteries, build homes that overlooked those of Muslims, own slaves previously owned by Muslims, hold political office, ride horses or camels, testify against a Muslim in a criminal legal case, sell alcohol, pork, or carrion to Muslims. In addition, Jews and Christians were to identify themselves by wearing a girdle over external clothing, shaving the front of their head (males), and using distinctive headgear, saddles, and mounts.

They also had to agree that if they in any way violated these commands, then they forfeited the covenant [dhimma], and become liable to the penalties for insubordination.

It is also understood by some that the Jews, Christians and Magians are to be asked to convert to Islam, and if they refuse then they should be asked to pay the jizyah. If they refuse to pay the jizyah then the Muslims must fight them if and when they are able to do so.

This site was last updated 09/29/11