The Prophet Muhammad's Promise to Christians
A covenant attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, preserved for centuries at St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, promises protection to Christians. What does it say, and how authentic is it?
At the foot of Mount Sinai stands St Catherine's Monastery, one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monasteries in the world. Among its treasures is a tradition that has drawn new attention in an age of sectarian conflict: a covenant, known as the Ashtiname, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and granting protection to the monks and to Christians more broadly.
What the covenant says
The text, as preserved in later copies, commands Muslims to protect Christians and their churches. It forbids forcing Christians to convert, destroying their places of worship or removing their clergy. It pledges that Christian women married to Muslims may keep their faith. It presents protection of Christians as an obligation until the end of time.
In 2007 the American Muslim scholar Muqtedar Khan published an essay on the covenant that circulated widely. He argued that it showed an Islamic tradition of respect for Christians that Muslims should reclaim. The article was reprinted by publications around the world.
Questions of authenticity
The original document is said to have been taken to Istanbul by the Ottoman sultan Selim I in the sixteenth century, and the monastery holds copies. Historians disagree about the covenant's origins. Some scholars regard it as a later text, possibly from the medieval period. Others, such as the researcher John Andrew Morrow, have argued that it and similar covenants reflect genuine early commitments.
Why it matters today
Whatever its origins, the covenant has become a reference point for Muslims and Christians seeking shared ground. It sits alongside other traditions of coexistence, from the Prophet's hosting of a Christian delegation from Najran in his mosque in Medina, to centuries of shared life in cities from Damascus to Cairo.
In a region where Christian communities have suffered greatly in recent decades, from Iraq to Syria to Egypt, the covenant's message has been invoked by clerics, scholars and activists as a reminder of obligations that many say the extremists have betrayed.