Ashtiname of Muhammad

The "Ashtiname" of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or Testament ("Testamentum") of Muhammad, is a document which is a charter or writ written by Ali and ratified by Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, given to the Christian monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand.
"Āshtīnāmeh" () is a Persian word meaning "Book of Peace", a Persian term for a treaty and covenant.
History.
According to the monks' tradition, Muhammad frequented the monastery and had great relationships and discussions with the Sinai fathers.
Several certified historical copies are displayed in the library of St Catherine, some of which are witnessed by the judges of Islam to affirm historical authenticity. The monks claim that during the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17), the original document was seized from the monastery by Ottoman soldiers and taken to Sultan Selim I's palace in Istanbul for safekeeping. A copy was then made to compensate for its loss at the monastery. It also seems that the charter was renewed under the new rulers, as other documents in the archive suggest. Traditions about the tolerance shown towards the monastery were reported in governmental documents issued in Cairo and during the period of Ottoman rule (1517–1798), the Pasha of Egypt annually reaffirmed its protections.
In 1916, Na'um Shuqayr published the Arabic text of the "Ashtiname" in his "Tarikh Sina al-qadim" or "History of Ancient Sinai". The Arabic text, along with its German translation, was published for a second time in 1918 in Bernhard Moritz's "Beiträge zur Geschichte des Sinai-Klosters".
The "Testamentum et pactiones inter Mohammedem et Christianae fidei cultores", which was published in Arabic and Latin by Gabriel Sionita in 1630 represents a covenant concluded between Muhammad and the Christians of the World. It is not a copy of the "Ashtiname".
The origins of the "Ashtiname" has been the subject of a number of different traditions, best known through the accounts of European travellers who visited the monastery. These authors include the French knight Greffin Affagart (d. "c". 1557), the French traveller Jean de Thévenot (d. 1667) and the English prelate Richard Peacocke, who included an English translation of the text.
Authenticity.
Since the 19th century, several aspects of the "Ashtiname", notably the list of witnesses, have been questioned by some scholars. There are similarities to other documents granted to other religious communities in the Near East. One example is Muhammad's alleged letter to the Christians of Najran, which first came to light in 878 in a monastery in Iraq and whose text is preserved in the "Chronicle of Seert".
At the beginning of the 20th century, Bernhard Moritz, in his seminal work, concluded from his analysis of the document, that: "The impossibility of finding this document to be authentic is clearly evident. The date, style and content all prove the inauthenticity." Amidu Sanni points out that there are no existent codices, Islamic or otherwise, which predate the 16th century, and Dr Mubasher Hussain has questioned the authenticity of the document on the basis of the fact it contains an impression of a hand which it is claimed belongs to that of Muhammad, but which, rather than showing the inside of the hand as might be expected, "surprisingly shows the outer side of the hand, which is possible only if it is taken using a camera!" Furthermore, he claims that "many language expressions used in this covenant" are dissimilar "to those of the Prophetic expressions preserved in the authentic hadith collections."
Modern influence.
Some have argued that the "Ashtiname" is a resource for building bridges between Muslims and Christians. For example, in 2009, in the pages of "The Washington Post", Muqtedar Khan translated the document in full, arguing that
The "Ashtiname" is the inspiration for "The Covenants Initiative" which urges all Muslims to abide by the treaties and covenants that were concluded by Muhammad with the Christian communities of his time.
In 2018, the final legal judgement in the Pakistani Asia Bibi blasphemy case cited the covenant and said that one of Noreen's accusers violated the "Ashtiname of Muhammad", a "covenant made by Muhammad with Christians in the seventh century but still valid today".
On February 10, 2019, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan cited the covenant in his speech delivered at World Government Summit, 2019.