Page "Medina" Paragraph 28

According to Ibn Ishaq, the local pagan Arab tribes, the Muslim Muhajirun from Mecca, the local Muslims ( Ansar ), and the Jews of the area signed an agreement, the so-called Constitution of Medina, which committed all parties to mutual cooperation under the leadership of " Muhammad the Prophet ".

The nature of this document as recorded by Ibn Ishaq and transmitted by Ibn Hisham is the subject of dispute among modern Western historians, many of whom maintain that this " treaty " is possibly a collage of different agreements, oral rather than written, of different dates, and that it is not clear exactly when they were made.

Other scholars, however, both Western and Muslim, argue that the text of the agreement -- whether a single document originally or several -- is possibly one of the oldest Islamic texts we possess.