Constitution of Medina

Shortly after the Hijra — within the first year according to most scholars — the Prophet ﷺ promulgated a written compact between the Muslims and the various communities of Medina, including the Muhajirin, Ansar, and the Jewish tribes (Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza, and others). This document — the Sahifat al-Medina, preserved in Ibn Hisham's Sirah — is the earliest written constitutional document in recorded political history. Its approximately forty-seven clauses established the framework of governance for a multi-communal city under prophetic leadership. Key provisions: the Muslims (Muhajirin and Ansar) and their allies constituted a single ummah, distinct from other people. The Jewish tribes were acknowledged as a community alongside the Muslims — they had their own religion, their internal autonomy, and would share in the collective defense of Medina. All parties pledged not to aid the Quraysh or external enemies. Individual wrongdoers were personally responsible for their actions — no collective punishment across clan lines. All inter-communal disputes unable to be resolved internally were to be referred to Muhammad ﷺ, whose decision was final. The Constitution was revolutionary in seventh-century Arabia for replacing tribal loyalty as the primary political bond with a contractual and faith-based one — uniting clans from Mecca and Medina that had historically been rivals under a single political entity. It established coexistence with non-Muslim communities on explicit, written terms rather than the informal and volatile arrangements of tribal customary law. The framework it created allowed the Prophet ﷺ to govern a complex multi-communal city without the military capacity that later Islamic governance would develop. It would be violated by each of the Jewish tribes in turn — with specific legal consequences for each violation — but while it operated, it produced the political stability in which the Muslim community could organize, develop, and ultimately prevail — not through coercion but through the gradual persuasion of a city that witnessed, over ten years, what prophetic governance actually looked like in practice. The Constitution was the Prophet's ﷺ first demonstration that Islam's governance was based on written agreement, individual accountability, and communal justice — not arbitrary authority or tribal precedent.