Khālid B. al-Wālid's treaty with the people of damascus: Identifying the source document through shared and competing historical memories

This article examines the different versions of the Treaty which Khālid b. al-Wālid granted to the people of Damascus and notes the variations and textual discrepancies between them by examining both Muslim and non-Muslim sources. We demonstrate how the accounts share a common historical memory in recalling the issuance of treaties in the era of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb. We argue that the original Treaty with the People of Damascus represented in all likelihood the template for all other treaties given to the inhabitants of Greater Syria, Jordan and Palestine, whose echoes can also be found resonating in Egypt and Iraq. Most important of all, by navigating through the competing and shared historical memories, we conclude that the original Treaty stipulated that the indigenous population’s churches neither be destroyed nor inhabited. We conclude by proposing that this standard policy was not just based on mere pragmatism, but also on some sort of written ordinance that originated with the Prophet Muḥammad.