I'd been studiously avoiding the Ashtinameh and other early pacts floated by Near Eastern Christians over the Middle Ages. In 2017 Michael Rozik wrote a Masters thesis, musing on What If we took those pacts at their word.
Craig Considine, doing a strong-form of Fred Donner, is mooted; but I recommend to avoid his output, studiously or not. Ditto Andrew Morrow. More serious a challenge are Ahmed al-Wakil and Amidu Sanni - because they've done some textual criticism. They argue that these pacts descend from a "master copy", subsequently altered to fit ... whatever. Some might be forgeries locally, but - because also plagiaries - reliant on a real ancient ideal.
Rozik argues, plausibly, that these pacts are in the tradition of better-attested sulh texts like those drawn up between the Umayyads and the famous Christian towns of north Syria, like Edessa. They also align with the "Hanafi" doctrine (really Shaybani's) which underpinned the 'Abbasid treaties between Islam and the Rhomanía. We might also bring in Cyprus.
MUSE 10/16: I suspect ur-Ashtinameh as a counter to Ibn Jurayj kitâbî law and to the Pact of 'Umar.
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