The prohibition on learning and teaching the Qur ʾān(wa-lā nataʿal- lamul-Qur ʾān wa-lānuʿallimuhūawlādanā) is among the articles out-lined in the clauses of some—although not theearliest—versions of the so-called Covenant, orordinances, of ʿUmar (ahdʿUmar; al-shurūṭal- ʿUmariyya). This covenant is commonlyunderstood as the terms of surrender proposed byChristians to the second of the—in Sunnī tra-dition—‘rightly guided’ caliphs (al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidūn), ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (r. 634–44), although it more likely datesto the reign of the Umayyad caliph ʿUmar II (d.101/720). A number of the clauses in these shurūṭ demonstrate a clearconcern for maintaining a strict distinction be-tween (and, possibly, hierarchy among) Christiansand Muslims in their public lives, in those areas inwhich they did mingle. The covenant ad- dressespublic appearance—dress codes and haircuts; forbidsthe ringing of church bells or repairing churches;and identifies which animals might or might not beridden, as well as the types of weapons that couldbe carried.

A modern reader might well interpret such distinctionsthrough the notable failures of twentieth-century‘separate-but-equal’ legislation (as, for example,racial segregation in the US context, or Nazi-eramandates): “Islamic law seeks to create a societythat makes manifest the supremacy of Islam, and tothis end it curtails the public display ofnon-Muslim religious life even as it allowsnon-Muslims to practice their own religions”. And,at first reading, the provisions of the Covenant ofʿUmar seem in keeping with the spirit of thefollowing quotation attributed to ʿUmar II, in aletter to his governors: