RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESmonks, and custodians would not be tempted to neglect their duties,
that they would not be held responsible for any maliciousness or
bloodshed from pre-Islamic times, that they would be exempt from
military service and the tithe tax, and that none of them would be
held responsible for the guilt of another. In 641 'Umar moved them
from Yam an to Iraq and resettled them near Kufa, and in about 644
the secular leader (Ar. 'iiqib), the bishop, and the notables of the
Najraniyya are said to have presented 'Uthman with the document
containing Mu\:lammad's agreement with them in order to secure their
previous guarantees. 56 The point of such stories was that the privileges
of Christians had been recognized by Mu\:lammad himself before the
conquest. "Documents" purporting to contain such agreements began
to be circulated by Christians in the ninth century, and Nestorians
seem to have adapted the account of the Christians of Najran to
support their own claims. 57
Other versions tell of an agreement between IsM 'yahbh II and
'Umar. In one version 'Umar exempted Ish6'yahbh's brothers, ser-
vants, and adherents (Ar. ashyiij from jizya;58 in another, 'Umar gave
him a document setting the terms for the inhabitants of Mada'in, which
was subsequently confirmed by 'Uthman and by Mughira ibn Shu'ba.^59
Although the latter looks like a Nestorian version of the terms of
taxation for protection extended to the general population of the
Sasanian capital when it fell to Sa' d in 637, the reference to Mughlra
may be significant. His first term as governor of Kufa, from 640 until
644, corresponds to the last years of Ish6'yahbh's patriarchate, and
a governor at Kufa is more likely to have had dealings with him than
was the Commander of the Faithful in Madina. However, these stories
only occur in relatively late chronicles and provide inconsistent alter-
natives. The main problem with all of them is that, according to the
most nearly contemporary source, after the fall of Mada'in to the
Muslims, IsM'yahbh retired to Karkh Juddan in Beth Garme, where
he died and was buried in 643.^60 So it is highly unlikely that he was
56 Baladhuri, Futu!J, pp. 64-66. This account is ascribed to YaQya ibn Adam, who
says that he saw copies of this document, which he thought were probably forged, in
the possession of the Najraniyya.
57 A. Abel, "La Djizya: Tribut ou Ran~on?," SI 32 (1970), 8; Fiey, Assyrie chretienne,
II, 190.
58 Assemani, BO, 1II(2), 95.
59 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," II(2), 620-23.
60 Guidi, Chronica Minora I, I, 31; II, 26.