TheSeal of Muhammad (Turkish: Muhammed'in mührü,Arabic:ختم الرسول,romanized: KḪatm ar-Rasūl)[a] is one of the allegedrelics of Muhammad kept in theTopkapı Palace by theOttoman Sultans as part of theSacred Relics collection.
The most popular design – themuqwaki design used on severalJihadist flags – is the replica of a seal purportedly used byMuhammad on a letter addressed toal-Muqawqis. Scholars have determined the letter to be aliterary forgery onpalaeographic grounds.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1675 reported that the seal was kept in a smallebony box in a niche cut in the wall by the foot of adivan in the relic room at Topkapı. The seal itself is encased in crystal, approximately 3" × 4", with a border ofivory. It has been used as recently as the 17th century to stamp documents.[1]
The seal is a rectangular piece of redagate, about 1 cm (1⁄2 in) in length,[citation needed] inscribed withمحمد رسول الله (i.e.,Allāh "God" in the first line,rasūl "messenger" in the second line andMuḥammad at the bottom similarly as shown in the above image).[2] According to Muslim historiographical tradition, Muhammad's original seal was inherited byAbu Bakr,Umar, andUthman, but lost by Uthman in a well inMedina.[2] Uthman is said to have made a replica of the seal, and this seal was supposedly found in thecapture of Baghdad (1534) and brought to Istanbul.[3]
According toGeorge Frederick Kunz, when Muhammad was about to send a letter to the EmperorHeraclius, he was told he needed a seal to be recognized as coming from him. Muhammad had a seal made of silver, with the wordsMuḥammad rasūl Allāh or "Muhammad the Apostle of God." The three words, on three lines, were on the ring, and Muhammad ordered that no duplicate was to be made. After his death, the ring came down toUthman, who accidentally dropped the ring into the well of Aris. The well was so deep the bottom has never been found, and the ring remained lost. At that time a copy was made, but the loss of the original ring was assumed to be an indication of ill-fortune to come.[4][5][6]
SirRichard Francis Burton writes that it is a "Tradition of the Prophet" thatcarnelian is the best stone for a signet ring, and that tradition was still in use in 1868. The carnelian stone is also "a guard against poverty".[7]
A different design of the seal is circular, based on an Ottoman-era manuscript copy of a letter purportedly sent by Muhammad to al-Muqawqis. This is the variant that has become familiar as the "seal of Muhammad."
This version of the seal is inscribed as thus, to be read from the bottom to the top:
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The letter is considered a literary forgery by scholars. Based on comparative palaeographic analysis with early Arabicpapyri, Austrian orientalist Joseph Karabacek assessed the letter to be a forgery.[9]Nöldeke (1909) agreed with his conclusions,[9] and Öhrnberg (2007) considers the narrative about a letter being sent to al-Muqawqis to be "devoid of any historical value", and the seal to be fake on paleographic grounds – its writing style being anachronistic and hinting at an Ottoman Turkish origin.[10]
Early Muslim accounts describe Muhammad's personal seal as bearing the inscription "Muhammad, messenger [of] God," arranged with each word on a separate line, beginning with "Muhammad" at the top rather than "God". Early Islamic coins feature the phrase in this format. Beginning in the 14th century, some Islamic scholars suggested that the word order was the opposite, starting with "God" rather than "Muhammad", on the grounds that it would have been more appropriate to place "God" above "Muhammad".Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani rejected this notion, citing an absence of historical evidence. Based on this,Ahmed El Shamsy concludes that the order of the words used in theMuqwaki seal is a medieval invention.[9]
In addition to using a signet ring to seal documents, Muhammad may have also used other techniques to show the provenance of his correspondence. In an alleged letter to theSaint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, he signed the letter, also called theAshtiname of Muhammad, by inking his hand and pressing the impression on the paper. The letter granted protection and privileges to the monastery. In part it says: "I shall exempt them from that which may disturb them; of the burdens which are paid by others as an oath of allegiance. They must not give anything of their income but that which pleases them—they must not be offended, or disturbed, or coerced or compelled. Their judges should not be changed or prevented from accomplishing their offices, nor the monks disturbed in exercising their religious order, or the people of seclusion be stopped from dwelling in their cells. No one is allowed to plunder these Christians, or destroy or spoil any of their churches, or houses of worship, or take any of the things contained within these houses and bring it to the houses of Islam. And he who takes away anything therefrom, will be one who has corrupted the oath of God, and, in truth, disobeyed His Messenger." It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand.[11]