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However, history has seen both less and more oppressive implementations of the dhimmi system, sometimes mixed with the sterner practices of jihad. And clearly Christians in Sudan have decided that the price of Islamic protection in this tradition is high enough to warrant resistance to the death.

Faced with such resistance, the modern Muslim leaders of Sudan seem at last to be backing away from the ancient pact. The Machakos Protocol is the fruit of several years of such retreat. Practically, this has already meant the easing of strict Islamic dress codes and other social legislation—enough that non-Muslim exiles have begun returning home.

Under the new protocol, the Muslims have agreed that though they may impose Shari'ah in the north, they will not infringe on non-Muslims' rights by doing so in the south. Northern leaders will have six years to prove they are serious about creating a friendlier environment for Christian and other non-Muslim Sudanese to practice their faiths. After that time, southern Sudanese will be able to vote in a referendum deciding whether to stay with the largely Muslim north or form an independent state.

Time will tell whether the legacy of Umar can be so swiftly disowned.

Chris Armstrong is associate editor of Christian History magazine.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More Christian History, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

To see the Pact of Umar in action nearly a millennium later, view a 1772 letter in which Shaikh Hasan al Kafrawi, a Cairo legal authority, outlines how non-Muslims should be treated in Muslim lands.

There are two alternative texts of the pact online.

For more articles on Sudan see Christianity Today'sWorld Report or Yahoo full coverage.

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

Big Church Revival | Christian gyms and shopping malls may be new, but full-service megachurches are positively medieval. (July 17, 2002)

Phantom Saints | Juan Diego could soon join a long line of pious, exemplary, and quite possibly imaginary Catholic heroes. (July 12, 2002)

2002 Is Not 1789 | Before trying to figure out what the framers of the Constitution really thought, remember that they were from a wildly different country—the past (July 5, 2002)

Between Extremes | Church leaders didn't like Pelagius's ideas about free will, but they've never been able to avoid them completely (June 28, 2002)

Severe Success | Bernard of Clairvaux was a tough act to follow—yet thousands of Christians walked his path. (June 21, 2002)

Coming to America | Commentators who call proposed INS policies an unprecedented invasion of privacy forget what foreign visitors were asked 80 years ago, and why. (June 14, 2002)

When Pacifists Attack | 350 years ago, George Fox launched a powerful, peace-loving movement with an assault on established Christianity. (June 7, 2002)

Captive Christians | Views from inside Roman, English, and German prisons give a sense of how kidnapped missionaries might feel. (May 31, 2002)

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July (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46