Bernard Lewis, widely regarded as one of the leading scholars in Jewish history, describes the "official" origin of the Pact of 'Umar: "The Muslim historiographic tradition ascribes these regulations to the caliph 'Umar I (634-644).
The Pact of 'Umar has several different translations and versions, but each follow the same general format described above: a peace treaty written from the dhimmi to the conquering Muslim forces.
Each of these versions begin with some variation of "When you came to us we asked of you safety for our lives… on these conditions..." and conclude with some form of "We impose these terms on ourselves and our co-religionists; he who rejects them has no protection.
Mark R. Cohen explains the unusual format of the Pact of 'Umar by comparing it to other conquest treaties from throughout the Middle Ages, writing "The literary form of the Pact… becomes less mysterious if we view the document as a kind of petition from the losers promising submission in return for a decree of protection.
In some translations the Pact addresses a conquering general of the Muslim forces, such as Abu 'Ubaida, "the chief commander in Syria and apparently from Damascus.
[11] Bernard Lewis supports this: "it is not unlikely that in this as in many other aspects of early Muslim administrative history, some measures that were really introduced or enforced by the Umayyad caliph 'Umar II (717–720) are ascribed by pious tradition to the less controversial and more venerable 'Umar I.
"[7] Lewis thus identifies Caliph 'Umar II as a potential source for portions of the Pact of 'Umar, lending credence to the likelihood that the document was written over the course of time, not under a single ruler.
The content of the Pact seems to have developed in response to social and political issues cropping up between the dhimmi and their Muslim rulers over the course of the early and high Middle Ages.
"[6] Historian Abraham P. Bloch writes that "Omar was a tolerant ruler, unlikely to impose humiliating conditions upon non-Muslims or to infringe upon their religious and social freedoms.
"[13] According to Thomas Walker Arnold, the pact "is in harmony [with Umar's] kindly consideration for his subjects of another faith,[14][15] "A later generation attributed to 'Umar a number of restrictive regulations which hampered the Christians in the free exercise of their religion, but De Goeje and Caetani have proved without doubt that they are the invention of a later age; as, however, Muslim theologians of less tolerant periods accepted these ordinances as genuine."