nor shall we display a cross or any book in any of the Muslims’ thoroughfares or marketplaces. We shall not ring our church-bells except in a subdued manner, we shall not raise our voices when following our dead, and we shall not kindle funeral fires along any of the Muslims’ roads.” Ḥarb narrated this report with a sound chain of transmission.
In another recension transmitted by al-Khallāl it reads:
“We shall strike our bells only softly, inside the depths of our churches; we shall not display a cross upon them; we shall not raise our voices in prayer or in recitation within our churches when Muslims are present; we shall not carry a cross or a book into the Muslims’ market; we shall not march out for the procession called al-Bāʿūth—al-Bāʿūth is a gathering in which they go out together, much as people go out on the days of ʿEid al-Aḍḥā and ʿEid al-Fiṭr—nor for Shaʿnīnâ. We shall not raise our voices when accompanying our dead, nor shall we display fires for them in the Muslims’ markets; we shall not live alongside them with swine, nor shall we sell wine… until he said: ‘We shall adhere to our distinctive dress wherever we may be, and we shall not imitate the Muslims by wearing a cap, a turban, a pair of sandals, or by parting…’