The Pact of Umar set up the framework for the standing of Christians and Jews in the Islamic World called the Dhimma. The original Pact of Umar was apparently issued by caliph Umar bin al-Khattab (634–644). Though there is wide disagreement among scholars about the origins and development of this covenant, it seems clear that the Pact of Umar eventually became a composite statement that was central to the Muslim legal structure in terms of dealing with non-Muslim populations in the early Abbasid period and thereafter.