# Shurta

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{{about|the Arabic word|the Iraqi football club|Al-Shorta SC|other football clubs|Al-Shorta (disambiguation)}}
{{Short description|Police of the Arab Caliphates}}
'''''Shurṭa''''' ({{langx|ar|شرطة}}, from Latin ''[cohors](/source/cohors)''<ref>{{cite book |page=38|title=Latin and Arabic: entangled histories |first=Daniel G. |last=König |date=2019 |publisher=Heidelberg University Publishing |location=Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-947732-25-8 }}</ref>) is the common [Arabic](/source/Arabic) term for [police](/source/police). Its literal meaning is that of a "picked" or elite force. The ''shurṭa'' or police force were established in the early days of the [Caliphate](/source/Caliphate), perhaps as early as the caliphate of [Uthman](/source/Uthman) (644–656). In the [Umayyad](/source/Umayyad_Caliphate) and the [Abbasid Caliphate](/source/Abbasid_Caliphate)s, the ''shurṭa'' had considerable power, and its head, the '''''ṣāḥib ash-shurṭa''''' ({{langx|ar|صاحب الشرطة}}), was an important official, whether at the provincial level or in the central government.

The duties of the ''shurṭa'' varied with time and place: it was primarily a police or the secret police and [internal security](/source/internal_security) force and also had judicial functions, but it could also be entrusted with suppressing brigandage, enforcing the ''[ḥisbah](/source/hisbah)'', customs and tax duties, rubbish collection, acting as a bodyguard for governors, etc. 

In the Abbasid East, the chief of police also supervised the prison system. ''Shurṭa'' is one of the [secret police](/source/secret_police) agencies and officials of the [Abbasid caliphs](/source/Abbasid_dynasty) which was headquartered in Baghdad in the 8th and 9th centuries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tillier|first=Mathieu|date=2008|title=Prisons et autorités urbaines sous les Abbassides|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157005808x347462|journal=Arabica|volume=55|issue=3|pages=387–408|doi=10.1163/157005808x347462|issn=0570-5398|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

From the [10th century](/source/10th_century), the importance of the ''shurṭa'' declined, along with the power of the central government: the army, now dominated by foreign military castes (''[ghilmān](/source/ghilman)'' or ''[mamālīk](/source/mamluk)''), assumed the internal security role, and the cities regained a measure of self-government and appropriated the more local tasks of the ''shurṭa'' such as that of the [night watch](/source/watchman_(law_enforcement)).

== See also ==
* [Qadi](/source/Qadi)
* [Mazalim](/source/Mazalim)
* [Haras (unit)](/source/Haras_(unit))

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{EI2 | volume=9 | title=S̲h̲urṭa | first = J.S. | last = Nielsen | page = 510 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1065}}

Category:History of law enforcement
Category:Government of the Abbasid Caliphate
Category:Government of the Umayyad Caliphate
Category:Arabic words and phrases

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