{{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''<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 term for 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, perhaps as early as the caliphate of Uthman (644–656). In the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphates, 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 force and also had judicial functions, but it could also be entrusted with suppressing brigandage, enforcing the ''ḥisbah'', 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 agencies and officials of the Abbasid caliphs 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, the importance of the ''shurṭa'' declined, along with the power of the central government: the army, now dominated by foreign military castes (''ghilmān'' or ''mamālīk''), 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.
== See also == * Qadi * Mazalim * 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