Shurta
Sign in to saveShurṭa (, from Latin cohors) 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 al-shurṭa (), was an important official, whether at the provincial level or in the central government.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- law enforcement agency
- Country
- Fatimid Caliphate
- Said to be same as
- police
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Encyclopedic overview
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Shurṭa (, from Latin cohors) 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 al-shurṭa (), 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Shurta” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.