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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}}) 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 Caliphate|Umayyad]] and the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]s, the ''shurṭa'' had considerable power, and its head, the '''''ṣāḥib al-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 ''[[hisbah|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|secret police]] agencies and officials of the [[Abbasid dynasty|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}}</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 (''[[ghilman|ghilmān]]'' or ''[[mamluk|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 [[watchman (law enforcement)|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]]