ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEstate property and the persons of rulers and governors seems to reflect
Sasanian patterns, especially as a local continuation of royal practices
by governors in Iraq. In 656, during the reign of 'An, there was a
body of forty or four hundred Indonesian (Sayahija) treasury guards
at Basra, which was commanded by Abu Salim az-Zuni, and in 657
al-Mukhtar was put in charge of the gates of Mada'in by his uncle
who was governor.^249 There is general agreement that the first real
royal bodyguard (Ar. !Jaras) was established by Mu'awiya at Da-
mascus in reaction to an attempt to assassinate him. However, unlike
the Sasanian guards who were members of the nobility, the guard of
Muslim rulers and governors beginning in the Sufyani period was likely
to include and be led by mawalt or members of minor Arab tribes or
clans, as well as relatives of the ruler and members of important tribal
groupS.250 There seems to have been a !Jaras guarding the citadel at
Kufa in 665 and there was apparently one at Basra when Ziyad arrived
as governor in the same year.^251 Nevertheless, in 665 Ziyad is said to
have formed his own guard (!Jaras) of five hundred men, whom he
stationed at the masjid. He was the first to have them march in front
of him with spears and staffs or clubs.^252 Thereafter it was normal for
both caliphs and governors to be protected by guards. AI-l:Jajjaj had
a !Jaras at Kufa and used it to carry out executions.^253 Mu~arrif ibn
al-Mughira, who held his audience in the [wan Kisra, also had a !Jaras
which was commanded by a mawla of his father at Mada'in in 696.^254
The general duties of urban police or night watchmen were fulfilled
by a separate, larger force in the garrison cities of Iraq. Its members
kept order, protected the population by suppressing crime, and pre-
vented sedition. The establishment of a night-watch was in direct
response to necessity, and precedents had been set in Madina in the
time of Abu Bakr and 'Umar. However, the earliest references to the
existence of an urban police (Ar. shurta) in Iraq point to the reign of
'Uthman, when Zararah ibn Yazid and 'Abd ar-Ral.tman al-Asadi are
said to have been in charge of the shurta at Kufa for 'Uthman's
249 Baladhuri, Futub, p. 376; Tabari, Ta'rzkh, I, 3366.
250 Dinawari, Akhbiir,at-tiwiil, p. 229; Tabari, Ta'rzkh, n, 205.
251 Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, V, 7; Tabari, Ta'rzkh, n, 72.
252 Tabari, Ta'rzkh, Il, 79. This custom was also adopted by the tribal leaders. Al-
Ash'ath ibn Qays, shaykh of the tribe of Kinda who settled at Kufa, is said to have
been the first to have men walk in front of him while he was riding (Tha'alibi, Latii'if,
p.17).
253 Mubarrad, Kiimil, pp. 217, 286, 665.
254 Tabari, Ta'rzkh, n, 983.