ADMINISTRATIONgovernor, Sa'Id ibn al-'A~. There were Commanders of the shurta at
both Basra and Kufa in the time of 'AlI.^255 Under Mu'awiya, the
shurta usually existed along with the ~aras at Damascus, Kufa, and
Basra.^256 Nevertheless, public order broke down and crime became
rampant at Basra under 'Abdullah ibn 'Amir in the early 660s, when
insecurity became so great that wealthy people hired private watch-
men. According to ash-Sha'bI, whenever dissolute youths took hold
of a woman, they would tell her to cry out three times; if someone
answered her, she would be all right, but if no one answered they
would not be blamed for what they did. When Ziyad arrived as gov-
ernor in 665, the night was full of the cries of private watchmen and
of people protecting themselves. Although he objected to the clamor,
he was actually angry at the way private solutions challenged his own
authority and responsibility for keeping order. In order to restore
security, Ziyad established the shurta of Basra at four thousand men,
both infantry and cavalry, imposed a curfew, and had everyone be-
headed who was found on the streets after evening worship. On the
morning after the first night, seven hundred heads were found at the
gate of the citadel, fifty after the second night, one head after the third
night, and none thereafter.^257 Ziyad also established security on the
roads outside of Basra by making the local chieftains of the Arab tribes
of Tamlm and Bakr responsible for the sections of the roads within
the boundaries that he set for them.^258
At Kufa in 671, Ziyad's shurta was composed of members of the
Persian military unit (lfamra') who had settled there after the conquest.
They patroled the marketplace armed with staffs and were prominent
in dealing with the sedition of I:Iujr ibn 'AdI. In a confrontation
between Ziyad and I:Iujr's supporters who had come to the masjid
with staffs, one of the i;lamra' used his own staff to knock a member
255 W. Behrnauer, "Memoire sur les institutions de police chez les arabes, les persans
et les turcs," Journal Asiatique 15 (1860), 466-67; Ibn Khallikan, Biographical Dic-
tionary, IV, 391; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VI, 157; Mul).ammad ibn f:iabib, Kitiib al-mu-
babbar (Hyderabad, 1943), p. 373; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, I, 2916; Yaqiit, Buldiin, Il, 921.
The shurta al-khamts, which was a body of forty thousand men who were personally
loyal to 'Ali and were commanded by Qays ibn Sa'd, was essentially a military unit
that supported 'Ali and his family in Iraq and should not be confused with other local
police forces, especially because of its size (Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 17).
256 Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 239; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 15, 28.
257 K. A. Fariq, "A Remarkable Early Muslim Governor, Ziyad ibn Abih," Islamic
Culture 26,4 (1952), 9-11; Ibn Abi I-f:iadid, Nahj, XVI,_ 204; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 76-
77.
258 Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, V, 7.