Iraq after the Muslim Conquest - Michael G. Morony

ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICE

the existence of such a service, nor even an anachronous use of this

term in events before the time of Mu'awiya, there is little additional

information on the nature, extent, or use of the system during his

reign. However, incidental references tend to support its existence in

Iraq at least by the time of Ziyad. Dinawari's comment that Ziyad

used the hartd to return from Basra to Kufa when the revolt of I:Iujr

ibn 'Adi broke out in 670 could be an anachronism, but it is the first

time he used this term after the Islamic conquest.^239 Along with this

comment must be put the consistent reports that Ziyad disliked the

hartd because he was afraid of the beating of the reins.240 Conse-

quently, it seems reasonable to suggest that the harM was important

for communication between Ziyad's twin capitals in Iraq and may

have been established for that purpose. By 669 at the latest, the bartd

seems to have operated from Basra to Khurasan.^241 It also ran from

Syria to Madina during the reign of Mu'awiya.^242

The extension and regularization of the harM is associated with

'Abd al-Malik and the Marwani restoration, when it was used for

sending messages and information, and for transporting officials and

military units. Incidental references in the time of al-I:Iajjaj suggest

that the harM ran between Syria and Iraq and Yaman.^243

Guards and Police

The ultimate sanction for enforcing orders, maintaining security,

and preventing sedition lay in the use of force by bodies of armed

guards, garrison troops, sentries, and night-watchmen. Local police

functions in the Sasanian cities of Iraq were performed by infantry

garrisons, and in most places the commander of the infantry (M.P.

piiygiin-siiliir, Syr. resh payge) was identical to the chief of police (M.P.

gezirpat, Syr. resh geztraye).244 Sentries or watchmen (Ar. ~urriis) were

posted above the gate of the city of Nineveh.^245 Tha'alibi describes

239 DInawari, Akhbiir at-tiwai, p. 236.
240 Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, I, 83; Il, 365; Ibn Abi l-I:Iadid, Nah;, XVI, 199.
24\ Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 192.
242 Ibid., p. 213.
243 DInawari, Akhbiir at-{iwiii, p. 328; Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, V, 37, 47. For the
later development of the band, see A. Sprenger, Die Post-und Reisrouten des Orients
(Leipzig, 1864).
244 Devos, "Sainte Sirin," p. 105; Hoffman, Persischer Miirtyrer, pp. 47, 62, 113;
J. Neusner, A History of the Jews in Babylonia (Leiden, 1970), V, 16. The officer called
master of archers (N.P. ttrbadh) in 448 may have served in a similar capacity (Coriuy,
"Mar Pethion," p. 11).
245 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," Il(l), 200.