Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

The Central Police
The police was called ash-Shurtah and the police officer Sahibu’sh-Shurtah by AM (Rad.A) who was responsible for instituting the office. The Umayyads would not adopt the name given by Ali (Rad.A). They called the police officer Sahibu-1- Ahdath. When the Abbasids came to power, the police officer once more became Sahibu’sh-Shurtah.
The chief police officer at Baghdad ranked almost as a Governor, and under the later Abbasids presided over a Diwan and held the rank of a minister. Under the early Abbasids he was the chief of the bodyguard of the Caliph and executed death sentences.
Mu’awiya was the first Caliph to have a bodyguard, and since then the bodyguard had become a part and parcel of the military force at the capital. Under the first two Abbasid Caliphs, Persian soldiers formed the bodyguard. Mahdi, the third Caliph of the house of Abbas, selected 500 men from among the Ansar of Medina to form his bodyguard. al-Mu’tasim, the eighth Abbasid Caliph, made the great mistake of discarding the Arab bodyguard and forming a standing military corps of Turks. ”Dressed in splendid uniform they galloped recklessly through the streets of Baghdad, knocking down everybody in their way. There was a howl of rage in the capital. The Caliph had to remove himself to Samarra with his bodyguard This force was officered almost entirely by Turkomans,
’ SAQ Hussami P 192

588 Political and Cultural History of Islam

freedmen or slaves, and before long ”assumed the part of the Praetorian guards of the Roman Empire, deposing and setting up sovereigns at their own will and pleasure”. Prison Administration
Among the Pre-Islamic Arabs it was customary to lead the prisoners atong the streets in chains. People would give them alms, and that was the means of their sustenance. Even after the advent of Islam, the same old custom was continued till Ali (Rad.A) put a stop to it and maintained the prisoners from State revenues. Mu’awiya (Rad.A) and his successors did likewise. Imprisonment is not one of the punishments prescribed by the Qur’an. The Holy Book prescribes summary of punishment for all crimes. With the degeneration of the Muslim Commonwealth, certain evils crept in. Political crimes on the part of the discontented subjects and suspicion on the part of the rulers, who were not sure of their title to the great office of the Caliph, created a new contingency, that of placing the suspects and others in prisons. With the appearance of new types of province and filled with a large number of prisoners.
Under the early Abbasids, the old practice of leading the prisoners along the streets seems to have been revived. Abu Yusuf vehemently criticizing the practice writes: ”It is incumbent that every non-Muslim prisoner should be fed and well treated till his case is decided. Then what about a Muslim who has committed a mistake or a crime? Is he to be left to die of starvation because fate or ignorance has forced him to become what he is?”.... ”Do away with leading them in chains for people to give alms to them; for it is a great wrong that Muslims, who have committed some crimes or mistakes (God having ordained that they should be imprisoned and led out in chains to be bestowed with alms. I do not think that the infidels do such a thing \\ ith Muslims who are their prisoners). Then, how is it proper that Muslims should lead Muslims in chains in order that they may get something to eat? And sometimes they do not get anything. Abu’Yusuf further suggests that all male and female prisoners should be supplied each with a cotton suit for summer and a woolen one for winter.”
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