The bodyguard of the caliphs during the umayyad and the early abbasid periods

During early Islam, the ḥaras was a government unit that was responsible for the personal security of the caliph. Since the reign of the first Umayyad Caliph, Mu‘āwiya b. Abī Sufyān, the ḥaras, headed by a ḥaras chief, protected all caliphs. This paper will attempt to describe the functions of the ḥaras during the Umayyad and the early Abbasid caliphates by delineating the characteristics of the ḥaras chiefs under the different caliphs. As with other institutions during early Islam, accounts that refer to the ḥaras offer information about the men who headed it rather than about the institution itself, making it necessary to employ the method of prosopography in order to arrive at an adequate description of the institution. The majority of the ḥaras chiefs appear to have been mawālī, often entrusted with administrative offices in addition to heading the ḥaras. It seems that the ḥaras chiefs were responsible not only for protecting the caliphs, but also for carrying out executions. The establishment of the ḥaras, the qualifications of the ḥaras chiefs and the weapons used by members of this body are also discussed. This significant institution has not yet received due attention in the literature. I hope to provide a useful outline and to open up a space for further research.