The ''ahdath'' ( ar, الأحداث, al-aḥdāth) were local

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

s or irregular

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

found in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

in the 10th to 12th centuries. The ''ahdath'' maintained order and protected cities from outside domination. Though some later writers ascribed

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

values to the ''ahdath'' as outlets of the popular will, many ''ahdath'' also fulfilled a more formal police function and, in many cases, worked in conjunction with the urban bourgeoisie. The ''ahdath'' were used by the

Fatimid dynasty The Fatimid dynasty () was an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty of Arab descent that ruled an extensive empire, the Fatimid Caliphate, between 909 and 1171 CE. Claiming descent from Fatima and Ali, they also held the Isma'ili imamate, claiming to be the r ...

in Syria against attacks from the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

.Angus McBride
Saladin and the Saracens
'. Osprey Publishing, 1986. ,

References

{{reflist Medieval Syria Military history of the Fatimid Caliphate Crusades Militias in Asia Historical law enforcement occupations