THE History of the Al-Jarkhaji Institution in Baghdad

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the institution of Al-Jarkhaji (Al-Charkhachi), or the Night Watchman, in the heritage of Baghdad and the whole of Iraq. What was Al-Jarkhaji? The term is of Turkish (Ottoman) origin (جرخه جي), which means a guard, a watchman. In Iraqi reality, Al-Jarkhaji appeared to us as a night watchman, whose duty was to patrol the city streets on foot and maintain order. In the 18th-19th centuries, it was a kind of police unit that operated independently of other police, Janissary, and Mamluk units. The predecessors of al-Jarkhaji appeared on the scene as early as the reign of the four righteous caliphs. The term denoting them was “al-‘asasu” (العَسَسُ), which is also found in Georgian reality in the 17th-18th centuries. The institution of “asas” is found in medieval Georgia (mainly in eastern Georgia). In addition to the semantic similarity of the term, its practical meaning is also identical.