Editing Passport (section)

=== Antecedents ===
One of the earliest known references to paperwork that served an analogous role to a passport is found in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. [[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]] 2:7–9, dating from approximately 450&nbsp;BC, states that [[Nehemiah]], an official serving King [[Artaxerxes I of Persia]], asked permission to travel to [[Judea]]; the king granted leave and gave him a letter "to the governors beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he traveled through their lands.<ref>{{multiref2|{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|2:7–9|NIV}}|{{cite journal |last1=Coskun |first1=Cumhur|date= 28 December 2017 |title=Cultural Identity and Passport Designs  |url=https://un-pub.eu/ojs/index.php/pntsbs/article/view/2868 |journal=New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences |volume= 4|issue= 11|pages= 139–146 |doi=10.18844/prosoc.v4i11.2868 |access-date= 24 March 2023|doi-access=free }}|{{cite periodical |last1= Davis|first1= John M.|date= July 1998|title= Passport Fraud: Protecting U.S. Passport Integrity|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/fbileb67&div=50&id=&page=|journal= FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin|volume= 67|issue= 7|pages= 9–13|id={{NCJ|175115}}|access-date=24 March 2023}}|{{cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Karl E.| date= 2009|title= The Curious Life of the Lowly Passport|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40210108|journal=World Policy Journal |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=71–77  |doi=10.1162/wopj.2009.26.1.71 |jstor=40210108 |access-date=24 March 2023|url-access=subscription}}}}</ref>

The ancient Indian political text [[Arthashastra]] (third century BCE) mentions passes issued at the rate of one ''[[Masha (unit)|masha]]'' per pass to enter and exit the country, and describes the duties of the {{IAST|''Mudrādhyakṣa''}} ({{literally|Superintendent of Seals}}) who must issue sealed passes before a person could enter or leave the countryside.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K85NA7Rg67wC&q=kautilya+city+superintendent&pg=PA63|title=The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra|last=Boesche|first=Roger|date=2003|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739106075|pages=62 A superintendent must issue sealed passes before one could ''enter or leave the countryside''(A.2.34.2,181) a practice that might constitute the first passbooks and passports in world history|language=en}}</ref>

Passports were an important part of the Chinese bureaucracy as early as the [[Western Han]] (202 BC – 9 AD), if not in the [[Qin dynasty]]. They required such details as age, height, and bodily features.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |editor-last1=Nylan |editor-first1=Michael |editor-last2=Loewe |editor-first2=Michael |title=China's early empires: a re-appraisal |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521852975 |location=Cambridge |pages=297, 317–318 |oclc=428776512 | ol=OL24864515M | editor-link1= Michael Nylan  | editor-link2= Michael Loewe | lccn=2011378715 }}</ref> These passports ({{Lang-zh|t=傳|hp=zhuan|labels=no}}) determined a person's ability to move throughout imperial counties and through points of control. Even children needed passports, but those of one year or less who were in their mother's care may not have needed them.<ref name=":0" />

In the medieval [[Caliphate|Islamic Caliphate]], a form of passport was the ''bara'a'', a [[receipt]] for taxes paid. Only people who paid their ''[[zakat|zakah]]'' (for [[Muslim]]s) or ''[[jizya]]'' (for [[dhimmi]]s) taxes were permitted to travel to different regions of the Caliphate; thus, the ''bara'a'' receipt was a "basic passport".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society, and Identity|first=Daniel|last= Frank| publisher =[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1995|isbn=90-04-10404-6|page=6}}</ref>

In the [[12th century]], the [[Republic of Genoa]] issued a document called ''Bulletta'', which was issued to the nationals of the Republic who were traveling to the ports of the emporiums and the ports of the Genoese colonies overseas, as well as to foreigners who entered them.

King [[Henry V of England]] is credited with having invented what some consider the first British passport in the modern sense, as a means of helping his subjects prove who they were in foreign lands. The earliest reference to these documents is found in a [[Safe Conducts Act 1414|1414 Act of Parliament]].<ref name="brief history">[https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/nov/17/travelnews A brief history of the passport] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009193215/https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/nov/17/travelnews |date=2019-10-09 }} – The Guardian</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7634744.stm |title=Analysis: The first ID cards |access-date=2008-09-27 | publisher =BBC |date= 2008-09-25 | first=Dominic | last=Casciani}}</ref> In 1540, granting travel documents in England became a role of the [[Privy Council of England]], and it was around this time that the term "passport" was used. In 1794, issuing British passports became the job of the Office of the [[Secretary of State (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State]].<ref name="brief history"/> In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], the 1548 Imperial [[Diet of Augsburg]] required the public to hold imperial documents for travel, at the risk of permanent exile.<ref>[[John Torpey]], Le contrôle des passeports et la liberté de circulation. Le cas de l'Allemagne au XIXe siècle, Genèses, 1998, n° 1, pp. 53–76</ref>

In 1791, [[Louis XVI]] masqueraded as a valet during his [[Flight to Varennes]] as passports for the nobility typically included a number of persons listed by their function but without further description.<ref name=":1" /><sup>:31–32</sup>

A Pass-Card Treaty of October 18, 1850 among German states standardized information including issuing state, name, status, residence, and description of bearer. Tramping journeymen and jobseekers of all kinds were not to receive pass-cards.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Torpey|first=John|title=The Invention of the Passport|year=2018}}</ref><sup>:92–93</sup>