Passports and security checks predate modern bureaucracy by centuries

Evidence

In modern times, the word travel immediately evokes the word “passport.” This in its present form is a fairly recent invention. But passports and security checks were already there in the Middle Ages, and we have a number of reports, especially by Christian pilgrims, who as Christians and pilgrims were doubly suspect, about the security checks which they had to undergo while they were traveling first to Egypt, then to Jerusalem and other holy places. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 786

Categorization

• CANDY: The passport is a recent invention but security checks for travelers existed already in the Middle Ages — a nice dinner-party fact.
• XREF: connects to: State and local administrative agencies long preceded the federal ICC — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2535