$~~~~$The concept of a travel document, which shows a person is under a ruler’s protection while in a foreign land, has probably existed since rulers and states were first invented. But the earliest mention of an object which we might recognize as a passport appeared in about 450 B.C. The Hebrew Bible states that Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes of ancient Persia, asked permission to travel to Judah. The King agreed and gave Nehemiah a letter “to the governors of the province beyond the river,” requesting safe passage for him as he travelled through their lands.
$~~~~$Later, in the medieval Islamic Caliphate, a form of passport was the bara’a, a receipt for taxes paid. Only people who paid their taxes were permitted to travel to different regions of the Caliphate. In medieval Europe, on the other hand, travel documents were issued by local authorities, and generally contained a list of towns and cities which the document holder was permitted to enter or pass through. On the whole, documents were not required for travel to seaports, which were considered open trading points, but documents were required to travel inland from seaports.
$~~~~$King Henry V of England is credited with having invented the first true passport, as a way of helping his subjects prove who they were in foreign lands. The earliest reference to these documents is found in a 15th-century Act of Parliament, while the term “passport” came into use about a century later. Nevertheless, passports were not generally required for international travel until the First World War. It was at this time that passports as we would recognize them today began to be used.