In Arabic, the term was first used for the army registers, then generalized to any register, and by metonymy applied to specific government departments.[2] The sense of the word evolved to "custom house" and "council chamber", then to "long, cushioned seat", such as are found along the walls in Middle-Eastern council chambers. The latter is the sense that entered European languages as divan (furniture).
The modern French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian words douane, aduana, and dogana, respectively (meaning "
Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, a statesman from the Thaqif tribe who was versed in Persian, is credited with establishing Basra's dīwān during his governorship (636–638), and the dīwān of the Caliphate's other garrison centers followed its organization.[5]
With the advent of the
Byzantine institution; the dīwān al-ṣadaqa was a new foundation with the task of estimating the zakāt and ʿushr levies; the dīwān al-mustaghallāt administered state property in cities; the dīwān al-ṭirāz controlled the government workshops that made official banners, costumes and some furniture.[6][7] Aside from the central government, there was a local branch of the dīwān al-kharāj, the dīwān al-jund and the dīwān al-rasāʾil in every province.[8]
Iranian culture, became more elaborate and complex.[6] As part of this process, the dīwāns increased in number and sophistication, reaching their apogee in the 9th–10th centuries.[8] At the same time, the office of vizier (wazīr) was also created to coordinate government.[8] The administrative history of the Abbasid dīwāns is complex, since many were short-lived, temporary establishments for specific needs, while at times the sections of larger dīwān might also be termed dīwāns, and often a single individual was placed in charge of more than one department.[10]
Caliph
al-maẓālim was created, staffed by judges, to hear complaints against government officials.[8] The remit of the dīwān al-kharāj now included all land taxes (kharāj, zakāt, and jizya, both in money and in kind), while another department, the dīwān al-ṣadaqa, dealt with assessing the zakāt of cattle. The correspondence of the dīwān al-kharāj was checked by another department, the dīwān al-khātam.[11] As in Umayyad times, miniature copies of the dīwān al-kharāj, the dīwān al-jund and the dīwān al-rasāʾil existed in every province, but by the mid-9th century each province also maintained a branch of its dīwān al-kharāj in the capital.[8]
The treasury department (bayt al-māl or dīwān al-sāmī) kept the records of revenue and expenditure, both in money and in kind, with specialized dīwāns for each category of the latter (e.g. cereals, cloth, etc.). Its secretary had to mark all orders of payment to make them valid, and it drew up monthly and yearly balance sheets.[10] The dīwān al-jahbad̲ha, responsible for the treasury's balance sheets, was eventually branched off from it, while the treasury domains were placed under the dīwān al-ḍiyāʿ, of which there appear at times to have been several.[10] In addition, a department of confiscated property (dīwān al-musādarīn) and confiscated estates (dīwān al-ḍiyāʿ al-maqbūḍa) existed.[10]
Caliph
Ali ibn Isa established a new department for charitable endowments (dīwān al-birr), whose revenue went to the upkeep of holy places, the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and on volunteers fighting in the holy war against the Byzantine Empire.[10]
Under Caliph
al-mawālī wa ’l-ghilmān), possibly an evolution of the dīwān al-aḥshām, existed for the huge number of slaves and other attendants of the palace.[8] In addition, the dīwān al-khātam, now also known as the dīwān al-sirr (bureau of confidential affairs) grew in importance.[8]Miskawayh also mentions the existence of a dīwān al-ḥaram, which supervised the women's quarters of the palace.[10]
As the Abbasid Caliphate began to fragment in the mid 9th century, its administrative machinery was copied by the emergent successor dynasties, with the already extant local dīwān branches likely providing the base on which the new administrations were formed.[6]
Saffarids, Ziyarid, Sajids, Buyids and Samanids
Further information:
Al-Muti
The administrative machinery of the
Zarang. Under his successor Amr ibn al-Layth (r. 879–901) there were two further treasuries, the māl-e khāṣṣa, and an unnamed bureau under the chief secretary corresponding to a chancery (dīwān al-rasāʾil or dīwān al-inshāʾ).[6]
The
Adud al-Dawla (r. 978–983), however, the dīwān al-sawād, which oversaw the rich lands of lower Iraq, was moved from Baghdad to Shiraz. In addition, a dīwān al-khilāfa was established to oversee the affairs of the Abbasid caliphs, who continued to reside in Baghdad as puppets of the Buyid emirs.[12]
Great Seljuks tended to cherish their nomadic origins, with their sultans leading a peripatetic court to their various capitals. Coupled with their frequent absence on campaign, the vizier assumed an even greater prominence, concentrating the direction of civil, military and religious affairs in his own bureau, the "supreme dīwān" (dīwān al-aʿlā).[12] The dīwān al-aʿlā was further subdivided into a chancery (dīwān al-inshāʾ wa’l-ṭughrā, also called dīwān al-rasāʾil) under the ṭughrāʾī or munshī al-mamālik, an accounting department (dīwān al-zimām wa’l-istīfāʾ) under the mustawfī al-mamālik, a fiscal oversight office (dīwān al-ishrāf or dīwān al-muʿāmalāt) under the mushrif al-mamālik, and the army department (dīwān al-ʿarḍ or dīwān al-jaysh) under the ʿariḍ (further divided into the recruitment and supply bureau, dīwān al-rawātib, and the salary and land grants bureau, dīwān al-iqṭāʾ).[13][14] A number of lesser departments is also attested, although they may not have existed at the same time: the office charged with the redress of grievances (dīwān al-maẓālim), the state treasury (bayt al-māl) and the sultan's private treasury (bayt al-māl al-khaṣṣ), confiscations (dīwān al-muṣādara), the land tax office (dīwān al-kharāj) and the department of religious endowments or waqfs (dīwān al-awqāf). A postal department (dīwān al-barīd) also existed but fell into disuse.[14][15] The system was apparently partly copied in provincial centres as well.[15]
Following the Ottoman conquest of North Africa, the
Janissaries, which was in turn divided into a number of companies under the command of a junior officer or Bey
. The Janissaries quickly became the dominant force in Ottoman Libya. As a self-governing military guild answerable only to their own laws and protected by a Divan (in this context, a council of senior officers who advised the Pasha), the Janissaries soon reduced the Pasha to a largely ceremonial role.
Sprengling, M. (April 1939). "From Persian to Arabic". The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 56 (2). The University of Chicago Press: 175–224.