Adivan ordiwan (Persian:دیوان,dīvān; fromSumeriandub,clay tablet)[1] was a high government ministry in variousIslamic states, or its chief official (seedewan).
The word, recorded in English since 1586, meaning "Oriental council of a state", comes fromPersianدیوان (dêvân) and consequently spread viaTurkishdivan.
It is first attested inMiddle Persian spelled asdpywʾn anddywʾn, itself hearkening back, viaOld Persian,Elamite andAkkadian, ultimately toSumeriandub, clay tablet.[1] The word was borrowed intoArmenian as well asdivan; on linguistic grounds this is placed after the 3rd century, which helps establish the original Middle Persian (and eventuallyNew Persian) form wasdīvān, notdēvān, despite later legends that traced the origin of the word to the latter form. The variant pronunciationdēvān however did exist, and is the form surviving to this day inTajiki Persian.[1]
In Arabic, the term was first used for the army registers, then generalized to any register, and bymetonymy 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 asdivan (furniture).
The modern French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian wordsdouane,aduana, anddogana, respectively (meaning "customs house"), also come fromdiwan.[3]
Inancient Iran (at least from the time of the legendaryVishtaspa and before the historicalDarius, circa the 6th century BCE), there existed an official position ranked below the minister orVizier (known by titles such asVuzurg Farmadar orBozorgmehr) and above the military commanders (spahbods) and provincial governors (satraps).[4][5] This position was called "Iranmarkar" or "Iranmarghar," meaning "the highest-ranking administrator ofIran" or "the highest-ranking official in charge of affairs inIran." In summary, there was a time when, apart from the king and his minister, there existed a senior-most administrator responsible for the management of the state's affairs—inAchaemenid empire that was asuperpower, encompassing at least twenty countries across three continents, with a population amounting to approximately 44 percent of the entire world at the time.[6][7] Therefore, some sorts ofbureaucracy techniques (named Diwan orDivan) was one of the significant inventions of the Iranians, holding its own functions, legitimacy, and importance, and continues after it, to be one of the fundamental mechanisms of successor states.[8][9]
The firstdīwān was created under CaliphUmar (r. 634–644 CE) in 15A.H. (636/7 CE) or, more likely, 20 A.H. (641 CE). It comprised the names of the warriors ofMedina who participated in theMuslim conquests and their families, and was intended to facilitate the payment of salary (ʿaṭāʾ, in coin or in rations) to them, according to their service and their relationship toMuhammad. This first army register (dīwānal-jund) was soon emulated in other provincial capitals likeBasra,Kufa andFustat.[2][10]Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, a statesman from theThaqif tribe who was versed inPersian, is credited with establishing Basra'sdīwān during his governorship (636–638), and thedīwān of the Caliphate's other garrison centers followed its organization.[11]
With the advent of theUmayyad Caliphate, the number ofdīwāns increased. To thedīwān al-jund, the firstUmayyad caliph,Mu'awiya (r. 661–680), added the bureau of the land tax (dīwānal-kharāj) inDamascus, which became the maindīwān, as well as the bureau of correspondence (dīwān al-rasāʾil), which drafted the caliph's letters and official documents, and the bureau of the seal (dīwān al-khātam), which checked and kept copies of all correspondence before sealing and dispatching it.[2][12] A number of more specialist departments were also established, probably by Mu'awiya: thedīwān al-barīd in charge of thepostal service; the bureau of expenditure (dīwān al-nafaqāt), which most likely indicates the survival of aByzantine institution; thedīwān al-ṣadaqa was a new foundation with the task of estimating thezakāt andʿushr levies; thedīwān al-mustaghallāt administered state property in cities; thedīwān al-ṭirāz controlled the government workshops that made official banners, costumes and some furniture.[12][13] Aside from the central government, there was a local branch of thedīwān al-kharāj, thedīwān al-jund and thedīwān al-rasāʾil in every province.[14]
Under CaliphAbd al-Malik (r. 685–705), the practices of the various departments began to be standardized and Arabized: instead of the local languages (Greek inSyria,Coptic and Greek inEgypt, Persian in the formerSasanian lands) and the traditional practices of book-keeping, seals and time-keeping, only Arabic and theIslamic calendar were to be used henceforth. The process of Arabization was gradual: in Iraq, the transition was carried out bySalih ibn Abd al-Rahman under the auspices of the governoral-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in 697, in Syria bySulayman ibn Sa'd al-Khushani in 700, in Egypt under Caliphal-Walid I's governorAbdallah ibn Abd al-Malik in 706, and inKhurasan byIshaq ibn Tulayq al-Nahshali on the orders ofYusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, governor of Iraq, in 741/42.[14][15]
Under theAbbasid Caliphate the administration, partly under the increasing influence ofIranian culture, became more elaborate and complex.[12] As part of this process, thedīwāns increased in number and sophistication, reaching their apogee in the 9th–10th centuries.[14] At the same time, the office ofvizier (wazīr) was also created to coordinate government.[14] The administrative history of the Abbasiddīwāns is complex, since many were short-lived, temporary establishments for specific needs, while at times the sections of largerdīwān might also be termeddīwāns, and often a single individual was placed in charge of more than one department.[16]
Caliphal-Saffah (r. 749–754) established a department for the confiscated properties of the Umayyads after his victory in theAbbasid Revolution. This was probably the antecedent of the laterdīwān al-ḍiyāʿ, administering the caliph's personal domains.[14] Similarly, underal-Mansur (r. 754–775) there was a bureau of confiscations (dīwān al-muṣādara), as well as adīwān al-aḥshām, probably in charge of palace service personnel, and a bureau of petitions to the Caliph (dīwān al-riḳāʿ).[14] Caliphal-Mahdi (r. 775–785) created a paralleldīwān al-zimām (control bureau) for every one of the existingdīwāns, as well as a central control bureau (zimām al-azimma). These acted ascomptrollers as well as coordinators between the various bureaus, or between individualdīwāns and the vizier.[14] In addition, adīwānal-maẓālim was created, staffed by judges, to hear complaints against government officials.[14] The remit of thedīwān al-kharāj now included all land taxes (kharāj,zakāt, andjizya, both in money and in kind), while another department, thedīwān al-ṣadaqa, dealt with assessing thezakāt of cattle. The correspondence of thedīwān al-kharāj was checked by another department, thedīwān al-khātam.[17] As in Umayyad times, miniature copies of thedīwān al-kharāj, thedīwān al-jund and thedīwān al-rasāʾil existed in every province, but by the mid-9th century each province also maintained a branch of itsdīwān al-kharāj in the capital.[14]
The treasury department (bayt al-māl ordīwān al-sāmī) kept the records of revenue and expenditure, both in money and in kind, with specializeddīwāns 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.[16] Thedīwān al-jahbad̲ha, responsible for the treasury's balance sheets, was eventually branched off from it, while the treasury domains were placed under thedīwān al-ḍiyāʿ, of which there appear at times to have been several.[16] In addition, a department of confiscated property (dīwān al-musādarīn) and confiscated estates (dīwān al-ḍiyāʿ al-maqbūḍa) existed.[16]
Caliphal-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) grouped the branches of the provincialdīwāns present in the capital into a new department, thedīwān al-dār (bureau of the palace) ordīwān al-dār al-kabīr (great bureau of the palace), where "al-dār" probably meant the vizier's palace.[14] At the same time, the variouszimām bureaux were combined into a singledīwān al-zimām which re-checked all assessments, payments and receipts against its own records and, according to the 11th-century scholaral-Mawardi, was the "guardian of the rights ofbayt al-māl [the treasury] and the people".[16] Thedīwān al-nafaḳāt played a similar role with regards to expenses by the individualdīwāns, but by the end of the 9th century its role was mostly restricted to the finances of the caliphal palace.[16] Underal-Muktafi (r. 902–908) thedīwān al-dār was broken up into three departments, the bureaux of the eastern provinces (dīwānal-mashriq), of the western provinces (dīwānal-maghrib), and of the Iraq (dīwānal-sawād), although underal-Muqtadir (r. 908–932) thedīwān al-dār still existed, with the three territorial departments considered sections of the latter.[14] In 913/4, the vizierAli ibn Isa established a new department for charitable endowments (dīwān al-birr), whose revenue went to the upkeep of holy places, thetwo holy cities ofMecca andMedina, and on volunteers fighting in the holy war against theByzantine Empire.[16]
Under Caliphal-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861), a bureau of servants and pages (dīwānal-mawālī wa’l-ghilmān), possibly an evolution of thedīwān al-aḥshām, existed for the huge number of slaves and other attendants of the palace.[14] In addition, thedīwān al-khātam, now also known as thedīwān al-sirr (bureau of confidential affairs) grew in importance.[14]Miskawayh also mentions the existence of a dīwān al-ḥaram, which supervised the women's quarters of the palace.[16]
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 localdīwān branches likely providing the base on which the new administrations were formed.[12]
The administrative machinery of theTahirid governors ofKhurasan is almost unknown, except that their treasury was located in their capital ofNishapur.[12]Ya'qub al-Saffar (r. 867–879), the founder of theSaffarid dynasty who supplanted the Tahirids, is known to have had a bureau of the army (dīwān al-ʿarḍ) for keeping the lists and supervising the payment of the troops, at his capitalZarang. Under his successorAmr ibn al-Layth (r. 879–901) there were two further treasuries, themāl-e khāṣṣa, and an unnamed bureau under the chief secretary corresponding to a chancery (dīwān al-rasāʾil ordīwān al-inshāʾ).[12]
TheBuyids, who took over Baghdad and the remains of the Abbasid Caliphate in 946, drew partly on the established Abbasid practice, but was adapted to suit the nature of the rather decentralized Buyid "confederation" of autonomous emirates.[18] The Buyid bureaucracy was headed by three great departments: thedīwān al-wazīr, charged with finances, thedīwān al-rasāʾil as the state chancery, and thedīwān al-jaysh for the army.[18] The Buyid regime was a military regime, its ruling caste composed ofTurkish andDaylamite troops. As a result, the army department was of particular importance, and its head, theʿariḍ al-jaysh, is frequently mentioned in the sources of the period. Indeed, at the turn of the 11th century, there were twoʿariḍs, one for the Turks and one for the Daylamites, hence the department was often called "department of the two armies" (dīwān al-jayshayn).[18] A number of junior departments, like thedīwān al-zimām, thedīwān al-ḍiyāʿ, or thedīwān al-barīd were directly inherited from the Abbasid government. UnderAdud al-Dawla (r. 978–983), however, thedīwān al-sawād, which oversaw the rich lands of lower Iraq, was moved from Baghdad toShiraz. In addition, adīwān al-khilāfa was established to oversee the affairs of the Abbasid caliphs, who continued to reside in Baghdad as puppets of the Buyid emirs.[18]
TheGreat Seljuks tended to cherish their nomadic origins, with theirsultans leading aperipatetic 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).[18] Thedīwān al-aʿlā was further subdivided into a chancery (dīwān al-inshāʾ wa’l-ṭughrā, also calleddīwān al-rasāʾil) under theṭughrāʾī ormunshī al-mamālik, an accounting department (dīwān al-zimām wa’l-istīfāʾ) under themustawfī al-mamālik, a fiscal oversight office (dīwān al-ishrāf ordīwān al-muʿāmalāt) under themushrif al-mamālik, and the army department (dīwān al-ʿarḍ ordīwān al-jaysh) under theʿariḍ (further divided into the recruitment and supply bureau,dīwān al-rawātib, and the salary and land grants bureau,dīwān al-iqṭāʾ).[19][20] 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 orwaqfs (dīwān al-awqāf). A postal department (dīwān al-barīd) also existed but fell into disuse.[20][21] The system was apparently partly copied in provincial centres as well.[21]
Following the Ottoman conquest of North Africa, theMaghreb was divided into three provinces,Algiers,Tunis, andTripoli. After 1565, administrative authority in Tripoli was vested in aPasha directly appointed by the Sultan in Constantinople. The sultan provided the pasha with a corps ofJanissaries, which was in turn divided into a number of companies under the command of a junior officer orBey. 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 aDivan (in this context, a council of senior officers who advised the Pasha), the Janissaries soon reduced the Pasha to a largely ceremonial role.
TheDivan-ı Hümayun orSublime Porte was for many years the council of ministers of theOttoman Empire. It consisted of theGrand Vizier, who presided, and the otherviziers, thekadi'askers, thenisanci, and thedefterdars.
The Assemblies of theDanubian Principalities under Ottoman rule were also called "divan" ("Divanuri" in Romanian) (seeAkkerman Convention,ad hoc Divan).
InJavanese and related languages, the cognateDewan is the standard word for chamber, as in theDewan Perwakilan Rakyat or Chamber of People's Representatives.
In thesultanate ofMorocco, several portfolio Ministries had a title based on Diwan: