DIWAN

  1. A collection of poetry.
  2. A register. The first register was instituted by Umar b. al-Khattab; this diwan listed the soldiers and notables who received a pension from the state. Under the Umayyads, diwans were created for the assessment and collection of land taxes, for correspondence, for the post office, and for expenditure. Originally these diwans were recorded in local languages, but under Abd al-Malik they were gradually Arabized. The Abbasids elaborated the diwan system established by the Umayyads and provided for a central bureaucracy headed by an administrative secretary, the wazir.

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