Mughal Administration c7.s1.2

c7.s1.2

The term *diwān* has been derived by orientalists from a hypothetical Iranian word *diwān*, connected with *dabir*, meaning ‘writer’,—(like the Turkish official title *bitikchi* which means ‘writer.’) The first use of the word *diwān* was in the sense of the public register of receipts and expenditure kept in Greek (in Syria and Egypt) and in Pahlavi (in Persia) in the early years of the Arab conquest. The name next passed to the officers of the Treasury and thence extended to the government of the Abbasid Khalifs, and in Saladin’s time to the Khalif himself. (*Encyclopædia of Islam*, i. 979.)