Divan (Privy Council) in Early Islam

To know divan and divanocray is very instrumental in understanding the administrative organization of the Muslims. This is especially significant because until before the foundation of the safavid dyasty in Iran, and probably of other contemporany dynasties in other countries, divan had been the only major adminintrative system in the Muslim World.Literally speaking, divan is referred to a collection of poetry, a book of records written in prose, or a specific administrative unit of government.There had been various kinds of divans in the past each of which functioned in the capacity of a ministry in modern times. In this paper, the invention of divan, its historical evolution, the different types of divan, their relations with each other, and their effects on one another are discussed.