DI WAN is a Persian word familiar to readers of works relating to the East, in the sense of-1st, a senate, or council of state ; and, 2nd, a collection of poems by one and the same author. The ear liest acceptation, however, in which we find it employed is that of a muster-roll, or military pay-book.--The Arabic his torian, Razi, informs us that when, in the caliphat of Omar, the second successor of Mohammed, the conquests of the Mussulmans assumed an extensive character, the equal distribution of the booty became a matter of great difficulty, A Persian marzblin, or satrap, who hap pened to be at the head-quarters of the caliph at Medinah, suggested the adoption of the system followed in his own coun try, of an account-book, in which all receipts and disbursements were regularly entered, along with a list, duly arranged, of the names of those persons who were entitled to a share in the booty. With the register itself, its Persian appellation ( &wan) was adopted by the Arabs. (Frey tag, Locmani Fabulee et plura loca ex historicis selecta, &c., pp. 32, 33; Henzi,FragmentaArabica, St. Petersburg, 1820, p. 36, et seq.) Whether a council of state was subsequently called dtwan, as having originally been a financial board appointed to regulate the list (diwitn) of stipendiaries and pensioners.
or whether it was so called as being sum moned according to a list (diwitn) con taining the names of all its members, we are unable to determine. The opinion that a body of councillors should have received this appellation, as has been as serted by some, in consequence of the expression of an ancient king of Persia, Ivan diwdn end, " these (men) are (clever like) devils," will scarcely be seriously entertained by any one. The word is also used to express the saloon or hall where a council is held, and has been applied to denote generally a state cham ber, or room where company is received. Hence probably it has arisen that the word divan,' m several European lan guages,. signifies a sofa. Collections of poems in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hin dustani, &c., seem to have received the appellation &NOW ' from their methodi cal arrangement, inasmuch as the poems succeed one another according to the alphabetic order of the concluding letters of the rhyming syllables, which are the same in all the &Midas throughout each poem.