| Account books of the treasury. Tech: The finance department of early Muslim states. Initially established by caliph Umar as a department to manage state finances, but later on adopted by Muslim states on a regular basis. The entire economic activity came to be co-ordinated through diwan bait aI-mal being one of its wings. During the Abbaside period the diwan became a generic name for a department. Each department came to be designated as diwan relating to specific functions. Each diwan had two sections: al-asl (shortened from majalis al asl or diwan al asl) and al-zimam. The former was the main office while the latter was a supervising bureau (and was also called diwan al-ishraf because of that reason). The asl section was responsible for preparing the departmental budget and its execution while al-zimam was responsible for audit and control. In addition to a zimam section with each department, there was a zimam for public undertakings or state property |
