Editing Divan (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Asif musicians 1812.jpg|250px|thumb|The winter Diwan of a [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] [[Nawab]] (painting from 1812)]]

The word, recorded in English since 1586, meaning "Oriental council of a state", comes from [[Persian language|Persian]] {{lang|fa|دیوان}} (''dêvân'') and consequently spread via [[Turkish language|Turkish]] ''divan''.

It is first attested in [[Middle Persian]] spelled as ''dpywʾn'' and ''dywʾn'', itself hearkening back, via [[Old Persian]], [[Elamite]] and [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], ultimately to [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] ''dub'', clay tablet.{{sfn|de Blois|1995|p=432}} The word was borrowed into [[Armenian language|Armenian]] as well as ''divan''; on linguistic grounds this is placed after the 3rd century, which helps establish the original Middle Persian (and eventually [[New Persian]]) form was ''dīvān'', not ''dēvān'', despite later legends that traced the origin of the word to the latter form. The variant pronunciation ''dēvān'' however did exist, and is the form surviving to this day in [[Tajiki Persian]].{{sfn|de Blois|1995|p=432}}

In Arabic, the term was first used for the army registers, then generalized to any register, and by [[metonymy]] applied to specific government departments.{{Sfn|Duri|1991|p=323}} The sense of the word evolved to "custom house" and "council chamber", then to "long, cushioned seat", such as are found along the walls in Middle-Eastern council chambers. The latter is the sense that entered European languages as [[divan (furniture)]].

The modern French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian words ''douane'', ''aduana'', and ''dogana'', respectively (meaning "[[customs house]]"), also come from ''diwan''.{{sfn|Holt|Lambton|Lewis|1977|p=533}}