4. Diwanu’I Khatam Mu’awiya established a Chancery Board which bore the title of Diwanu’I- Khatam (the Board of Signet). Every order issued by the Caliph was registered by the Board, and then the original was sealed and dispatched. Before the establishment of this Board,
Administrative Structure Under the Umayyads 46
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unsealed orders were sent out or delivered to the persons concerned. Mu’awiya gave a letter to Amr bin az-Zubayr ordering Ziyad bin Abihi to give the bearer 100,000 dirhams. Amr opened the letter, altered the figure to 200,000 dirhams and received the amount from Ziyad. The fraud was, however, detected when the Viceroy sent his account. Amr was arrested for fraud, but his brother Abdullah bin Zubayr, paid the extra amount to Mu’awiya and secured his release. The keeping of office copies and the sealing of orders before dispatching them were not confined only to the Central Government; the Governors also adopted the system. Ziyad used to preserve copies of all his orders. By the time of Abdul Malik, the State chancery had developed into a regular department and State archives had been established at Damascus.
