132 chapter four
intelligence centres of our modern state. As in the case of the bureau
of correspondence, Mu"awiyah established the bureau of seal, dìwàn-
al-khàtim, for the purpose of controlling the state documents. It aimed
to: (a) prevent the misuse of the caliph’s stamp of approval, (b) ensure
that the caliph’s letters were sealed and stamped by a special stamp,
and consequently, (c) prevent the carrier from opening up the let-
ters and changing their content. The head of this bureau was also
accountable to the Caliph directly because of the sensitivity of his
job (Al- ̨abarì).
The system of administration was reorganized further under the
Abbasids. While the functional classification of the administration
was still maintained, the postal service bureau, the correspondence
bureau, the stamps bureau, as well as the army bureau, finance
bureau, caliphate residency expenses bureau, were divided further
into provincial bureau and central bureau. While the provincial
bureau aimed to help the governors’ administrative control over the
affairs of the provinces, the central bureau was designed to help the
state in the capital to monitor the affairs of each province (Œassan,
1959). Each bureau in the capital and the provinces was divided fur-
ther into two main sub-bureau: administrative bureau, dìwàn-al-asl,
and financial control bureau, dìwàn-al-zimam. While the former was
related to administrative matters such as the administration of the
collection of taxes, the latter was concerned with the financial and
accounting control aspects of these activities. An independent head
accountable to the caliph’s deputy was in charge of each sub-bureau.
This indicates that the government of the day recognised the impor-
tance of the need for skilled and specialist employees for different
types of jobs.
The introduction of a central auditing bureau or what is known
in modern time as the Central Auditing Office, was a notable devel-
opment in the organisation of the financial control of the state that
took place during the time of the Abbasìd Caliph al-Mahdi (775–785).
The establishment of the new bureau was attributed to al-Mahdi’s
assistant Umre ibn-Bari"a who was appointed to supervise the work
of the financial control bureau (Al-Rayyis, 1977). Ibn-Bari"a is reported
to have thought of an independent bureau that would be account-
able to him directly, which would help him exercise tight control
over the work of the financial control bureau. He therefore established
dìwàn-al-zimmah, plural of zimam, or the equivalent to a modern