A high-ranking official, minister, or administrator in South Asian (especially Indian and Persian) royal courts and governments.
From Persian dīwān, originally meaning a collection of poems or a register/account book, later came to mean the royal court and the officials who worked there. The term spread across the Islamic world and India through governance structures.
The word 'dewan' shows how office names travel with empires—the same root 'divan' gave us the English word 'divan' (the couch), because official courts had fancy cushioned seating areas!
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