A divan (Persian: دیوان, dīwān) was a high governmental body in a number of Islamic states, or its chief official (see dewan).

The word is recorded in English since 1586, meaning "Oriental council of state," from Turkish divan, from Arabic diwan, is a Middle-Persian loan-word in Arabic and was borrowed also at an earlier date into Armeniandīvān "bundle of written sheets, small book, collection of poems" (as in the Divan-i Hafiz), related to debir "writer." Sense evolved through "book of accounts," to "office of accounts," "custom house," "council chamber," then to "long, cushioned seat," such as are found along the walls in Middle Eastern council chambers - which is this sense entered European langugues as Divan (furniture). The modern French, Spanish, Italian words douane, aduana, dogana respectively (meaning "customs") also come from diwan.

The word first appears in the ninth-century descriptions of the caliphate of Omar I (A.D. 634-644). Great wealth, gained from the Muslim conquests, was pouring into Medina, and a system of business management and administration became necessary. This was copied from the Persians (whose Sassanid empire was being conquered and islamised under Umar) and given the Persian name divan. Later, as the state became more complicated, the term was extended over all the government bureaus.

ALIREZA GHORBANI was born in 1972 in Tehran, Iran. He began his career by reciting the Holy book of Quran. Since he was very interested in old Iranian traditional music, he started learning it eagerly. In 1984, he was fascinated by compilation of poetry and music and the insight of Iranian Music under the supervision of his first honorable mentors: Mr. Khosro Soltani, Mr. Behrooz Abedini, Mr. Mahdi Fallah, Dr. Hossein Omoumi, Ahmad Ebrahimi and also Razavi Sarvestani. His acquaintance with Ali Tajvidi and Farhad Fakhreddini led him to new horizons of Iranian music.

He has already taken part in many important Festivals all over the world together with many musicians and some of these festivals and programs are available in the market on CDs. He has been the vocalist of Iran's National Orchestra since 1999 and has joined many concerts and festivals within Iran and abroad .Enthusiasm, the first album of National Iranian orchestra, has also been composed by Farhad Fakhreddini. Although he collaborated in making soundtracks for many different TV programs such as Kife Englisi, Shabe Dahom, Roshantar az Khamooshi (Mollasadra) and Madare Sefr Darajeh. His latest albums are Az Kheshto Khak, Fasle Baran, Rosvaye Zamaneh, Sarve Ravan, Symphony of Molana, Soogvarane Khamoosh, Rooy Dar Aftab 1,2, Eshtiagh, Ghafe Eshgh, Khoshnevise Seda and Sarmasti(KHyyam) ...