Buildings of the pen and the sword

The Persianate Sultanate has two signature building chains: the Dīwān chain, which projects the chancery's writ outward from the capital, and the iqṭāʿ grant, which formalizes an amīr's authority over a rural parcel the chancery cannot reach. They are deliberately mirrored: the Dīwān is a Tāzīk institution with Tāzīk consequences; the iqṭāʿ is a Tāzīk instrument with Türk consequences. Both are gated to government_type = government_type:persianate_sultanate and disappear if you leave that government slot.

This page describes what each building does and what gates it.

The Dīwān chain

Three buildings, one upgrade path. Only one rank of the chain sits in your capital at a time; provincial chanceries sit in non-capital locations.

Local Dīwān (local_diwan)

The provincial chancery branch — the walī's secretariat: tax rolls, land registers, the qāḍī's waqf records, audits of bazaar weights.

Where it sits. One per province, in the province's chief town. is_capital = no. Town, city, or megalopolis rank — not rural.

Gates.

• Country: government_type = persianate_sultanate.
• Province: local_control > 0.5. The Local Dīwān cannot be built where the chancery cannot yet reach.
• One per province, enforced by a custom tooltip check.

Destroy. can_destroy = local_control < 0.3. The chancery does not voluntarily shutter its own offices; you can only demolish a Local Dīwān once your grip on the location has slipped to near-collapse.

What it does.

• local_proximity_source = 33 — the same kind of proximity emission a governor's seat puts out, at roughly 40% of a local_governor's 80. Authority radiates outward from the Local Dīwān.
• local_nobles_max_literacy = +10, local_burghers_max_literacy = +10 — the chancery culture lifts both layers that staff and promote into it.
• local_diwan_estate_power = +0.10 — visible Dīwān presence in the province.
• Pop-attraction modifiers for nobles, clergy, and burghers in the location.
• Maintenance: paper, books, fine cloth (from local_diwan_maintenance).

On build. Adds a small Farsi-culture noble pop to the location, pushes the country +2 toward Tāzīk, gives +0.03 Dīwān satisfaction and −0.02 Amirs satisfaction. On destroy: −0.05 Dīwān satisfaction (a public defeat for the chancery).

Regional Dīwān (regional_diwan)

The capital chancery of a duchy-rank Persianate sultanate. The Injuid chancery in Shīrāz is the Persian-led model; Jalayirid Baghdad is the Türk-led counterpart, where the chancery persisted because the city could not be governed without it.

Where it sits. Capital-only. Town/city/megalopolis.

Gates.

• Country: government_type = persianate_sultanate, country_rank_level >= 2 (duchy).
• No Türk/Tāzīk axis gate — this is the historical baseline of any plateau sultanate.

What it does.

• global_max_control = +0.015
• global_crown_estate_power = +0.05
• global_diwan_estate_power = +0.15
• tax_income_efficiency = +0.015

On build. Small noble pop in the capital; +2 Tāzīk axis shift.

Upgrade. When the country reaches kingdom rank and qualifies for the realm-grand chancery, central_diwan declares obsolete = regional_diwan — the Regional Dīwān is folded into the Dīwān al-Mamālik. Same building, scaled up.

Dīwān al-Mamālik (central_diwan)

The realm-grand chancery. Buyid in origin, Saljūq in systematization, Ilkhanid in scale. This is the central state institution. Exactly one exists at game start in 1337: in Tabrīz, in Chobanid hands.

Where it sits. Capital-only. City or megalopolis (not town).

Gates.

• Country: government_type = persianate_sultanate, country_rank_level >= 3 (kingdom).
• Either societal_value:turk_vs_tazik >= 50 (the realm has drifted Tāzīk on its own), or has_variable = restored_persian_bureaucracy (you paid for the chancery class via the restore_persian_bureaucracy action).

This is the only build gate in the mod tied directly to the Türk–Tāzīk axis. A Türk-leaning kingdom that wants the realm-grand chancery must either swing Tāzīk first or earn the variable.

What it does.

• global_max_control = +0.04
• global_crown_estate_power = +0.20
• global_diwan_estate_power = +0.40
• tax_income_efficiency = +0.04

These are the largest building-sourced bonuses in the chain by a wide margin. The Dīwān al-Mamālik is a strategic asset.

On build. Spawns a Farsi-culture noble pop in the capital (the founding scribal staff) and shifts the country +5 toward Tāzīk. Founding the chancery is itself a Tāzīk act — the bureaucratic estate institutionalizes here, and the axis registers the choice.

Persistence. Removed only if the location stops being the capital, or if the country leaves persianate_sultanate. The axis/variable gate is for earning the right to build — not for keeping it.

Strategic implications

• One Dīwān al-Mamālik exists at game start, in Tabrīz. The opening Jalayirid–Chobanid wars are partly about who inherits it.
• A new realm cannot construct one until it is a kingdom and has either drifted Tāzīk (axis ≥ 50) or paid the cost of the restore_persian_bureaucracy action. That makes the central chancery either a long-run investment or a war prize.
• Even the duchy-tier Regional Dīwān is a meaningful unlock — +0.05 crown power, +0.15 Dīwān power, +0.015 tax efficiency, and the +2 axis push on construction.

The iqṭāʿ grant (iqta_grant)

The mirror institution to the Local Dīwān: a chancery-registered fiscal grant assigning the revenue of a rural parcel to an amīr in exchange for the upkeep of his retinue.

Where it sits. Rural locations only. rural_settlement = yes, no town/city/megalopolis.

Gates.

• Country: government_type = persianate_sultanate, AND has_estate_privilege = amirs_iqta_grant OR has_estate_privilege = amirs_hereditary_tuyul. You cannot build iqṭāʿ grants without first granting one of the two amir land-grant privileges. This is the single most important thing to know about your opening manpower situation.
• Province: local_control < 0.5. The iqṭāʿ historically went to parcels the chancery could not reach directly. The amīr's tribal authority replaces the absence of central authority. Exact opposite of the Local Dīwān's control gate.
• One iqṭāʿ per location.

Destroy. can_destroy = local_control > 0.7. Revoking an iqṭāʿ was historically the chancery's hardest political act — possible only once the Dīwān had reasserted direct order in the parcel. Below 70 control the amīr's authority is still the only authority.

What it does (raw modifiers, always-on).

• local_nobles_pop_growth = +0.10
• local_nobles_max_literacy = −10 — the amīr's new tribal arrivals live off horses and herds, not registers; they do not promote into the dīwān class.
• local_max_control = −0.05 — the amīr's authority is a substitute for the chancery's; the grant formalizes the gap.
• local_amirs_estate_power = +0.75
• diwan_estate_target_satisfaction = −0.002
• amirs_estate_target_satisfaction = +0.01

What it does (employment modifiers, scaled with staffing).

• local_nobles_desired_pop = +0.1 (flat) and +0.02 scaled — supports the amīr's household and a real Türkmen host.
• local_levy_size_modifier = +0.20 — this is your manpower.

On build. Adds a noble pop in the country's culture and religion, shifts −1 Türk (away from Tāzīk), −0.02 Dīwān satisfaction, +0.01 Amirs satisfaction. On destroy: −0.05 Amirs satisfaction.

Why the iqṭāʿ matters

The iqṭāʿ is the only rural-location source of local_levy_size_modifier and local_amirs_estate_power in the Persianate baseline. A realm without iqṭāʿ grants is a realm whose Amirs are politically present but militarily inactive — they will not muster. Combined with the demilitarized peasantry baked into the baseline persianate_bureaucracy_reform (peasants_estate_levy_size = −0.85), this means a Persianate state without iqṭāʿ has almost no field army.

The trade is in the privilege ledger: you grant either the amirs_iqta_grant (service-conditioned) or the amirs_hereditary_tuyul (heritable) privilege, you can then build iqṭāʿ in your rural locations, and your Amirs answer the muster — at the cost of rural control, Tāzīk drift, and the cabinet/efficiency disadvantages of a Türk-coded state.

The clay pit and the kiln

A smaller point that the mod is opinionated about: Iranic states build in brick, not timber. The base game's tendency to make plateau states cut wood from forests that do not exist is geographically absurd. The mod adds a desert_clay_pit building chain that feeds an adobe_maker so that the plateau's construction economy uses the materials the plateau actually had — fired and glazed brick, as God and geography intended.

See also: Dīwān estate, Amirs estate, Military system, Estate privileges.