BEYOND SYRIA IRAQ

WHAT MAKES THE PROVINCES TICK?
Governance
■ AYMENN AL TAMIMI
PREPARED STATEMENT
THAT THE ISLAMIC STATEpresents itself as a state project should by now
be a familiar notion, and within the “central” provinces (wilayat) of
IS in Iraq and Syria, the project has achieved its most sophisticated
stage in the realization of a governance system foremost embodied by diwans
(“departments”), responsible for various aspects of administration, which
emerged following the announcement of the Caliphate on June 29, 2014.
The Diwan al-Taalim, for instance, is responsible for the education system,
managing schools and devising the curriculum to be taught. It also oversees
the provision of public services, such as water supplies and road maintenance,
while the Diwan al-Hisba takes on a variety of other interesting functions,
including the enforcement of Islamic morality in public, consumer
protection, and even the granting of permits for people to leave IS territory
temporarily.
The functions of diwans may overlap at times; thus, regulation of Internet
use may fall to both the Diwan al-Hisba and Diwan al-Amn. That said,
not every bureaucratic body is known as a diwan. The Hijra Committee, for
example, oversees the arrival of new migrants to IS—even providing financial
assistance for those who cannot meet expenses but know someone within
IS who can vouch for them—as well as managing IS border crossings, such
as in the northern Aleppo countryside village of Dabiq, through which businessmen
and drivers can visit IS territory for a limited time. Dabiq is better
known for being featured in apocalyptic Islamic State propaganda as a showdown
site between IS and the West, and has an IS magazine named for it.
The existence of the IS administrative bodies is hardly unprecedented,
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