The duties of this democratically elected autocrat are, in theory, generally stated as follows. He shall enforce legal decisions and maintain the divinely revealed restrictive ordinances; guard the frontiers and equip armies; receive the alms; put down robberies, thieving, highwaymen; maintain the Friday services and the festivals; decide disputes and receive evidence bearing on legal claims; marry minors, male and female, who have no guardians; divide booty. He must be a free, male, adult Moslem; must have administrative ability; must be an effective governor and do justice to the wronged. So long as he fulfils these conditions he is to be absolutely obeyed; private immorality or even tyranny are not grounds for deposing him. This is a position reached by Islam practically. But a caliph who openly denied the faith would be as impossible as an unbelieving pope. The caliph, therefore, is the highest executive officer of a system assumed to be definite and fixed. He, in a word, administers Islam; and the content of Islam is determined by the agreement of the Moslem people, expressed immediately through the `ulema, and ultimately, if indirectly and half-consciously, by the people. To depose him a _fatwa_ (see MUFTI) would be required--in Turkey from the Sheikh-ul-Islam--that he had violated some essential of the Moslem faith, and no longer fulfilled the conditions of a caliph. The Diwans. But it was impossible for the caliph personally to administer the affairs of the empire, and by degrees the supreme office was gradually put into commission, until the caliph himself became a mere figure-head, and vanished into the sacred seclusion of his palace. The history of the creation of government bureaus (_diwans_; see DIVAN) must therefore now be sketched. The first need which appeared was that of a means of regulating and administering the system of taxation and the revenues of the state. Immense sums flowed into Medina from the Arab conquests; the surplus, after the requirements of the state were met, was distributed among the believers. All Moslems had a right to a certain share of this, which was regarded as booty. Omar, the second caliph, regulated this distribution and also the system of taxation, and the result was the first divan and the constitution of Omar, looked back to now by all Sunnite Moslems as an ideal. The sources of revenue were (i) the poor-rate (_zakat_), a tithe paid by every Moslem; (ii) the fifth of all booty; (iii) the poll-tax (_jizya_) on non-Moslems; and (iv) the land-tax (_kharaj_) also on non-Moslems. Thus the constitution determined the position of all non-Moslems in a Moslem state. The ideal was that the Moslems should be kept apart as a superior, fighting caste, and that the non-Moslems should support them (cf. CALIPHATE, B. § 8, on the reign of Omar II.). The Moslems, therefore, were forbidden to acquire land in conquered countries. The