Abstract:

This study is about the Akhism organization which played an significant role in governing the economical, social, and cultural life of Anatolian Turkish society in the past. Akhism, starting from the first half of 13th century till the beginning of 20th century, was an institution that prepared workforce for tradesmen and craftsmen in Anatolian cities, towns and even in villages and governed their operations. It also functioned as governing and control mechanism of these groups.Akhism is a system of principles that combines the İslamic beliefs and Turkish common law. In this system, human is placed to be at the center and everything is founded for his happiness. In 21st century, we learned how fly like birds and built aircrafts; we learned how to swim and built submarines. Yet we couldn’t learn how to live in harmony and friendly manner. In this study, we seek how Akhi organization found solutions to the problems. Nations who want to make a leap forward should look at the past as it is necessary to go back a few steps to jump over a ditch. With this goal, we looked for answers for following questions: 1) Are there lessons to be taken from Akhism? 2) How did it keep the retail price maintenance all over the country? 3) What are the elements that make Akhism so powerful? 4) How did it reconcile labour and capital?. 5)  How did it combine moral values and craftsmanship?. 6) How did it solve the financing problems of tradesmen and craftsmen?. When we look through archives, we have found that Akhism found authentic solutions to these problems. As an example, it solved the financing problems of tradesmen and craftsmen at a greater extent by developing “common safe” method.

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