Abstract:

It is known that accounting is applied since the existence of human being. When historical development of accounting is examined, recording methods may be summarized as single sided and double sided. The first method used in accounting is the single entry bookkeeping. According to this entry, not all of information related to financial events but important part of them are recorded in a single way. We can specify follow-up of receivable, payable, incomes and expenses as single sided recording. In the single entry bookkeeping, while receivables and payables are registered a financial event is recorded in a single account and collection related to receivables and payment concerning the liabilities are not recorded. While incomes and expenses are recorded, collection and payment related to incomes and expenses are not recorded either. In double entry bookkeeping, following-up all information concerning the financial events are recorded at least in two accounts related to asset, source, income, expense, profit/loss (difference of incomes and expenses). The ledger accounts used in Kitab-us Siyakat can be summarized as follows; budget income, budget expense, treasury, receivable, payable and result accounts. The debit sum written to one of these accounts is equal to the credit sum of other. Therefore, the recording method in Kitab-us Siyakat is not definitely the single entry bookkeeping and contains the basic principles and applications of double entry bookkeeping. It is possible to see this situation when examining the whole system and books used in Kitab-us Siyakat. Kitab-us Siyakat which constitutes our subject of research is a book used in state (government) accounting. This book contains the basic principles of double entry bookkeeping. Stairs method explained in Kitab-us Siyakat was used in income and expense of government budget for the period of 500 years in the Ottoman Empire and 1100 years in the Middle East. This method was found by Abbasids, developed by Ilkhanids and applied in the Ottoman Empire by maturing. This book was written 131 years before than Luca Pacioli’s book (1363). This book is the most developed and famous one written in Ilkhanid period among four basic accounting books. A basic principal of double entry bookkeeping is debiting one account and crediting the other in the same amount. When the subject is handled in terms of double entry bookkeeping, it is observed that all rules are obeyed in Kitab-us Siyakat, except writing amounts of debiting and crediting accounts separately In this study, the part of our paper that we had presented in 12th World’s Congress of Accounting Historians concerning the Risale-i Felekiye (Kitab-us Siyakat) and double entry bookkeeping were based on. The aim of this paper is to review and proof existence of the double entry bookkeeping in Kitab-us Siyakat and explain this to interested people more clearly.

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