The state accounting doctrine book of the Middle East in the 14th century: Risale-i Felekiyye and its place in accounting culture Fatma Sensoy * , Oktay Guvemli Marmara University, Turkey article info Article history: Received 12 October 2013 Received in revised form 16 September 2014 Accepted 19 September 2014 Available online 28 October 2014 Keywords: Accounting Stair (Merdiven) Method State accounting system abstract The advanced financial structure of the Ilkhanian State (1256e1353) is well known. The state accounting doctrine books that survive from this powerful state influenced public accounting and management practice in the Ottoman Empire and Middle Eastern region for hundreds of years. These accounting books were written in 1309e1363. The last and the most developed book in the series is ‘Risale-i Felekiyye e Kitab-us Siyakat’. The Risale-i Felekiyye-Kitab-us Siyakat contains accounting examples written in Siyakat script. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the functioning of financial orders and fiscal orders that facilitated decision making and the types and total of revenues and expenses of a state accounting system in 14th century. Thus, it describes a system of public accounting that facilitated financial planning and control, and a structure that integrated easily with fiscal management. Risale-i Felekiyye is seen as an excellent example of a written doctrine of accounting book with explanations of an accounting system and advanced level of ac- counting understanding. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper analyses the Risale-i Felekiyye-Kitab-us Siyakat, the last in a sequence of highly significant accounting doctrine books that influenced public accounting and management practice in the Ottoman Empire and Middle Eastern region for hundreds of years. Aside from throwing light on the text and the various recommendations, the paper describes a system of public accounting that facilitated financial planning, and thus integrated easily with fiscal management. The Middle Eastern countries were generally dominated by statism. The state accounting documents and books have survived to the present time. The Merdiven 1 (ladder, stair) method is a state accounting method proposed in the Risale-i Felekiyye-Kitab-us Siyakat. The book is generally known by its shorter name: Kitab-us Siyakat. The word Siyakat is significant since accounting entries in the book are made using Siyakat script and numbers. Besides this, Siyakat is emphasized in the explanations of the book; so this was the name given (Otar, 1991). The Risale-i Felekiyye-Kitab-us Siyakat is considered a very significant source of detailed in formation because it indicates a state's accounting system. The methods which had been tried and tested for centuries continued to be used. Taxes, revenues, * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: fatmasensoy@yahoo.com (F. Sensoy), Oktay_guvemli@yahoo.co.uk (O. Guvemli). 1 Merdiven means ladder in Turkish, Nerdiban in Persian. The Turkish word Merdiven is used in this paper. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect The British Accounting Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bar http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2014.09.001 0890-8389/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The British Accounting Review 47 (2015) 159e176