What Did Yunus Emre Actually Say?

The study reconsiders the distribution of capital or accumulation by Yunus Emre, not from the religious, mystical, philosophical, literary and historical point of view as it has been done so far, but from the perspective of political economy. Islamic sufism has always been more influential than the madrasa in transforming and affecting the society throughout history generally in muslim societies, particularly in Turkey. In some geographies and times, it has succeeded to be the most tolerant institution or movement having varied appearances against the other. The most prominent movements of mysticism in influencing Anatolia during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods were sufism, traveling dervishness like qalanderiyya and the melami mystics. These Sufi movements can be compared in some ways to schools such as Epicurism, Cynicism, and Stoicism in ancient philosophy. Yunus Emre as a Melami is distinguished from sufis and traveling dervishes in many ways and marked as most known unifying character of social culture of Turks. The most fundamental element of his distinction in terms of political economy is trying to level or distribute accumulation in every field although he gives importance to work, profession and labor. In this sense, Yunus's attempt is compared to the isonomic principle, which Kojin Karatani claims existing in Ionia of ancient times, which means that the absence of a ruler and ruled and the possibility of freedom and equality at the same time. The isonomic distribution is carried out in five ways within the framework of self, property, meaning or logics, prestige or reputation and linguistic distance. Moreover, Miskinlik that is one of the basic concepts of Yunus is subjected to a new reading outside of common perception.

Keywords

History of Economics Thought, Yunus Emre, Kojin Karatani, İsonomia, Political Economy, Sufi, Traveling Dervish, Accumulation, Melami.