Anatolian Tigers or Islamic Capital: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Turkey has been witnessing a new and interesting phenomenon in recent decades: the emergence of what some call green capital or Islamic capital. Others call the same phenomenon Anatolian tigers. The economic formation originated in those business circles that disapprove of interest and interestbased financial institutions. This is an important issue not only for academic researchers analysing Turkish society and policymakers researching solutions to the problems of the Turkish economy, but also for those who worry about the economic future awaiting them in this country. Within this framework, this article investigates the roots and emergence of Islamic capital and discusses its challenges and prospects. First, it evaluates in a general context the characteristics of physical and human capital inherited from the Ottomans. It goes on to review factors facilitating the formation and rise of Anatolian capital. Lastly, characteristics of the piousconservative rich are discussed along with their related problems and future prospects. As is well known, the main source of production in the Ottoman social formation was agricultural land. In addition, military-related jobs were for many years the most favoured social professions. As a result, the two major economic and social activities for the Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire were farming and serving as an army soldier. Other professions were usually left to non-Muslims. For instance, engineering services were generally undertaken by Ottoman subjects of Hungarian origin, financial services by Jews, commercial activities by the French, British and Italian 'Levantines' and the Greeks, and finally, artisanship and jewellery by the Ottomans of Armenian origin.' In other words, trade and artisanship, which together formed the basis for industrial transformation, were controlled by the non-Muslims.2 Since the classical Ottoman land management system called timar did not allow capital accumulation, agricultural surplus did not give way to the emergence of a powerful aristocratic class.3