Operating regimes of the government: Accounting and accountability changes in the Sultan Süleyman Waqf of the Ottoman Empire (The 1826 Experience)

Following Foucauldian accounting research, this article analyzes the relationship between accounting changes and “governmentality” practices by examining the accounting and accountability changes in the Sultan Süleyman Waqf of the Ottoman Empire in accordance with the restructuring regulations of Evkaf-ı Humayun Nezareti, established in 1826 for the purpose of the centralization of waqfs. It is argued that accounting was a technique in the hands of the Ottoman government that facilitated the translation of imperial objectives of the 1826 regulation into practice, the formation of the waqf in tune with government’s desired outcomes, and the construction of governable bodies, as well as providing a controlling device from a distance (Latour, 1987; Miller & Rose, 1990). This article also aims to show how accounting and accountability techniques were used to make people calculable in the organizational spaces of an Islamic state standing in history (Foucault, 1991a). Thus, this article adds to the Foucauldian understanding of the role and functioning of accounting by examining a non-western oriented setting.