ESKİ TÜRKLER ÇEK YAZAR MIYDI? / WERE ANCIENT TURKS WROTE CHECK?

Commerce mechanism actually exists based on two main actions: Selling and buying. In this context, in fact, commerce, bounding to the aim of meeting a basic or a secondary need, has constituted the one of the main rudiments both economical and political development since the oldest time of the history for Turks. In old Turkish states or societies there were always commerce activities both supply the goods that they did not have from others and generate revenue by selling the surplus goods. While in the beginning these activities were done basing on the bartering namely exchanging (Turks used to use mostly horses and valuable furs in these barters), later on they started to use the coin gained from the other nations and especially since the 7th century they started to use the coins that they own produced from the valuable metals such as gold, silver and copper. With the help of the political power of being a state they succeeded in circulating rag money and fabrics money since Uigurs. The universal quality had a variant aspect with the partaking of the Turks in the Muslim World. They met a new payment system that the Muslim traders, who changed the East Mediterranean into an important commercial geography, used since 9th century. This was a çak ‘check’ (> Ar. ?akk) system which emerged with acquiring dimension of a different meaning and usage of the word şāh in Persian and had the feature of written document recording to be paid from his account of the value of order which a merchant gone. In this study, Persian šāh > čāk and Turkish çek word recorded in Turkish history for the first time referenced to Kitâbü’l-Ef’âl written in 1356 will be mentioned and from this point of view, the subject about the usage of the check of old Turks as a judicial and financial document will be had.