Merit in political letters

The aim of this thesis is to present an independent study on the concept of meritocracy in political treatises. According to this study, the fundamental factors determining the concept of meritocracy are the search for solutions to the fundamental problems of the era, dominant social values, and the possibilities offered by material culture. The temporal depth reached by social memory determines the limits of thought production within a society. In this context, the idea that political treatises, representing two thousand years of political memory, can contribute to contemporary thought production on the subject of meritocracy is the fundamental assumption of this thesis. This study examines six political treatises written between the tenth and seventeenth centuries. In chronological order, these treatises are: Farabi's "Al-Madinat al-Fadila," Mawardi's "Al-Ahkam al-Sultani," Yusuf Has Hajib's "Kutadgu Bilig," Nizam al-Mulk's "Siyasatnama," Ibn Taymiyya's "al-Siyasat al-Shariyah," and Koçi Bey's "Koçi Bey Risalesi." To determine the concept of meritocracy in political treatises, the significant political events of the author's era and the author's life in general have been researched. The connections between the author's concept of meritocracy, the political events of the period, and the author's biography have been examined. These connections have facilitated the interpretation of the temporal evolution of meritocratic concepts. To compare the concept of meritocracy in political treatises with contemporary concepts, the historical development of meritocratic concepts in the pre-modern, modern, and post-modern periods from the seventeenth century to the present has also been studied. Thus, the phenomenon of the continuity of historical change in meritocratic concepts has been emphasized. It is believed that this continuity of change can increase predictability about the future of meritocratic concepts and contribute to the educational planning of new generations. Keywords: Merit, Political Treatise