Ahi (akhī) designates a member of one of the mystical-artisanal guilds in the mediaeval Muslim world that adhered to the principles of fütüvvet ( futuwwa , both the ethics followed by Sufis (Ṣūfīs) to achieve spiritual perfection and the name of institutionalised organisations that embraced these principles). Ahi associations existed in Iran and Central Asia from at least the fifth/eleventh century and in Seljuk (Saljūq) Anatolia from the 600s/1200s. They played an important role in the formation of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the eighth/fourteenth century