Shi'itisation of the Futuwwa Tradition in the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

This study examines the Shi'itisation of the futuwwa tradition from the eleventh century to the early sixteenth century, with a special reference to fifteenth-century events. Available scholarship has a rather generalised view on the sectarian orientation of the futuwwa, locating it within the Sunni fold, though having a slightly Shi'ite tinge. This view has a tendency to underestimate changes in the religious stand of the futuwwa through the ages. Likewise, it devalues the evident Shi'ite content of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century futuwwat-namas, regarding them as a temporary divergence due to Safavid propaganda. This article challenges two premises of this established view, arguing that the religious history of futuwwa was by no means static and linear but shows a rupture, i.e. Shi'itisation, in the fifteenth century; and, in contrast to the consensus of the available scholarship, this Shi'itisation was not a result of Safavid propaganda, but of a greater 'universal' transition taking place in fifteenth-century Islamdom.