Futuwwa (Arabic: فتوة, "young-manliness")[1] was a conception of adolescent moral behavior around which myriad institutions of Medieval confraternity developed.
[4] Even in the Pre-Islamic era, this theme constituted a popular form of poetry that revolved around the personage of Ḥātim aṭ-Ṭā’ī, a famous Arab poet renowned for his generosity.
[5] At-Ṭā’ī reappears in early Futuwwa literature as a pre-Islamic ancestor to the chivalrous moral code that would later find expression in similar Islamic icons, namely Alī ibn Abū Ṭālib.
Over time, this poetry would confer upon fāta, an epithet employed in the Quran to celebrate the righteousness of such figures as Yūsuf and Ibrahīm in the Sleepers of the Cave, a deeper moral significance.
Though it does not reference futuwwa explicitly, the poem describes a novel class of young men in Syria that regularly congregated together for drink and merriment and was critical of their predilection for disregarding the laws of the local governor.
[8] This explicit standardization of a previously nebulous conception of moral righteousness set the tone for more expansive futuwwa codes that began to develop between the 11th and 14th centuries C.E.
Instead of taming the brotherhoods into monolithic units of caliphal control, however, the reform measures spawned an unprecedented diversity of thought regarding the organizations, and new innovations and interpretations abounded.
[16] By the time of Ibn Battuta's travels through Asia-Minor in the early 14th century, Akhiyat al-Fityan, or Brotherhood of Youth, existed in every major city in Anatolia.
Erudite Akhis were deployed by Orhan to publicly debate Christian theologians in hopes of swaying the local population to the side of Islam.
[24] Though Turkish expansion into Western Anatolia occurred rapidly following the collapse of Byzantine control there in the 13th century C.E., Seljuk and Mongol policies of decentralization allowed Akhi brotherhoods to exert significant influence.
[25] Maintaining this system required a vast network of Seljuk patronage, ensuring the loyalty of outlying groups through the construction of public works, akhi and dervish lodges, and tombs.
[26] Within the cities, the brotherhoods sought to preserve order and stability, in some cases operating as diplomats with foreign leaders and the central state to maintain peace.
Although the Akhi Brotherhood was originally open to men of varying professions, as the Ottomans consolidated their rule in Anatolia, the organization was reconstituted into guilds of artisans and merchants.
As independent units of local influence, however, imperial authority understood the potential of the Akhi Brotherhoods to become seditious hotbeds of revolutionary agitation and religious heresy.
[31] There were also many parallels between Hovhannes’ writings and those of Shihab al-Din ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi (1144-1234), the man who wrote the first Muslim futuwwa treatises in Anatolia.
[33] This practice especially bore a striking resemblance to Muslim Akhi Brotherhoods, where members would bring their daily earnings to the guild's lodge for its improvement and for providing hospitality for guests.
[38] The fascist[39] pan-Arabist Al-Muthanna Club and its al-Futuwwa (Hitler Youth) type[40] movement, participated in the 1941 Farhud attack on Baghdad's Jewish community.