THE TURNING POINT IN UNDERSTANDING OF FUTUWWA: THE REFORMS OF THE CALİPH AL-NĀŞİR Lİ-DĪN ALLĀH REGARDING THE CONCEPT OF FUTUWWA FÜTÜVVET TARİHİNDE BİR DÖNÜM NOKTASI: HALİFE NÂSIR Lİ- DİNİLLÂH’IN FÜTÜVVETİ TANZİMİ

Having been an ʿAbbāsid Caliph in such a period when the Caliphate office lost its political authority andsymbolically serviced as a religious power, al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh desired to reset the authority of Caliphate in Islamicworld. For doing so he did notable military, political, intellectual and social reforms. One of the reforms he did thatdates back to the earlier times was to improve the concept and position of the idea of futuwwa under his authority.Term “futuwwa,” referring youth, bravery and gallantry derives from the Arabic term fetā that means youth inArabic. Two different types of concept of futuwwa have been developed in historical process. One is resulted in dueto the fact that social and demographic changes in the Middle East. Especially, after the Islamic conquests aroundthe Middle East, rapid urbanization has been appeared there. This urbanization phenomen caused to weaken theties within tribe members. Unitary function of the tribe was replaced with futuwwa unities that were formed byyoung people who were having same profession and had same ideology. The purpose of this development was toincrease the social cooperation and the association activities. Moreover, ṣūfism also created a kind of futuwwa thatrequires men to be virtuous men and to do favours for others without any personal interest. It is meaningful that thiskind of futuwwa also emphasizes public service. As a result of the fact that some of the scattered and disobedientfutuwwa unites, Caliph al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh ordered al-Suhrawardī who is the leading ṣūfī of his era to compose anew doctrine related to the concept of futuwwa. Al-Suhrawardī tried to integrate the futuwwa unites with the ṣūfisticapproach of the concept of futuwwa and he also aimed to form such virtuous futuwwa unites that they devotethemselves to the public interest. Furthermore, al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh who declared himself as a leader of all futuwwagroups did not hesitate to disband some futuwwa groups not obeying his authority. In this way, he not only overcomethe disobedient futuwwa unites but also increase his authority over all futuwwa unites, and finally, the entire futuwwaunites unavoidably confirm his power. It is seen that al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh focused on rearranging the concept andmission of the futuwwa to unite all Muslims under the power of futuwwa by ignoring the denominational differenceswithin all Muslims. Thus, the concept of futuwwa that was legitimized during the reign of the Caliph al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh turned to the shape of the craft guilds in following periods as it organize the artisan and craft groups inMuslim societies. Therefore, futuwwa which spread and serviced under the title of Akhīsm in Anatolia contributes tothe shape of the socio-economic life in Anatolia. In this study, not only the position and role of al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāhas a leader of futuwwa unites were discussed in the sense of his perception of futuwwa and but also his reforms, andpossible aims regarding this phenomenon were covered.Keywords: Futuwwa, Akhīsm, al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh, ʿAbbāsid.