Opening and Closing: Coexistence and Competition in Associations Based on Futuwwa in Late Medieval Anatolian Cities

Abstract

This article suggests that the futuwwa articulated by Shihāb al-Dīn ‘Umar al-Suhrawardī (1144–1234) created a paradigm of exclusion and inclusion for late medieval Anatolian urban confraternities. This largely faith-based construct was developed in the Seljuk capital of Konya and reduplicated in futuwwa treatises that were composed in Armenian, Persian and Turkish in the region. The multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious cultural environment of the late medieval Anatolian city provided an opportunity and, possibly, a necessity for futuwwa associations to draw boundaries around their associations. It is uniquely through the study of the city as a unit that we will be able to understand the huge cultural and religious transformations that were taking place in Anatolia during the late medieval period. Study of futuwwa associations as regulating urban populations provides a window of insight into the ways in which groups of men attempted to define themselves in juxtaposition with others.