ABSTRACT
In 1182, a couple of years after becoming the ‘Abbasid Caliph, Naxir li-dcn Allah requested that an ascetic and pious leader of one of Baghdad’s futuwwat organisations initiate him in futuwwat. These organisations most likely upheld a mixture of the values epitomised by Sufis such as Sulamc and the more worldly ambitions of the “ayyArAn, some of whom may have considered their “territory” and denominational affiliation among the most important factors determining their identity. From 1203 onwards “al-Naxir personally decided on the admission into the futuwwat of princes and governors.”1 Not only did this establish princely futuwwat as a pillar that supported the Caliph, it also meant that those princes could further centralise and symbolically empower the Caliph as “the adherence of any prince automatically caused the admission into the futuwwat of all his subjects.”2 In 1207 Naxir made illegal all the futuwwat brotherhoods except the one to which he belonged and proclaimed himself “qibla,” or the central authority and support.3 As Breebaart states, this act took futuwwat “from the limelight-zone into broad daylight.”4 The motives behind the Caliph’s actions have been examined by a number of scholars, and the following will outline the main theories.
