SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to discuss Islamic spirituality without dealing with
that spiritual reality which is called futuwwah in Arabic and jawān-
mardī in Persian and which can be rendered into English as "mystical
youth" or spiritual chivalry. Both the Arabic and Persian terms (fatā
in Arabic and jawān in Persian) refer to youth or the Latin juvenis but have
acquired a meaning related much more to the youth associated with the
eternal spring of the life of the Spirit than to physical young age. To possess
futuwwah or jawānmardī is to be embellished with the characteristics of
courage and generosity associated with a chivalry transposed onto the
highest level of meaning from the realm of external action to that of the
spiritual life, without, however, excluding the world of external action.
Therefore, their translation as "spiritual chivalry" evokes more than any
other expression this basic Islamic concept, whose reality has been mani-
fested in so many domains, from the activity of the guilds in the bazaars
to those of knights on the battlefield, from the world of Sufi contemplatives
to that of sultans and viziers. ¹ Much of the spiritual substance of the
Muslim soul has been molded over the centuries by futuwwah and jawān-
mardī, and to this day a traditional Muslim looks with awe, reverence, and
trust upon a person who manifests this "spiritual chivalry."

There has been a great debate concerning the origin of futuwwah. Some
believe that the pre-Islamic Persian institution of 'ayyārī became combined
with Sufism to create futuwwah. (The term 'ayyār means in general "keen
of intelligence" and "brisk," but it was connected more particularly with
organized groups that often rose up against the central authority of the
caliph and his governors in various Persian provinces.) Others believe that
just as there existed among the pre-Islamic Arabs the virtue of muruwwah
(manliness), which consisted of courage (shajā'ah) and generosity
(sakhāwah), so did the corresponding virtue develop among the sedentary

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