The Concept of “Futuwa” in Poetry until the End of the Umayyad Period: A Reading of the Value Shift

Abstract

It is well known that the system of Arab and Islamic values is the result of a human conflict, with its various historical, social and cultural dimensions, which still exist in our lives, and which can reflect the different dimensions and meanings of the present.

Since poetry was supposed to mirror the forms of development or transformation that occurred in the life of Arabs after the emergence of Islam, due to its doctrine, thought, values and new concepts, including the concept of

"Futuwa", this research is an attempt to examine this concept, which is one of the most prominent concepts. It has thus occupied a special social and moral position in the system of ideals and higher values of Arabs, and echoed their features in ancient Arab poetry. The paper seeks to track the value transformations that have afflicted this concept, its material and moral aspects, and elements of other values that have been mixed or distorted, particularly the moral aspect. Hence, the paper includes the value of the "Futuwa", as well as on the values of generosity and courage, but others such as equestrianism, religiosity, piety, loyalty, altruism, freedom, etc., which constituted the whole part of the cultural system or the general cultural pattern that prevailed, in the pre-Islamic era, to the Islamic era, and till the ending of the Umayyad era.