The status of Imam Ali in Fotowwat-Nāmas of 5th-8th Centuries And the Shiite Tendency in Tohfat al-Ikhwān

The people of Fotowwat (chivalrousness) were among the social and ritual groups in the history of Islam and Iran, emphasizing the moral and chivalrous principles in human relations. The moral principles and rules and the rites of the people of Fotowwat have been written down in Fotowwat-Nāmas (literally: ‘letters of chivalrousness’). Besides, in these works, the writers have attempted to introduce the moral role models of chivalrousness. The most important central figure introduced as the role model of chivalrousness is Imam Ali (PBUH). In the present article, we have tried to investigate the Imam’s status in Fotowwat-Nāmas to show that while Imam Ali has not been mentioned in Selmi’s Fotowwat-Nāma in the 5th century, his status is a central and undoubted one in the Fotowwat-Nāmas from the 6th century on. Anyway, in the Fotowwat-Nāmas of the Il-Khānid period, especially in Kāshānī’s Tohfat al-Ikhwān, in addition to Imam’s central role, the Shiite beliefs not mentioned in other Fotowwat-Nāmas are explicitly stated, and this prepared the ground for introduction of these beliefs into the Fotowwat-Nāmas of the later periods.