THE SOCIO-POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE PERIOD IN WHICH SHIHAB AL-DIN AL-SUHRAWARDI LIVED

Abstract

This article examines the socio-political environment of the Muslim East 
during the lifetime of Shihab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi (1145–1234), the 
eponymous founder of the Suhrawardiyya Sufi order. It situates his career within the 
protracted decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, the political fragmentation that accompanied 
Buwayhid and Seljuk dominance, and the partial restoration of caliphal authority under 
al-Nasir li-Din Allah (r. 1180–1225). Particular attention is given to al-Nasir’s use of 
the futuwwa and of Sufi networks as instruments of political integration, and to al-
Suhrawardi’s role as “Shaykh al-Shuyukh” and as the caliph’s diplomatic envoy to the 
Ayyubids, the Khwarazmshah, and the Seljuks of Anatolia. The study argues that al-
Suhrawardi’s religious and political activity can be properly understood only against 
the background of the socio-economic crises and the search for social stabilization that 
characterized the late Abbasid period.