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It is indicative of this transition that none of the “Rightly Guided” Caliphs, the first four caliphs of Sunni tradition, is typically given the rank or title of martyr. This is interesting because Abu Bakr, the first caliph, is the only one of the four not to have been killed in an open act of violence. In keeping with Islam's communal ethos, martyrdom is treated by the fuqahaʿ as not necessarily or most importantly a means for achieving individual salvation or felicity in the next world. Rather, it has the pragmatic value of ensuring the continued existence of the group through communal defense (Klausner). | It is indicative of this transition that none of the “Rightly Guided” Caliphs, the first four caliphs of Sunni tradition, is typically given the rank or title of martyr. This is interesting because Abu Bakr, the first caliph, is the only one of the four not to have been killed in an open act of violence. In keeping with Islam's communal ethos, martyrdom is treated by the fuqahaʿ as not necessarily or most importantly a means for achieving individual salvation or felicity in the next world. Rather, it has the pragmatic value of ensuring the continued existence of the group through communal defense (Klausner). | ||
==In Shi’i Islam== | ==In Shi’i Islam== | ||
Internal struggles within the Umma also shaped the construction of martyrdom among Shi’ite Muslims, for whom the death of the Prophet’s grandson [[Hussain]] became the defining event of their history as a community. Hussain was martyred in 680 at [[Karbala]] in Iraq when his small band, accompanied by women and children, was attacked and massacred by the army of the [[Umayyad]] ruler, [[Yazid]]. Shi’ite interpretations of Karbala took Muslim ideas of martyrdom in completely new directions. | Internal struggles within the Umma also shaped the construction of martyrdom among Shi’ite Muslims, for whom the death of the Prophet’s grandson [[Hussain]] became the defining event of their history as a community. Hussain was martyred in 680 at [[Karbala]] in Iraq when his small band, accompanied by women and children, was attacked and massacred by the army of the [[Umayyad]] ruler, [[Yazid]]. Shi’ite interpretations of Karbala took Muslim ideas of martyrdom in completely new directions. Hussain’s suffering and death came to be seen not just as an individual contribution to the struggle against injustice, meriting individual reward, but as a deliberate redemptive act of cosmic significance. By choosing martyrdom Hussain ensured the ultimate victory of his community and earned the place of mediator for his people. <ref>Daniel W. Brown (2004). Encyclopedia of Islam and Muslim World. Edited by Richard C. Martin. USA: Macmillan; P: 431-434. ISBN 0-02-865912-0.</ref> | ||
The Twelver Shi’i list of martyrs begins with Abel (Qabil) and continues through history to include the prophet Muhammad and eleven of the twelve imams, the exception being the still-expected [[Twelfth Imam]]. Within [[Shi'ism]] the visiting of the graves of the martyrs—preeminently but not exclusively the imams—has special religious significance, as do weeping for them (or even pretending to weep), and suffering distresses similar to those of | The Twelver Shi’i list of martyrs begins with Abel (Qabil) and continues through history to include the prophet Muhammad and eleven of the twelve imams, the exception being the still-expected [[Twelfth Imam]]. Within [[Shi'ism]] the visiting of the graves of the martyrs—preeminently but not exclusively the imams—has special religious significance, as do weeping for them (or even pretending to weep), and suffering distresses similar to those of Hussain and his companions, such as thirst. | ||
[[Shi'ism]], especially since the establishment of the [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids Safavid dynasty] at the beginning of the sixteenth century, elaborated the motif of cultivated martyrdom as a religious and cultural ideal to an unprecedented degree. Indeed, according to some contemporary Shiʿi authorities, the true meaning of the mystical term fanaʿ (annihilation, selflessness) is none other than the sacrifice of the physical life in the path of Islam. <ref>as related in a speech by [[Ayatollah Sayyid Mahmud Ṭaleqani]] [d. 1979], p. 68.</ref> | [[Shi'ism]], especially since the establishment of the [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids Safavid dynasty] at the beginning of the sixteenth century, elaborated the motif of cultivated martyrdom as a religious and cultural ideal to an unprecedented degree. Indeed, according to some contemporary Shiʿi authorities, the true meaning of the mystical term fanaʿ (annihilation, selflessness) is none other than the sacrifice of the physical life in the path of Islam. <ref>as related in a speech by [[Ayatollah Sayyid Mahmud Ṭaleqani]] [d. 1979], p. 68.</ref> | ||
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The theme of martyrdom is also very important in Sufism. The Islamic world is adorned with thousands of shrines (sg., mashhad) to pious Muslims who have been regarded as martyrs (Björkman, Patton, and Arnold), though not all places known as mashhad claim to hold the remains of a bona fide martyr. (In Turkish, for example, meshed is a word for “cemetery” in general.) These tombs are the objects of special veneration and pilgrimage, the practice of which is traced to the Prophet himself, who is said to have visited the graves of the martyrs of the Battle of Uhud interred in al-Baqiʿ cemetery in Mecca to pay special homage to them. | The theme of martyrdom is also very important in Sufism. The Islamic world is adorned with thousands of shrines (sg., mashhad) to pious Muslims who have been regarded as martyrs (Björkman, Patton, and Arnold), though not all places known as mashhad claim to hold the remains of a bona fide martyr. (In Turkish, for example, meshed is a word for “cemetery” in general.) These tombs are the objects of special veneration and pilgrimage, the practice of which is traced to the Prophet himself, who is said to have visited the graves of the martyrs of the Battle of Uhud interred in al-Baqiʿ cemetery in Mecca to pay special homage to them. | ||
In Sufism, however, martyrdom acquires many of the same features associated with the type of the martyr-hero exemplified by Jesus in the Gospel accounts of the Passion, the most important example here being that of | In Sufism, however, martyrdom acquires many of the same features associated with the type of the martyr-hero exemplified by Jesus in the Gospel accounts of the Passion, the most important example here being that of Hussain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj—whose act of martyrdom is frequently conflated with that of Hussain ibn ʿAli <ref>Chelkowski, p. 21.</ref> —who was crucified in Baghdad in the early tenth century and has been “kept alive” as an ideal of piety and spiritual valor not only in the Sufi tradition but in aspects of wider Islamic culture as well (Massignon). | ||
But there have been many others, including his son Mansur ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, Suhrawardi al-Maqtul of Aleppo (d. 1191), ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ʿAbd al-Haqq Ibn Sabʿin in Spain, and Sarmad in Mughal India, to name only a few of the most famous. Even at the time of Hallaj's crucifixion, visitation to the tombs of martyrs was such a firmly established practice that Hallaj's remains were cremated and the ashes scattered on the Euphrates so that no tomb to him could be erected which might then become the object of a cult. The recent study of the fourteenth-century Indian Sufi martyr Masʿud Beg (Ernst) shows the literary process involved in the acknowledgment of a saint as also a martyr. | But there have been many others, including his son Mansur ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, Suhrawardi al-Maqtul of Aleppo (d. 1191), ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ʿAbd al-Haqq Ibn Sabʿin in Spain, and Sarmad in Mughal India, to name only a few of the most famous. Even at the time of Hallaj's crucifixion, visitation to the tombs of martyrs was such a firmly established practice that Hallaj's remains were cremated and the ashes scattered on the Euphrates so that no tomb to him could be erected which might then become the object of a cult. The recent study of the fourteenth-century Indian Sufi martyr Masʿud Beg (Ernst) shows the literary process involved in the acknowledgment of a saint as also a martyr. | ||
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* Aghaie, Kamran Scot, ed.The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shiʿi Islam. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. | * Aghaie, Kamran Scot, ed.The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shiʿi Islam. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. | ||
* Allen, Lori. “There Are Many Reasons Why: Suicide Bombers and Martyrs in Palestine.”Middle East Report223 (2002): 34–37. | * Allen, Lori. “There Are Many Reasons Why: Suicide Bombers and Martyrs in Palestine.”Middle East Report223 (2002): 34–37. | ||
* Alserat: The Imam | * Alserat: The Imam Hussain Conference12 (Spring–Summer 1986). Contains a number of articles, many from a Shiʿi perspective, on the significance of the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson Hussain. | ||
* ʿĀrif, ʿĀrif. Sijill al-khulūd: asmāʿ al-shuhadaʿ alladhina istashhadū fī maʿārik Filasṭīn (The Scroll of Immortality: Names of the Martyrs Who Bore Witness with Their Lives in the Battles for Palestine). 1947–1952; Sidon, Lebanon: 1962. | * ʿĀrif, ʿĀrif. Sijill al-khulūd: asmāʿ al-shuhadaʿ alladhina istashhadū fī maʿārik Filasṭīn (The Scroll of Immortality: Names of the Martyrs Who Bore Witness with Their Lives in the Battles for Palestine). 1947–1952; Sidon, Lebanon: 1962. | ||
* Arnold, Thomas W.“Saints and Martyrs (Muhammadan in India).” In Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 11, pp. 68–73. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911/1958. | * Arnold, Thomas W.“Saints and Martyrs (Muhammadan in India).” In Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 11, pp. 68–73. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911/1958. | ||