A Critical Archeology of the Phenomenon of Martyrdom

Abstract

The concept of martyrdom (shahāda) has been used and discussed in various cases and situations in the media and academia today. Different definitions of martyrdom are encountered in the meantime, with a new addition almost in every new case such as "martyr of homeland," "martyr of democracy," "martyr of revolution," "martyr of fire," even "martyr of football." However, when the literature, especially Western literature, on martyrdom is analyzed, it becomes clear that the concept is studied in the context of terrorism and suicide attacks in relation to jihād. Therefore, it is essential to reveal the context in which the concept (shahīd) was coined and the process through which it has gained its various current meanings to shed light on the usage areas mentioned above. However, when examining the origin of the phenomenon of martyrdom in the relevant literature, it is possible to have precise and sufficient knowledge about the origin of the word "martyrdom" and the trajectory of its current meaning. In contrast, the ambiguity about the origin of the phenomenon of Islamic martyrdom (shahāda) still obtains. There may be two explanations for this: First, the concept of martyrdom in Western literature was borrowed from the Greko-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions, and the term "martyr" was translated from the Latin equivalent of "martus." Second, similar research on the origin of the concept is wanting in Turkish/Islamic literature; scholars seem to have been content with only the lexical definitions of the word "shahīd" and how it occurred in verses and hadiths. The purpose of this presentation is to figure out the trajectory of the concepts (shahīd and shahāda) and determine the meanings it has assumed over time and to analyze how it can be related to contemporary situations and cases in which the concept is used. Paying specific attention to the historical dimension of the subject matter, we used a descriptive method whose aim is to make intelligible the meaning of particular text-like events as they appeared in the literature. They include the primary sources of Islamic history, Arabic poetry reflecting the-then Arab culture and social structure, and verses and hadiths about martyrdom. We conclude that Western scholars’ argument that Muslims borrowed the concept of martyrdom from other cultures is not based upon any concrete and credible historical evidence because the ideal of fighting and dying at wars was perceived as a noble act even in pre-Islamic Arab society; that the root of the verb "sh-h-d" forming the word martyr (shahīd) has been used in the sense of "joining the war" in Arabic poetry; and that the concept, as used today, was coined as "mustashhedīn" by Hassan Ibn Thabit to honor those who died at the Battle of Mu’ta.