Figurations of the Martyr in Near Eastern and European Literature

The first project phase adopted a comparative perspective on martyr traditions in various religious-cultural contexts. The comparative approach drew upon the 2002–2004 pilot project conducted at the Berlin Wissenschaftskolleg. With the goal of dispelling the hermetic conception of Islam as a homogenous religion with an established dogma, our research focused on the historical differentiation of the diverse martyr traditions of Islam. This orientation was initiated in order to question traditional historical models of martyrdom and to highlight specific religious-cultural upheavals and exchanges among various religions. Our main interest lay in specific historical formations of the martyr in terms of praxis, self-definition, and cultural memory as well as historical, poetic and visual representations. The methodological concept of figuration provided a scope that included concrete (historical, mythic, and fictional) figures. Such figures embody and give shape to aspects of the martyr’s specific meaning and to the cultural practices that contribute to the formation of distinct martyr representations.
The martyr appears as a figure on the edge, capable of both splitting religious traditions apart and bringing them together. The martyr takes on contours within the negotiations that take place in specific historical constellations and cultural contexts. The martyr figure is thereby subject to numerous changes within religious traditions. It is not only possible to describe the synchronic component of how the martyr serves as a mediator and medium between various religious cultures, but it also becomes necessary to look at the diachronic development of the martyr as intermediary between reputedly distinctive historical periods. In this manner, the martyr becomes a figure that transgresses and calls into question the boundaries between pre-modern and modern as well as between “religious” and “secular” societies.

The second project phrase, which commenced in 2009, addressed the legacy of traditional martyr cultures in the present. The prominent role that martyrs play in current conflicts in the Near East is often described from a European perspective as a regression to pre-modern concepts or as the expression of Islam’s incapacity to change. However, the martyr has not disappeared from the secularized societies of Western Europe nor from the secular movements in the Near East. Indeed, the martyr endures in a variety of forms and contexts be they nationalist, socialist, Zionist, or others. Even when martyrs are decidedly framed as part of an “Islamic” tradition, their reception within modern ideologies has left traces that are, in turn, part of a transformation that continues to be passed down over the centuries.

The popularity of ta’ziya as a folkloric phenomenon persists without signs of wavering any time soon, even while the respective ruling-class cultures tend to identify with the tradition only remotely if at all. Indeed, it is not uncommon for political or religious authorities to ban ta’ziya. In this respect, martyr figures and their on-stage identities are particularly striking. In addition to the specific characteristics of martyrs within the Shi’ite tradition, especially in Iran, the project also investigated the variations in meaning and significance when martyrdom is presented on stage by a collective (the performers) and, at the same time, for a collective (the audience). Martyrdom is conceived of as a performative phenomenon in the ta’ziya tradition, as something that has more to do with the cultural presence of the martyr than with how the martyr is portrayed on a textual level.

The First World War extended far beyond the borders of Europe, consequentially interrupting democratization processes in the Near East. Prior to and during this period, a multitude of traditional political and cultural concepts and ideas were newly conceived, tested, and moreover altered. One of the more striking and representative cases is that of the Jangal movement [Jungle movement], an insurgency that led an uprising against, first, the Russian and, immediately thereafter, the British Army by the Caspian Sea of northern Iran. As leader of the Jangal movement, theologian Mirza Kuchak [Mīrzā Kūčik Ḵẖān] issued the proclamation founding the independent Soviet Republic of Gilan. The uprising was quelled in 1921, and the movement lost its lead figure with Kuchak’s beheading.

The self-chosen martyrdom of this period was not limited to local or Muslim members, but also included former German and Austrian soldiers who deserted their posts to join the movement. Never before have nationalist, Islamic, Shi’ite, and socialist martyr cultures been so intertwined, as in the case of the Jangal movement.

The project investigated the specific changes in martyr culture in the First World War with regard to the formation and expansion of this movement. It engaged with texts and images of the period pertaining to this movement, and investigated their basic pattern, which persists in the current Shi’a (and especially Iranian) cultures of martyrdom.

Figure to the left: Ḥaydar Ḵẖān ʿAmu-oḡli; figure to the right: Mīrzā Kūčik Ḵẖān and Jangalis