Martyrdom

Martyrdom is the culmination of a sequence of events in which a person is made to suffer and usually (although not always) die in a manner that is highly symbolic and emotive. Although there may be a historical core to martyrdom narratives, in general the story is crafted with the goal of highlighting the differences between the martyr and the person or forces that drove the martyrdom forward, and to increase a sense of audience remorse, guilt, and eventual repentance. In general the martyr is presented as a heroic, albeit pathos-inducing, figure, who symbolizes a particular cause. This may be religious, but can also be based on star-crossed love or ethnic struggle; sometimes the martyr is noteworthy only for suffering an extraordinarily tragic (and undeserved) death.

Narratives employing the tragic death of a heroine, such as Antigone and Iphigenia, appear in classical Greek literature; however, these narratives are usually not given the morality tale context of the later Judeo-Christian and Muslim martyrologies. They do, however, provide an ancestor to the subgenre of romantic martyrdom so common in both Christian and Muslim literature.

RELIGIOUS MARTYRDOM

The classical religious martyrdom narrative took shape during late antiquity (first–fifth centuries ce) in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Because of the religious divide between Jewish and Christian monotheism and polytheism, the martyrdom narrative was used to extol the sufferings of those who were unwilling to change their religion under duress. For women there was the added possibility of sexual abuse. In order to avoid either some type of ritual impurity (in Judaism) or sexual defilement (in Christianity), it was not unusual for women to kill themselves or to provoke their captors into a killing rage.

Christian martyrdom narratives of women are quite common, Jewish martyrologies somewhat less so. Some of the best-known Christian martyrs are St. Cecilia of Rome (second or third centuries); St. Catherine of Alexandria (d. c. 307); St. Margaret of Antioch (d. c. 304), who is venerated by the Orthodox Church; and St. Ursula, who was canonized along with 11,000 virgins who were martyred with her (fourth or fifth century). St. Cecilia was persecuted as a result of preaching Christian teaching; however, some others were killed for refusing to sacrifice their virginity by marrying men who were forced upon them.

SECULAR MARTYRDOM

The first Muslim martyr was a woman, Sumayya bint Khayyat, who was killed by Abu Jahl, one of the most ferocious enemies of early Islam. She, unlike similar figures in Judaism and Christianity, never became associated with any cult, nor is she venerated in the religion. However, most female martyrs in Islam were not sacrificed for religious reasons but were romantic literary figures. Majnun and Layla, for example, were a tragic couple whose circumstances did not permit their union. In despair Majnun killed himself and Layla died of a broken heart. Their narrative forms the basis for numerous popular and mystical stories of denied love and death for the sake of the beloved (such as William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet [c.1595]), and are strongly in the tradition of Greek tragedy. The cycle of Majnun and Layla exists in popular versions in Arabic, Persian (versions by Nizami Ganjavi [d. 1202] and Jami [1414–1492]), and Turkish (Fuzuli [d. 1556]) and is commemorated widely in popular Iranian and Indo-Muslim art.

Christian martyrs with popular status in the secular community, such as Joan of Arc (1412–1431), are comparatively rare in the martyrologies. Joan galvanized the largely defeated French populace against the occupying English and was captured and killed as a result. As Jews more frequently became the victims of pogroms during the Middle Ages, heroines such as Rachel (b. 1753), the wife of Rabbi Judah of Cologne, who killed her children and then herself to save them from the Crusaders, became the subject of popular narrative. This topos also occurs extensively in Muslim literature, where the figure of the female warrior can be found in both classical Arabian epics and popular tales such as the Arabian Nights (tales compiled over thousands of years with no certain original date). The Turkish warrior epic Battalname (fifteenth century), focused on the exploits of the border hero Sayyid Battal who fought against the Byzantines, is such a tale. The daughter of the Byzantine emperor sees Battal and immediately converts to Islam. She throws a stone with a message written on it that she will betray her father for Battal's sake. Unfortunately the stone accidentally kills Battal and the emperor's daughter commits suicide to join him in paradise.

MODERN PERSPECTIVES

Later Christian writing emphasizes martyrs who either died on religious missions or at the hands of tormentors unlike the virginal, romantic, or heroic martyrs of late antiquity or the Middle Ages. Women are remarkable for their absence in early Protestant martyrologies, such as that of John Foxe (d. 1587). But there are a number of female martyrs among African and Asian converts to Christianity. Probably the best-known female African Protestant martyr is Dona Beatrix Kimpa Vita (d. 1706), who was burned at the stake for her heresy by Catholic missionaries in the Congo. From Korea there is the figure of Kollumba Kang Wansuk, who was a prominent Protestant activist and martyr killed in 1801 by the Chinese authorities. Like the early Christian martyrs and Joan of Arc, she was a virgin. The best-known contemporary Roman Catholic female martyr is probably Edith Stein (1890–1942). Stein converted from Judaism to Christianity and was murdered in the concentration camp at Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1942. Female Hindu and Buddhist martyrs are virtually absent until modern times.

Many political causes have had prominent women members or actually have been led by women, and have produced many female martyrs. From the women of Tibet, to the female suicide attackers among the Palestinians and Chechens, to the anti-apartheid campaigners of South Africa, to the Tamils of northern Sri Lanka, disproportionate numbers of women (relative to men associated with the same causes) have become martyrs based on their ideology. Some female martyrs, suicide attackers for example, are responsible for the deaths of many others. The phenomenon of female suicide attackers, so unusual in the context of many societies, is the subject of much scholarly research and popular journalistic writing in the early twenty-first century.

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                                                   David Cook