Martyrdom in Islam (review)

This is a very interesting book about how conceptions of martyrdom in Islam have been diverse and dynamic. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in martyrdom and jihad in Islam. Author David Cook begins with a chapter on martyrdom as a generalized phenomenon among religions of the world. This broad conceptualization is generally helpful and provides a perspective that is more global than local and more comparative then particularistic. This section, however, is a bit ambitious for such a brief treatment (roughly ten pages), which at times resulted in generalizations and universalistic language. Mores pace would have allowed for more broadly inclusive, relativistic terms. For example, instead of saying that these trends are always seen in all cases of martyrdom, it would seem more accurate to say that certain characteristics are commonly seen in association with martyrdom in different religious traditions. Of course, this may be a matter mostly of disciplinary style. Also, when discussing examples the book focuses almost exclusively on martyrdom in the early centuries of Judaism and Christianity, especially cases of martyrdom in the Bible. This comparison was interesting, although one is left wanting more. While most of the book is not comparative, the comparative component does reappear often later in the book and frequently is central to the conclusions reached.

One issue that raised questions in my mind was the comparison of Islamic martyrdom with Christian martyrdom, particularly with regard to the relationship between fighting and martyrdom. The author stresses the importance of passivity (i.e., not fighting) in the Christian tradition of martyrdom and fighting in the Muslim tradition. In other words, the author states that fighting was not part of the Christian tradition or ideals of martyrdom, while it was central to the Muslim tradition, which is not actually correct. This would normally be just a methodological issue that would not be worth mentioning. However, this problematic conclusion takes on much greater significance when one considers the politics of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, which at the moment are inextricably tied to issues of terrorism, warfare, political extremism, and jihad, not to mention that the book wraps up with a discussion of martyrdom among contemporary radical Muslims. It would be more accurate to say that while there is a tradition, especially among some Christian clergy, of separating martyrdom from fighting, Christian warriors who died fighting for Christianity were glorified as martyrs, as were people who died spreading the faith (which seems to parallel the chapter in this book on the same phenomenon in the Islamic tradition), and some sought martyrdom in battle. One need only read literature associated with the Crusades to see countless examples in which so many soldiers died for the faith and were glorified and rewarded with expiation of their sins and entrance into paradise (a nearly word-for-word definition of the Muslim articulation of the rewards of martyrdom). While in many cases they were actually called martyrs, in other cases they were described using other terms that had essentially the same meaning as martyr. The fact that the Church often tried to co-opt the specific term martyr for a more specific and narrow purpose is not sufficient reason to take this as representative of the entire set of traditions of martyrdom in all of Christendom.

I would say that rather than comparing the phenomenon of martyrdom in these traditions, the book is perhaps comparing the ways that the term martyr (shahadah in Islam) is used by Muslims with how some Christian clergy in the Catholic or Orthodox traditions defined martyrdom. Therefore, it seems more fruitful to use academic definitions of phenomena (i.e., martyrdom) as the point of comparison, rather than the subjective definitions from one religious tradition as applied to another. This is a common challenge with studies that take comparative religion as their methodological launching point. Problematic translation (and then comparison) of technical terms from one language and religion to another can lead to misleading comparative conclusions. For example, a Christian saint and a Muslim saint (Sufi master...