The Most Beautiful Body: The Physical Dimension in Martyrdom Narratives
In: Annali Sezione OrientaleSearch for other papers by Roberta Denaro in
Current site
Google Scholar
Within the vast bibliography devoted to martyrdom in Islam the issue of the martyr’s corporeity has received comparatively little attention.
This article focuses on the exceptional features medieval texts ascribed to martyrs’ bodies, especially after their death on the battlefield. It examines a set of topoi through which Islamic religious literature differentiated these martyrs from other dead, using a sublimate and extraordinary corporeity as a sign of their spiritual excellence. Finally, the article takes into account some extreme developments of this attitude, well-represented in a ḥadīṯ (collected in Ibn al-Mubārak’s Kitāb al-ǧihād) stating that the martyr will be given a new, most beautiful, body immediately after death.
In the conclusion the article raises the question of the relevance of these themes to contemporary representations of martyrdom where images of martyrs’ bodies play a central role in the quest for legitimacy of religious, national or political communities.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Abū Dāwūd , Sunan , (al-Qāhira 1371/1952 ).
-
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal , Musnad , (Riyāḍ 1419/1998 ).
-
al-Albānī , Ḍa‘īf al-ǧāmi‘ al-ṣaġīr , (Bayrūt 1388/1969 ).
-
al-Buḫārī , Ṣaḥīḥ , (Leiden 1862–1908 ).
-
al-Ḏahabī , Kitāb taḏkirat al-ḥuffāẓ , (Ḥaydarābād 1375/1955 ).
-
al-Dārimī , Sunan , (Madīna 1386/1966 ).
-
al-Ġazālī , The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife. Kitāb dhikr al-mawt wa-mā ba‘dahu. Book XL of the Revival of the Religious Sciences Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn , (Cambridge 1989 ) (transl. with an introduction and notes by T.J. Winter) .
-
al-Ǧurǧānī , al-Kāmil fī ḍu‘afā’ al-riǧāl , (Bayrūt 1418/1997 ).
-
Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr , al-Tamhīd li-mā fī’l-Muwaṭṭa’ min al-ma‘ānī wa’l-asānīd , (Bayrūt 1420/1999 ).
-
Ibn al-Ǧawzī , (1403/1983 ) Kitāb al-mawḍū‘āt [s.l.] .
-
Ibn Ḥaǧar al-‘Asqalānī , al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-Ṣaḥāba , (al-Qāhira 1358/1939 ).
-
Ibn Ḥaǧar al-‘Asqalānī , al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-Ṣaḥāba , (Bayrūt 2001 ).
-
Ibn Ḥaǧar al-‘Asqalānī , Tahḏīb al-tahḏīb , (Bayrūt 1326/1908 ).
-
Ibn Hišām , Saqqā (ed), al-Sīra al-nabawiyya , (al-Qāhira 1375/1955 ).
-
Ibn Māǧa , Sunan , (al-Qāhira 1373/1953 ).
-
Ibn Manẓūr , Lisān al-ʿArab , (Bayrūt ) [s.d.]. .
-
Ibn al-Mubārak , N. Ḥammād (ed), Kitāb al-ǧihād , (Tūnis 1972 ).
-
al-Nasā’ī , Sunan , (al-Qāhira ) [s.d.]. .
-
Ibn Sa‘d , E. Sachau (ed), Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr , (Leiden 1904–1928 ).
-
al-Samhūdī , Wafā’ al-wafā’ bi-aḫbār dār al-Muṣṭafā , (al-Qāhira 1373–1374/1954–1955 ).
-
al-Ṭabarī , Ǧāmi‘ al-bayān ‘an ta’wīl al-Qur’ān , (al-Qāhira 1373–1377/1954–1957 ).
-
al-Ṯa‘labī , Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ al-musammà ʿArā’is al-maǧālis , (al-Qāhira 1373/1954 ).
-
al-Tirmīḏī , (1385–1388/1965–1968 ) Sunan Ḥomṣ .
-
al-Azmeh Aziz , 'Rhetoric for the Senses: A Consideration of Muslim Paradise Narratives ' (1995 ) 26 Journal of Arabic Literature : 215 -231 .
-
Allen Lori A. , 'Martyr Bodies in the Media: Human Rights, Aesthetics, and the Politics of immediation in the Palestinian Intifada ' (2009 ) 36 (1 ) American Ethnologist : 161 -180 .
-
Arberry Arthur J. , The Koran Interpreted , (London—New York—Karachi 1964 ).
-
Arnaldez Roger , 'Khalḳ ' (1978 ) 4 Encyclopaedia of Islam : 1012 -1020 .
-
Ayoub Mahmud , Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of ‘Āshūrā’ in Twelver Shi‘īsm , (The Hague 1978 ).
-
Bonner Michael , Aristocratic Violence and Holy War. Studies in the Jihad and the Arab-Byzantine Frontier , (New Haven 1996 ).
-
Brown Peter , The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity , (London 1981 ).
-
Centlivres Pierre & Centlivres-Demont M. , 'Les martyrs afghans par le texte et l’image (1978–1992) ', in C. Mayeur-Jaouen (ed), Saints et héros du Moyen-Orient contemporain , (Paris 2002 ) 319 -333 .
-
Conrad Lawrence I. , 'ʿUmar at Sargh: The Evolution of an Umayyad Tradition on Flight from the Plague ', in S. Leder (ed), Story-Telling in the Framework of Non-fictional Arabic Literature , (Wiesbaden 1998 ) 488 -528 .
-
Cook David , Martyrdom in Islam , (Cambridge–New York 2007 ).
-
De Boer Tjitze J. , 'Djism ' (1965 ) 2 Encyclopaedia of Islam : 567 -569 .
-
Denaro Roberta , 'Il suicidio nell’Islam medievale: un’ipotesi di lettura della ' (1996 ) 70 Sunna. Rivista degli Studi Orientali : 24 -43 .
-
Denaro Roberta , Dal martire allo šahīd. Fonti, problemi e confronti per una martirografia islamica , (Roma 2006 ).
-
Denaro Roberta , 'From Marw to the tuġūr: ‘Abdallāh b. al-Mubārak (d. 797) and the shaping of a biographical tradition ' (2009 ) 7 (1–2 ) Eurasian Studies : 125 -144 .
-
Eklund Ragnar , Life between Death and Resurrection According to Islam , (Uppsala 1941 ).
-
Evans Suzanne , 'The Scent of a Martyr ' (2002 ) 49 (2 ) Numen : 193 -211 .
-
Gabrieli Francesco , 'La poesia ḫāriǧita nel secolo degli Omayyadi ' (1942–43 ) 20 Rivista degli Studi Orientali : 331 -372 .
-
Gril Denis , 'Le corps du Prophète ' (2006 ) : 37 -57 (2006) .
-
Guillaume Alfred , The Life of Muhammad, a Translation of Ibn Iṣḥāq’s Sīrat Rasūl Allāh. With Introduction and Notes by A. Guillaume , (Oxford 1968 ) 2 .
-
Hafsi Bedhioufi , Corps et traditions islamiques: divisions ontologiques et ritualités du corps , (Tunis 2000 ).
-
Halevi Leor , Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society , (New York 2007 ).
-
Hatina Meir , Martyrdom in Modern Islam: Piety, Power, and Politics , (New York 2014 ).
-
Juynboll Gautier H.A. , Encyclopedia of Canonical Ḥadīṯ , (Leiden—New York—Köln 2007 ).
-
Khalili Laleh , Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: the Politics of National Commemoration , (Cambridge 2007 ).
-
Pedram Khosronejad & B. Zyla (eds), Unburied Memories: the Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran , (London 2012 ).
-
Khuri Fuad I. , The Body in Islamic Culture , (London 2001 ).
-
Kinberg Leah , 'Interaction between This World and the Afterworld in Early Islamic Tradition ' (1986 ) 29 (30 ) Oriens : 285 -308 .
-
'Le corps dans l’espace islamique médiéval ', in Pauline Koetschet & A. Zouache (eds), Dossier Annales Islamologiques 48/1 , (Le Caire 2014 ).
-
Kohlberg Ethan , 'Medieval Muslim Views on Martyrdom ' (1997 ) 60 Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen : 281 -307 .
-
Kugle Scott , Sufis and Saints’ Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, and Sacred Power in Islam , (Chapel Hill 2007 ).
-
Lammens Henri , 'Ḥudjr b. ‘Adī ' (1971 ) 3 Encyclopaedia of Islam : 564 2 .
-
Lane Edward William , An Arabic-English Lexicon , (Edinburgh 1863 ).
-
Lecker Michael , 'On the Burial of Martyrs in Islam ', in Yanagihashi Hiroyuki (ed), The Concept of Territory in Islamic Law and Thought. A Comparative Study , (London—New York 2000 ) 37 -49 .
-
Lowry Joseph E. , 'Ritual Purity ' (2004 ) 4 Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an : 498 -508 .
-
Fedwa Malti-Douglas (ed), Power, Marginality and the Body in Medieval Islam , (Aldershot—Burlington 2001 ).
-
Marx Jean , Sainteté et martyre dans les religions du Livre , (Bruxelles 1989 ).
-
Mayeur-Jaouen Catherine , 'Le corps et le sacré en Orient musulman ' (2006 ) : 9 -33 (2006) .
-
'Le corps et le sacré en Orient musulman 'Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen & B. Heyberger (eds), , (Aix-en-Provence 2006 ).
-
Musurillo Herbert A. , The Acts of the Christian Martyrs , (Oxford 1972 ).
-
O’Shaughnessy Thomas , Muhammad’s Thoughts on Death: a Thematic Study of the Qur’ānic Data , (Leiden 1969 ).
-
O’Shaughnessy Thomas , Creation and the Teaching of the Qur’ān , (Rome 1985 ).
-
Pinckney Stetkevych Suzanne , The Mute Immortals Speak. Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual , (Ithaca—London 1993 ).
-
Richardson Kristina L. , Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World. Blighted Bodies , (Edinburgh 2012 ).
-
Rippin Andrew , 'The Commerce of Eschatology ', in S. Wild (ed), The Qurʾān as Text , (Leiden—New York—Köln 1996 ) 125 -135 .
-
Rizk Khoury Dina , Iraq in Wartime: Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance , (New York 2013 ).
-
Shahid Irfan , The Martyrs of Najrān. New Documents , (Bruxelles 1971 ).
-
Smith Idleman Jane , 'Concourse between the Living and the Dead in Islamic Eschatological Literature ' (1980 ) 19 (3 ) History of Religions : 224 -236 .
-
Smith Idleman Jane & Yazbeck Haddad Y. , The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection , (Albany 1981 ).
-
Straface Antonella , L’origine del mondo nel pensiero islamico dei secc. X–XI , (Napoli 1996 ).
-
Tritton Arthur Stanley , 'Djanāza ' (1965 ) 2 Encyclopaedia of Islam : 453 -454 .
-
Waardenburg Jacques , 'Death and the Dead ' (2001 ) 1 Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an : 505 -511 .
-
Waida Manabu , 'Birds ' (1987 ) 2 The Encyclopedia of Religion : 224 -227 .
-
Waugh Earle H. , 'Blood and Blood Cloth ' (2001 ) 1 Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an : 237 -238 .
-
Arent Jan Wensinck (ed), Concordance et indices de la Tradition musulmane , (Leiden—New York—Köln 1936–88 ).
-
Wheeler Brannon , Mecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam , (Chicago 2006 ).
-
Wheeler Brannon , 'Gift of the Body in Islam: the Prophet Muhammad’s Camel Sacrifice and Distribution of Hair and Nails at his Farewell Pilgrimage ' (2010 ) 57 (3–4 ) Numen : 341 -388 .
-
Zouache Abbés , (2014 ) Corps en guerre au Proche-Orient (fin ve–viie/xie–xiiie siècle) : 301 -344 (2014) .
-
11
Cf. Tritton (1965); for a wide-ranging study of burial rites in Islamic society cf. Halevi (2007: in part. 43–83 and, on the burial of martyrs, 103–4); a more specific treatment is Lecker (2000).
-
19
Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, ǧihād 40; al-Tirmīḏī, Sunan, faḍā’il al-ǧihād, 21; al-Nasā’ī, Sunan, ǧihād 25; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnadiv, 185; v, 231, 244; vi, 444; on this popular tradition, probably originated by Mālik, see Juynboll (2007: 371).
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 185 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 595 | 69 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 882 | 80 | 6 |
The Most Beautiful Body: The Physical Dimension in Martyrdom Narratives
In: Annali Sezione OrientaleSearch for other papers by Roberta Denaro in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Within the vast bibliography devoted to martyrdom in Islam the issue of the martyr’s corporeity has received comparatively little attention.
This article focuses on the exceptional features medieval texts ascribed to martyrs’ bodies, especially after their death on the battlefield. It examines a set of topoi through which Islamic religious literature differentiated these martyrs from other dead, using a sublimate and extraordinary corporeity as a sign of their spiritual excellence. Finally, the article takes into account some extreme developments of this attitude, well-represented in a ḥadīṯ (collected in Ibn al-Mubārak’s Kitāb al-ǧihād) stating that the martyr will be given a new, most beautiful, body immediately after death.
In the conclusion the article raises the question of the relevance of these themes to contemporary representations of martyrdom where images of martyrs’ bodies play a central role in the quest for legitimacy of religious, national or political communities.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 185 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 595 | 69 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 882 | 80 | 6 |
