Martyr

:Apart from the religious meaning, Martyr is also a metal band (see Martyr (band)).

History

Martyr is from martyr (earlier martys), the Greek word for "witness". During the early Roman Empire, the independent cities of Asia Minor made efforts to reward benefactors for their services, and to promote further civic generosity by means of public acclamations, eulogistic honorific decrees were addressed to the Roman authorities and read in public places before an audience. Such commendations are usually referred to in epigraphic sources as martyriai. Christians adopted the phrase for the "testimonies" of the acts and sufferings of the persecuted, who became "martyrs".

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In Christianity

Christian martyrs in the first three centuries A.D. were crucified in the same manner as Roman political prisoners or eaten by lions as a circus spectacle. They are recognized as martyrs because they preferred dying for their faith to apostasy (renunciation of faith). The Christian writer Tertullian (200 AD) asserted that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church".

Related Topics:
Christian martyrs - Crucified - Roman - Apostasy - Tertullian

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With the Constantinian shift and the identification of the term Christianity with the Roman Empire, the tables were turned and pagans sometimes became martyrs if they refused the Roman Emperor when ordered to change their beliefs to the Roman Empire's version of Christianity. It didn't take long before Augustine of Hippo authorized the use of force against heretics and Christians who refused to fall in line with Roman orthodoxy. Persecution of heretics and the martyrdom that sometimes went with it became institutionalised in the office of the inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the political systems of the State, such as that of the English Queen Mary I (who became known as Bloody Mary), when she had nearly three hundred Christians tortured and killed (recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs) for refusing to denounce their reformist beliefs and for refusing to revert to Roman Catholicism.

Related Topics:
Constantinian shift - Roman Empire - Pagans - Augustine of Hippo - Heretics - Orthodoxy - Persecution - Inquisition - Roman Catholic Church - Queen Mary I - Foxe's Book of Martyrs - Reformist

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Some Christian sects such as Anabaptists as well as non-Christian sects, who began as Christians yet changed their beliefs, trace their origins to widespread persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the Catholic Church trying to suppress their break away sects. The Anabaptists have embraced this part of their heritage to such an extent that the book Martyrs Mirror, which describes the deaths of Anabaptist Martyrs in the 16th and 17th century, is still widely owned and read in Mennonite and Amish households (see Anabaptist persecution for more).

Related Topics:
Sects - Anabaptist - Martyrs Mirror - 16th - 17th century - Mennonite - Amish - Anabaptist persecution

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The 20th century again saw large numbers of Christians martyred by non-Christians, in persecutions by political authorities that have antipathy directed towards particular faiths, or religion in general. Allegedly this has included the Soviet Union and early People's Republic of China. The Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet times termed many of those who died for this faith "New Martyrs", meaning that it was the 2nd greatest persecution of Christians since I-III AD. The Taliban regime has been known as well to mount another wave of persecutions, although this has received less international attention, given its scale.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - People's Republic of China - Russian Orthodox Church - Taliban

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Many church historians believe that there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in the first 19 centuries combined. This claim is, however, difficult to confirm for obvious reasons.

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See Persecution of Christians for more detail.

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In Islam

In Arabic, a martyr is termed "shaheed" (literally, "witness"). The concept of the shaheed is discussed in the Hadith, the sayings of Muhammad; the term does not appear in the Qur'an in the technical sense, but the later exegetical tradition has read it to mean martyr in the few passages that it does appear in. The first martyr in Islam was the old woman Sumaya bint Khabbathttp://www.islam-qa.com/QA/6%7CIslamic_history_and_biography(Tareekh_wa_al-Seerah)/Mutafarraqaat_(Miscellaneous)/The_first_female_martyr_in_Islam.10061998.2223.shtml, the first Muslim to die at the hands of the polytheists of Mecca (specifically, Abu Jahl). A famous person widely regarded as a martyr - indeed, an archetypical martyr for the Shia - is Hussain bin Ali, who died at the hands of the forces of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I at Karbala. The Shia commemorate this event each year at Aashurah.

Related Topics:
Hadith - Muhammad - Qur'an - Islam - Sumaya bint Khabbat - Polytheists - Mecca - Abu Jahl - Shia - Hussain bin Ali - Umayyad - Caliph - Yazid I - Karbala - Aashurah

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Muslims who die in a legitimate jihad bis saif (struggle with the sword, or Islamic holy war) are typically considered shahid. This usage became controversial in the late 20th century, when (due to the Islamic strictures against suicide) it began to be applied to suicide bombers, e.g. those belonging to Islamist and Palestinian nationalist groups, whose victims often included civilians.

Related Topics:
Jihad bis saif - Holy war - 20th century - Suicide - Suicide bomber - Islamist - Palestinian

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See Persecution of Muslims for more detail.

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