Heroism and Being-towards-Death: On Sacrificial Martyrdom in Contemporary Shiʿism

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I recommend publication of this article. The basic argument is to take the Shi`ite concept of martyrdom with regard to al-Husayn, and to examine it within the light of contemporary (largely non-Muslim) conceptualization. The argument appears to me to be compelling, although I am not well-versed in western studies of martyrdom, temporality and heroism.

From an Islamic studies point of view, the author is pretty Shi`ite-centered, and does seem to view Islamic martyrology as exemplified by the paradigm of al-Husayn.

Transliteration of Arabic is up and down, azan on p. 3 should be adhan, for example, shaheed (p. 11)... well, I haven't seen that spelling in a while. Shahid is the standard. Ali Ibn Abi Talib, p. 4, Also on p. 4, the derivation of ashura from ashra is a popular one not a linguistic one.

On p. 10, Karabala = Karbala

Probably the statement that I have the most problems with is on p. 11, "The term al-shahid is preserved for (militant) heroes who have lost their lives in (militant) struggle against forms of tyranny and oppression."

This may be true in Shi`ism, although in order to force that definition, the author pretty much has to accept the sorts of deaths described of the imams, most of whom are regarded as shahids, in an a-historical manner. (`Ali al-Rida for example could not fall into such a category).

This statement is *definitely* not true with regard to Sunnism, where many other forms of martyrdom are widely accepted (see al-Suyuti's Abwab al-sa`ada for example).

p. 13 correct mukawama = muqawama. Author should go over the Arabic transliteration, as I might not have caught all of the inaccuracies.

In spite of these disagreements, I enjoyed reading the article, and recommend its publication.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your insightful comments. I went through the arabic transliteration of the terms and I hope I caught them all - thank you for pointing that out. 

I also added some Arabic (Muslim and non-Muslism) references. 

I agree 100% with what the reviewer pointed out, about the statement "The term al-shahid is preserved for (militant) heroes who have lost their lives in (militant) struggle against forms of tyranny and oppression." Which is exactly why I used the term "militant" between parentheses to point towards the contemporary employment of the term especially in a Shi'i tense - and I have repeatedly maintained that this concept, taken from a strictly Shi'i connotation is necessary.

Thank you for your comments, they were necessary and insightful. 

Reviewer 2 Report

This is, generally speaking, an excellent paper.  It does not extensively engage with the literature in Shi'i Studies.  However, given that the paper focuses on the philosophical understanding of martyrdom in Shi'ism, it's generally fine.

Mircea Eliade's name is misspelled in footnote 60.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your comments.

I have added some more Shi'i references as well as Arab (muslim and non-muslim) sources, although these were hard to come by since I'm trying to move away from a descriptive annotation of the battle of Karbala.