Research Catalog

Title

Caravan of martyrs : sacrifice and suicide bombing in Afghanistan / David B. Edwards.

Author

Edwards, David B.

Publication

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 272 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"In Caravan of Martyrs, David Edwards argues that we need to understand the rise of suicide bombing in relation to the cultural beliefs and ritual practices associated with sacrifice. Before the war in Afghanistan began, the sacrificial killing of a sheep demonstrated a tribe's desire for peace. After the Soviet invasion of 1979, as thousands of people were killed, sacrifice took on new meanings. The dead were venerated as martyrs, but this informal conferral of status on the casualties of war soon became the foundation for a cult of martyrs exploited by political leaders for their own advantage. This first repurposing of the machinery of sacrifice set in motion a process of mutation that would lead nineteen Arabs who had received their training in Afghanistan to hijack airplanes on September 11 and that would in time transform what began as an Afghan-centered cult of martyrs into the transnational scattering of suicide bombers that haunts our world today. Drawing on years of research in the region, Edwards traces the transformation of sacrifice using a wide range of sources, including the early poetry of jihad, illustrated martyr magazines, school primers and legal handbooks, martyr hagiographies, videos produced by suicide bombers, the manual of ritual instructions used by the 9/11 hijackers, and Facebook posts through which contemporary 'Talifans' promote the virtues of self-destruction"--Provided by publisher.

Subject

• Martyrdom > Islam
• Sacrifice > Afghanistan
• Suicide bombings

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-253) and index.

Contents

Sacrifice -- Honor -- Martyrdom -- Virtue and vice -- Fedayeen -- Suicide bombing -- Selfies-- The widening gyre -- Afghan chronology (1964-2015).

Call Number

JFE 17-4266

ISBN

• 9780520294790
• 0520294793

LCCN

2016045206

OCLC

960106619

Author

Edwards, David B., author.

Title

Caravan of martyrs : sacrifice and suicide bombing in Afghanistan / David B. Edwards.

Publisher

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-253) and index.

Other Form:

Online version: Edwards, David B. Caravan of martyrs. Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] 9780520967823 (DLC) 2016046541

Research Call Number

JFE 17-4266