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Author Edwards, David B., author.

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

Publication Info. Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017]

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe 3rd Floor Stacks  297.7209581 Ed96c 2017    ---  Available
1 copy being processed for Axe Acquisitions Order.
Description xvii, 272 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Bibliography 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).
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.
Martyrdom -- Islam. (OCoLC)fst01010911
Sacrifice. (OCoLC)fst01103249
Suicide bombings. (OCoLC)fst01137613
Afghanistan. (OCoLC)fst01205406
ISBN 9780520294790 hardcover ; alkaline paper
0520294793 hardcover ; alkaline paper
9780520967823 electronic book

 
    
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