Slate
9 Mar 2005

What’s With All the Martyrs’ Squares?
Why they’re all over the Middle East.
By Daniel Engber
Posted Wednesday, March 9, 2005, at 4:34 PM PT

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have assembled near Martyrs’
Square in Central Beirut. Last July, a major gun battle broke out in
Martyrs’ Square in Central Baghdad. Is there a Martyrs’ Square in
every city in the Middle East?

Martyrs’ Squares are indeed ubiquitous in certain countries, though
the exact martyrs who are celebrated vary from place to place. In
Beirut, the site was named for Lebanese nationalists executed by the
Ottomans during World War I. Both Lebanon and Syria commemorate this
event on Martyrs’ Day, May 6, but the Martyrs’ Square in Damascus
honors insurgents killed by the French in 1945.

Martyrs’ squares, streets, and bridges abound in the Muslim world;
many earned their names relatively recently. In the Palestinian city
of Hamle, for example, a Martyrs’ Square memorializes five boys who
were killed by Israeli soldiers. (Famous Martyrs’ Squares and streets
exist in Nablus and Hebron as well.) In Pakistan, residents of Kohat
renamed a local square after security forces killed four Chechen
members of al-Qaida there.

Prominent Martyrs’ Squares also exist in Tripoli, Baghdad, and
Port-Said (in Egypt). One of the many Martyrs’ Streets in the world
runs through Kuwait City, and the Martyrs’ Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan,
commemorates those who died fighting the Russians and the Armenians.
In Sudan, a presidential palace sits on Martyrs’ Square in Khartoum.

But the Islamic Republic of Iran leads the world when it comes to
Martyrs’ Squares. At the very least, you can find them in the cities
of Tehran, Qum, Rasht, Ahwaz, Tabriz, Gorgan, Shiraz, Arak, Ardebil,
and Kerman. Many commemorate the events surrounding the revolution in
the late ’70s: The Martyrs’ Square in Qum used to be called the
Fatimi Crossroads but was renamed to honor protesters killed there in
January 1978. The square in Tehran honors the victims of a massacre
the following September. The sacred city of Mashhad has another
Martyrs’ Square, associated with the shrine to the ninth-century
martyr Imam Reza, who is said to have been killed with poisoned
grapes.

Martyrdom has long held particular importance for Shiite Muslims
(like those in power in Iran). The religious festival of Ashura
commemorates the murder of Imam Ali and his son Husayn; the
decapitation of Hussein at the Battle of Karbala in 680 contributed
to the split between Sunnis and Shiites. In the past century or so,
the concept of martyrdom has taken on some secular and nationalist
connotations as well.