Trying and Killing Christian Martyrs

The previous chapters examined behaviors that precipitated violence against Christians in the early Islamic period. This chapter turns to the nature of the violence itself: How did Muslim officials execute Christian martyrs, what were the social functions of capital punishment, and did the violence amount to a broad-based persecution of Christians by the Muslim state? The chapter is divided into three sections, each of which describes a different stage of the martyr's journey through the judicial system. The first explores how martyrs came into the custody of the state and, once incarcerated, how they were tried and sentenced. The second examines the implementation of Qurʾanic punishments against martyrs, showing that specifically Islamic forms of punishment were being used against apostates and blasphemers at a very early date. The third section highlights one of the most common forms of punishment against neomartyrs: punitive burning.