Fedayeen
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Fedayeen (Arabic: فدائيون, fidā'ī, plural fidā'īyun: meaning, "freedom fighter(s)"[1] or "self-sacrificer(s)"[2]Armenian: Ֆէտայի) is a term used to describe several distinct, primarily Arab militant groups and individuals at different times in history.
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[edit] General
Fedayeen are a group of people known to be volunteers, not connected to an organized government or military, in the Arab and Muslim world. They are usually deployed for a cause where the government has been viewed as failure or non-existent. They are associated with the role of resistance against occupation or tyranny. The name fedayeen is used to refer to armed struggle against any form of enslavement basing their actions on resistance.
[edit] Palestinians
Armed militias known as the fedayeen, grew from militant elements within the Palestinian refugee population, as a result of the creation of the state of Israel, and the ensuing loss of their lands and homes. The Fedayeen made efforts to infiltrate and strike against Israelis and their allies. Members of these groups were largely based within the refugee communities living in Egyptian-controlled Gaza, Jordanian-controlled West Bank, or in neighboring Lebanon, and Syria.
During this time (1948-c.1965), the word entered international usage and was frequently used in newspaper articles and political speeches as a synonym for great militancy. Since the mid-1960s and the rise of more organized and specific militant groups, such as the PLO, the word has fallen out of usage, but not in the historical context.
[edit] Egypt
During the 1940s, a group of civilians volunteered to combat the British occupation of Egyptian land around the Suez Canal. The British had deployed military bases along the coast of the Suez Canal under the claim of protection. Egyptians viewed this as an invasion against their sovereign power over their country. While the Egyptian government didn't refuse the action, the people's leaders organized groups of Fedayeen who were trained to combat and kill British soldiers everywhere in Egypt, including the military bases. Those groups were viewed very highly among the Egyptian population. They were held in the ranks of heroes who sacrifice their lives for the good of their country.
[edit] Iran
Two very different groups used the name Fedayeen in recent Iranian history. Fadayan-e Islam was an Islamic group founded by Navab Safavi in 1946 for the purpose of assassinating what it believed to be enemies of Islam. After several successful assassinations it was suppressed in 1956 and several leading members were executed. It continued on under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and helped bring about the Islamic Revolution of Iran(Citation Needed).
A Marxist-leaning activist group known as the Fedayeen (Fadayian in Persian language) was founded in 1971 and based in Tehran. Operating between 1971 and 1983, the Fedayeen carried out a number of political assassinations in the course of the struggle against the Shah, after which the group was suppressed. That struggle continued however and eventually culminated in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
In 1979 the Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas split from the Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian (Majority).
[edit] Iraq
Beginning in 1995, Iraq established a paramilitary group known as the Fedayeen Saddam, loyal to President Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athist government. The name was chosen to imply a connection with the Palestinian Fedayeen. In July 2003, the personnel records of the entire Fedayeen organization in Iraq was discovered in the basement of the former Fedayeen headquarters in east Baghdad near the Al-Rashid Airfield. At the time of the discovery, an Iraqi political party occupied the building. After an extensive cataloging process, dossiers of key Fedayeen members were made by First Armored Division troops and resulted in a sweeping operation in Baghdad that led to the arrest of several Fedayeen generals.
[edit] Armenia
The similar name "Fedayee", with the same etymology, was used by Armenian insurgents around 1990 when the dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh was turning into the Nagorno-Karabakh war, although Armenia is solidly Christian. The term "fedayee" was also used by Armenian guerrillas in the Ottoman Empire before and during the First World War, who defended Armenians from persecution. The term was widely used and is still used to describe the volunteers, and can be found in literature and songs.
[edit] Fictional references
In the popular science fiction novel Dune, the elite Fremen soldiers are known as the "Fedaykin," an allusion to the word "fedayeen."
In the novel Prayers for the Assassin, the main character Rakkim Epps is an ex-fedayeen soldier.
The Camel Club by David Baldacci (Chapter 37, page 215):
"Assembled here were his bomb makers and engineers, his shooters, his snipers, his fedayeen, his mechanics, his inside people and his wheelmen."
[edit] See also
[edit] Armenian Fedayeen
- Armenian History — see the heading "A New Political Climate"
[edit] References
- ^ Mohammed El-Nawawy (2002). The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists. Inc NetLibrary, 49. ISBN 1567505457.
- ^ Tony Rea and John Wright (1993). The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Oxford University Press, 43. ISBN 019917170X.
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