One word stood out in the florid and overwrought announcement of the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader by a tearful state-television newsreader on 1 March: ‘Leader and Imam of the Muslims, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, on the path of upholding the exaltation of the sacred sanctuary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, drank the sweet, pure draft of martyrdom and joined the Supreme Heavenly Kingdom.’

The dreaded ‘m’ word – martyrdom – immediately takes anyone familiar with Muslim history back to a legendary 7th-century battlefield in central Iraq. In 680, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn ibn Ali – regarded as the third Shia imam – faced a much larger army commanded by the Umayyad caliph Yazid I at the Battle of Karbala. He was routed, and he and his men slaughtered and decapitated. The battle entrenched the division between Sunni and Shia Islam and established the elevating narrative of martyrdom in the face of tyranny which courses through Muslim history, particularly Shia Iranian, like a river of blood.

‘The question “How will this end?” should have been asked before this war was triggered’

‘The question “How will this end?” should have been asked before this war was triggered’

Ancient history? Of course. Yet the past resonates powerfully in the Middle East as a living force shaping events in a way which outsiders, especially westerners, can find difficult to comprehend. Far from being a vaguely interesting millenarian curiosity, the Iranian tradition of martyrdom is absolutely key to understanding the latest conflict.

‘It’s the most significant aspect of the confrontation between Iran and........

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