In Christian Martyrs under Islam, Christian Sahner investigates a relatively large collection of martyrological texts written about Christians (‘neo-martyrs’) who were executed by Muslims between the seventh and ninth centuries. He does so in order to explore the role religious violence played in the reshaping of what we now call the Middle East. In what way did martyrdom help to transform the region from one that was predominantly Christian in late antiquity to one with exponential Muslim influence in the early medieval period?

This is a daunting task, certainly, because the texts Sahner examines are numerous as well as geographically and linguistically widespread. But even more formidable is the nature of the texts themselves, since mining works that are largely hagiography for what they might have to contribute to historiography comes with great risk. What truths can be discerned among the literary motifs? Sahner is an able guide in this process. His work helps readers to navigate the sources and casts new light on the relationships between Christian and Muslim communities during periods when both underwent great change.

The first three chapters of the book focus on the three primary scenarios in which a Christian could become a martyr at the hands of Muslim executioners: Christian conversion to Islam followed by reversion to Christianity, Muslim conversion to Christianity and blasphemy directed at Islam and its Prophet. The first two categories constituted apostasy and threatened the balance of Muslim power. The last represented a kind of social protest against the growing influence of Islam (p. 119). Muslim rulers policed all three scenarios to varying degrees in any given region in the period under consideration.

One example of martyrs and the texts produced on their behalf illustrates the effectiveness of Sahner's approach. The Cordoban martyrs were executed between 850 and 859 in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain). They have captured the attention of many scholars interested in what would motivate a group of nearly fifty Christians to apostatise from Islam and/or blaspheme Muḥammad in such a short period of time and in such similar ways. The only sources that document the movement were composed by two Christians, one of whom eventually joined the martyrs’ ranks. Their texts are not only highly hagiographical in nature but are also intensely anti-Muslim in focus. In turn, it is difficult to read them for what they might accurately depict about life in ninth-century Córdoba. But by setting these documents in the much wider context of martyrology written for Christians living in Islamic milieus – texts that he examines in these first three chapters – Sahner is able to show the social reality that lay beneath the literary motifs. In turn, we see the production of hagiographical literature by monastics who sought to protest what they perceived to be the erosion of Christian faith and culture (p. 152). At the same time, the martyrology came as an effort to reorder and classify society, at least in urban centres, so that it reflected, once again, the identities and ideals its authors prioritised (p. 155). By including martyrology in this study, instead of warily marginalising it as a source for social history, Sahner is able to demonstrate how martyrdom and the stories authors told about it functioned in societies undergoing change.

The remaining two chapters consider the wider implications of martyrology for how we see the creation of early Muslim societies where Christian communities once predominated. In Chapter 4, Sahner concludes that religious violence was relatively limited in scope. In fact, religious violence was largely focused on the ways a state maintained its power in a multi-religious milieu, and how it could police the boundaries that distinguished one community from another. Chapter 5 looks at how the martyrologies Sahner has so carefully examined functioned as a genre of literature. These two chapters come together to provide enlightening commentary on what Sahner calls in his conclusion the ‘Making of the Muslim World’. For martyrology primarily worked in response to the formation of new, Muslim-dominated societies by solidifying the religious identities of Christian communities as distinctly Christian. This was an important effort for those who continued to live, though in eventually shrinking numbers, amid Islam.

Christian Martyrs under Islam is meticulously researched and documented. Sahner's readings of the sources reflect great skill and care for sound methodology. As a result, the book is a welcome contribution to studies focusing on medieval Christian communities and their relationships with Muslims. Scholars have long known how other types of literature such as disputational texts served to nourish beleaguered religious communities who faced the press of new rule. Martyrologies are often ignored for what they might contribute to this knowledge, but readers of Sahner's book, scholars and students alike, will be rewarded by his bold approach.