istory has known many martyrs. There have surfaced and had their impact in vastly diverse periods, locations, faiths, struggles and backgrounds. These individuals – men and women; saints and sinners; leaders and ordinary people; prophets; freedom fighters; thinkers; activists; labourers – have been executed by states, extremist groups, and lone lunatics. A long list can include people as diverse as Socrates, Mansur Al-Hallaj, Joan of Arc, Che Guevara, Bhagat Singh, Martin Luther King and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Among them, deaths of two historic figures have been mourned by a huge number of people. Muslims, especially the Shiites, have since 680 AD mourned the assassination of Imam Hussain (with whom Allah was pleased); and Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) more than 2,000 years ago. The imam with his family were killed by the army fighting for Yazid, the second ruler of the Umayyad dynasty; in the first month of Islamic lunar calendar, Muharram. To this day, devotees grieve, cry and publicly flog themselves in ta’zia processions every year. Christ (peace be upon him), was crucified (according to Christian narrative) on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea. That incident is invoked every Sunday in churches across the world.

Beside religious ceremonies, the two incidents have inspired countless works of art, literature, cinema and other forms of creative expression. In that respect, there is no divide between high art and popular expression. The imam’s assassination has inspired generations after generations of Muslim poets to write marsiya verses. It also gets referred to in other forms of poetry and in fiction. Some of the writers/ artists dealing with the shared memory have not been Muslims or Christians. There are also instances of both these incidents being mentioned/ invoked in the same.

Visual artists, too, have represented the two martyrs. The history of Western art is an archive of artists depicting crucifixion in manuscripts, illustrations, drawings, paintings and sculptures. In fact, the abundance of the practice has not been purely for aesthetic satisfaction or personal devotion. Pragmatic reasons too have contributed to it. A majority of early converts to Christianity were unable to read The Bible. Mosaics, frescos, reliefs and statues were therefore produced for churches to teach the life of Jesus (peace be upon him). These included Jesus on the cross: the body pierced and bleeding, hands and feet nailed and a crown of thorns on the head. Pope Gregory the Great, who lived at the end of the Sixth Century AD noted, “Painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who can read.” The images, with the passage of time, turned into a divine entity, the God. Some argued that “if God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ…. why should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images.”

Innumerable artists depicted Christ on the cross, with stretched arms and the tilted head, often surrounded by Mary and St John. The most prominent among these painters were Masaccio, Matthias Grunewald, Peter Paul Rubens, Tintoretto, Diego Velasquez and Francisco de Zurbaran. Among the modern artists Georges Rouault, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon come to mind. The subject of crucifixion is not limited to European art or artists. It has been represented by image makers from Latin America, Africa and Asia, too. (For instance the late 17^th Century Ethiopian manuscript, Christ on the Cross committing Mary to the care of St John). Prominent artists from India and Pakistan who have depicted this subject in their distinct styles, to name only a few, have included the likes of Jamini Roy, F d’Souza and Colin David.

Muslim artists, by and large, have relied on indirect imagery to suggest his struggle against tyranny. Indian painter MF Husain has repeatedly attempted this theme in his canvases, based on one or a few horses in action.

Due to the taboo regarding representing holy personalities in Islamic societies, the depiction of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (with whom Allah was pleased) has varied. Muslim artists, by and large, have relied on indirect imagery to suggest his struggle against tyranny. Indian painter MF Husain has repeatedly attempted this theme in his canvases, based on one or a few horses in action. The urgency in delineating the body of the steed, and its movement signify the currents of a battle. Occasionally Husain adds the names of Imam Hussain (with whom Allah was pleased) and his half-brother Hazrat Abbas. A number of artists from Pakistan have also portrayed the incident by rendering the imam’s mount, carrying a blood soaked turban or a scarlet flower, or amid a pool of crimson red. Besides others, such images have been produced notably by Saeed Akhtar, Muhammad Zeeshan and Zahid Mayo.

On the other hand in Brooklyn Museum’s collection, Persian artist Abbas Al-Musavi’s oil on canvas, Battle of Karbala (late 19^th-early 20^th Century) shows the figure of the prophet’s grandson on his stallion and thrusting his sword in the opponent soldier’s body. The work is constructed – not like a scene of a real happening, but a combination of multiple episodes, narratives and locations within a single picture frame.

This image relates to popular posters of the same subject theme/ characters printed in Iran. It also reminds one of the presence of Medieval Christian art, in which an episode was not depicted but described. When you see those works on paper and other surfaces, you do not look out of the window. It is more like reading a book. (Bible, literally, means book. Thus the story is not shown, but told.)

Since there were no devices available to record the physical/ factual appearance of Christ (peace be upon him) and Hussain (with whom Allah was pleased), nor the details of the crucifixion or the scene of Karbala were drawn or captured at the time of these occurrences, various societies, epochs and artists have imagined and interpreted individuals and events differently. A comparison can be found in the images of other revered entities: prophets, reformers and rulers not illustrated in their life. Gautam Buddha has attained the likeness of the inhabitants of every region where he is worshipped and revered. In Gandhara sculptures his features are Afghan/ North Indian, whereas in South India, he resembles a native of that region. Similarly, she looks South East Asian in the art of Korea, Thailand, Japan and China.

Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), too, has many identities, depending upon the imagination of his followers. In European art, he appears with blonde/ golden hair, blue eyes and light complexion; in Kerala his image is not dissimilar to those of his worshippers; and it turns dark skinned in the 17^th Century Ethiopian manuscript.

A person accustomed to the aesthetics, affairs and images (transformed with the invention of photography in 1939) may find it hard to accept diverse depictions of one ‘true’ god, prophet or religious reformer; but even a photograph is not a comprehensive representation. Jean Paul Sartre, in his essay Paris under the Occupation, critiques the truth of photography, providing the example of a “German officer rifling through a tray of books on the banks of the Seine.” He explains that it “is not faked but it is just a photograph, an arbitrary selection,” which conveys the comfort, ease and familiarity a soldier enjoys in Paris by omitting the citizens simultaneously contemptuously scrutinising the enemy.

The believers and the image makers, who subscribe to varying versions of a martyr’s last moments, have something in common. Instead of insisting on his flesh and blood, they identify with the idea: his sacrifice for an ideal and the noble cause.

The writer is an art critic, a curator and a professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design, at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.