Messaggeri di Allah. Note sul martirio filmato nei video dello Stato Islamico

Al–Baghdadi’s proclamation of the Islamic Caliphate in the summer of 2014 created a sense of cultural shock in Western intellectuals and scholars. The viral circulation of video–beheadings of American and British prisoners helped to forge a sense of community in opposition to the rhetorically constructed Otherness of the enemy. Given that nowadays the Islamic State is much less politically relevant, the essay will try to formulate some preliminary thoughts on IS videos with specific reference to those devoted to martyrs and their operations. After a brief overview of the existing literature on the topic (referring especially to a possible comparison between the somewhat similar videos produced by al–Qaeda), the essay analyzes these images by adopting the framework of the “iconic act” proposed by Horst Bredekamp. Two specific videos are then analyzed to verify the hypothesis, which finally leads to the proposal of a new concept (“image database”), adapted from David Lyon’s arguments on surveillance society.