The Life of Abu Zayd al-Ansari: Writer for Islamic State's al-Naba' Newsletter

The Islamic State’s “Story of a Martyr” series published in its al-Naba’ newsletter is far more sporadic than in past periods. It is the main avenue through which the organisation discusses its recent past and offers concrete information about its own members. The most recent instalment in the series is the life of an Iraqi member called Abu Zayd al-Ansari, who most notably served as a Shari‘i (religious official) for the group in Diyala province and was a contributing writer to the al-Naba’ newsletter. The opening of the biography however is an extended discussion about the problems in writing these biographies in general, such as the inability to reveal certain details for security reasons, and the issue that witnesses who might have known the ‘martyr’ might have also been killed and thus are no longer around to attest to the life of the martyr. In the end though, the consolation is that while we may not know the ‘martyr,’ God knows the martyr (speaking of that phrase, one may wish to consult Nathan S. French’s book of similar title- ‘And God Knows the Martyrs’- that deals with the phenomenon of ‘martyrdom operations’ among jihadists).