Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Titus Burckhard, Fez, City of Islam.

Translated by William Stoddart (Cambridge: Islamic 

Texts Society, 1992); Roger Le Tourneau, Fez in the Age 

of the Merinids. Translated by B. A. Clement (Norman: 

University of Oklahoma Press, 1961).

fidai

 

(Arabic, also 

fidawi, plural: fedayeen, 

fidayin; Persian fedaiyan)

A  fidai is one who is willing to sacrifice his life 

for a cause, which can be religious or political 

or a combination of both. The term is based on 

an Arabic word meaning ransom or redemption 

(fida). A verbal form of this word occurs in the 

q

Uran

, where God redeems Abraham’s son with 

a sacrificial animal (Q 37:107), thus freeing a

bra

-

ham

 from sacrificing his own son, which is what 

God had previously demanded of him. In Islamic 

law, paying ransoms was permitted in order to free 

The old city of Fez, Morocco 

(Federico R. Campo)