Arash Shirazi in Martyr!: Character Analysis of the Angel of the Battlefield

Overview

Arash Shirazi is Roya's older brother and Cyrus's uncle, a traumatized Iran-Iraq War veteran who served as an 'angel' riding among the dying. He appears in the novel through two first-person chapters (19 and 28) and through the memories and accounts of others, particularly Cyrus's recollection in Chapter 31. His story traces a path from conscription to moral compromise to the psychological aftermath of state violence, and it resonates with the novel's central questions about martyrdom and the meaning of death.

Arash's chapters are among the novel's most visceral. They show the human cost of the Iran-Iraq War from the inside—not from the perspective of a hero or ideologue, but from that of a man who enlisted because he had no other option and who was then assigned a role that forced him to witness suffering he could not alleviate. His voice is distinctive: reflective, self-aware, and laced with dark humor. He muses on the inadequacy of language, on the nature of potential energy, and on the difference between wanting to help and being able to help.

Plot Role

Arash's chapters provide crucial historical and familial context for the novel's central concerns. Chapter 19 establishes his enlistment in February 1984, his classification as a 'zero soldier,' and his childhood relationship with Roya. Chapter 28, set in May 1985 in Khuzestan, reveals his role as the angel of the battlefield. In Chapter 31, Cyrus tells his roommate Zee about his uncle's wartime role, and Orkideh's painting 'Dudusch' (Farsi for 'brother') depicts a rider in black robes with a scared naked boy visible inside the robe through an X-ray effect—connecting Arash's story to the novel's art-as-response-to-trauma theme.

The structure of Arash's chapters—first-person, present-tense, stream-of-consciousness—places the reader inside his experience. His voice is distinctive: reflective, self-aware, and laced with dark humor. He muses on the inadequacy of language ('we call the sun the sun as if that means anything'), on the nature of potential energy, and on the difference between wanting to help and being able to help.

Motivations and Traits

Arash enlists not out of ideology but because he has no exemptions. He states plainly: 'I enlist because I have to enlist.' He describes himself as poor, unmarried, without a high school education—'expendable,' a 'zero soldier.' He finds this expendability 'liberating' because it 'vents away all pressure to become.'

His emotional life is marked by a profound blockage. He envies men who can cry, describing their 'clarity of a physical emotional response' as something he secretly wishes for. He describes himself as 'stuffed up with potential energy, a stone hanging in the air with no knife sharp enough to cut the rope.'

His cruelty toward Roya—the childhood rage when she emerged from the frozen pond, and the disturbing act of urinating on her while she slept (Chapter 11)—suggests a deep-seated emotional dysfunction that predates the war. He wanted to 'take away the feeling of invincibility' from his sister, to make her feel afraid 'the way I felt blocked from feeling.'

Chronological Arc

• Childhood in Tehran: Racing Roya to the frozen pond, sneaking her home, the family's financial struggles. His father worked fixing power lines; the family faced economic hardship.

• February 1984: Enlists, mother shaves his head, trains at Alborz base. He is assigned to the 'zero soldiers' with number 11.

• May 1985: Serves as angel in Khuzestan. He rides Badbadak among the dying, wearing the black robe with a flashlight in the horse's neck.

• Later: Lives in Alborz, struggling with mental illness.

Relationships

• Roya: Complex, marked by both cruelty and protectiveness. He pulled her from the pond, gave her his coat, sneaked her home. But he also urinated on her in her sleep. His rage at her invincibility suggests a deep discomfort with her emotional freedom.

• Arman: Mentor figure who trained him as angel, gave him the Zulfiqar sword, taught him the hadith about the soldier who cut his own throat.

• Mira: Object of fantasy, from the market. He dreams of her and wishes she could see him on the horse with the sword.

• Cyrus: His nephew, who learns about his wartime role and connects it to Orkideh's art.

Key Decisions and Consequences

• Enlisting: Not a choice, but the decision to accept rather than resist.

• Accepting the angel role: Despite his own scattered belief, he accepts because 'action will be judged according to intention.'

• Not giving water to dying men: Following Arman's instruction, he withholds water even as men beg for it.

Theme/Symbol Connections

• Martyrdom: Arash's role is to 'preserve their hereafter' for dying soldiers.

• State violence: The angel program is a tool of the state to keep soldiers from suicide.

• Art: Orkideh's painting 'Dudusch' depicts him.

• Language: Arash reflects on how language fails.

5 Questions

1. Why does Arash enlist in the Iranian military?

2. What is the 'angel' role and why is it significant?

3. How does Arash's relationship with Roya reveal his character?

4. What does the hadith about the soldier who cut his own throat mean for Arash?

5. How does Orkideh's painting 'Dudusch' connect to Arash?