Fedayeen (Arabic: فِدائيّين fidāʼīyīn; Arabic pronunciation: [fɪdaːʔɪjiːn]) is a term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves.
The term fedayi is derived from Arabic: فدائيون fidā'īyūn IPA: [fɪdaːʔɪjuːn], literally meaning: "those who sacrifice themselves".
Hassan-i-Sabbah, who founded the Nizari Ismaili state in Persia and Syria, first coined the term to refer to the Hashshashins.fidāʼīyīn is the plural of fidāʼī, which means "sacrifice." It is widely understood as "those willing to sacrifice themselves for God". The group carried out an armed struggle against enslavement.
During the 1940s, a group of civilians volunteered to fight the British control of Egyptian land around the Suez Canal. The British had deployed military bases along the coast of the Suez Canal under the claim of protection. Many Egyptians viewed this as an invasion against their sovereign power over their country. While the Egyptian government didn't refuse the action, the people's leaders organized groups of Fedayeen who were trained to combat and kill British soldiers everywhere in Egypt, including the military bases. Those groups were viewed very highly among the Egyptian population.
In 1951 "mobs of "irregular self-sacrificers, or fedayeen" some "armed by the Muslim Brotherhood", attacked the British military base defending the Suez Canal Zone.
Known by the same name, they operated inside the capital city, Asmara, during the last 15–20 years of the armed struggle in Eritrea against Ethiopia. They operated secretly and eliminated people who were considered dangerous to the struggle to free Eritrea.