Fedayeen Fedayeen ( " fidāʼīyīn " , " redeemers " or " those who sacrifice " ; " Fedayi " , " fada ' iun " , referring only to the 1950s groups ) are a type of voluntary militant group in West Asia n culture . Fedayeen are not normally connected to an organized government or military and often operate in areas with little or no government control . Origin . Hassan - i - Sabbah , an Iranian from Qom , formed the first band of Fedayeen , holding the main headquarters in Alamut ( modern day Qazvin ) . He coined the name " fidāʼīyīn " as the Arabic plural of " fidāʼī " , which means " sacrifice . " A literal translation of " fidāʼīyīn " might be " martyrs . " It is widely understood in the Arab world to mean those willing to sacrifice themselves " for God " . The group carried out an armed struggle against any form of enslavement with actions based on resistance . Palestinians . Armed militias known as the fedayeen grew from militant elements within the Arab Palestinians . The Fedayeen made efforts to infiltrate territory in Israel in order to strike targets in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab - Israeli War . Members of these groups were largely based within the refugee communities living in the Gaza Strip ( then controlled by Egypt ) and the West Bank ( then controlled by Jordan ) , or in neighboring Lebanon , and Syria . During this time ( 1948 - c . 1980 ) , the word entered international usage and was frequently used in the Arab media as a synonym for great militancy . In the Israeli Hebrew press of this time the term ( " fada ' iun " ) had highly negative connotations and was associated with terrorism . Since the mid - 1960s and the rise of more organized and specific militant groups , such as the PLO , the word has fallen out of usage , but not in the historical context . Egypt . 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 . Iran . Two very different groups used the name Fedayeen in recent Iranian history . Fadayan - e Islam has been described as " one of the first real Islamic fundamentalist organizations in the Muslim world " . It was founded by Navab Safavi in 1946 for the purpose of demanding strict application of the sharia and assassinating those it believed to be apostates and enemies of Islam . After several successful assassinations it was suppressed in 1956 and several leading members were executed . A Marxist - leaning activist group known as the Fedayeen ( Fedayân in Persian language ) was founded in 1971 and based in Tehran . Operating between 1971 and 1983 , the Fedayeen carried out a number of political assassinations in the course of the struggle against the Shah , after which the group was suppressed . In 1979 the Iranian People ' s Fedâi Guerrillas split from the Organization of Iranian People ' s Fedaian ( Majority ) . Iraq . Beginning in 1995 , Iraq established a paramilitary group known as the Fedayeen Saddam , loyal to President Saddam Hussein and the Ba ' athist government . The name was chosen to imply a connection with the Palestinian Fedayeen . In July 2003 , personnel records for the Fedayeen organization in Iraq were discovered in the basement of the former Fedayeen headquarters in east Baghdad near the Al - Rashid Airfield . At the time of the discovery , an Iraqi political party occupied the building ; after an extensive cataloging process , an operation was conducted in Baghdad resulting in several individuals being detained . Armenia . In the 19th century , the similar name " Fedayee " ( meaning freedom fighter ) , with the same etymology , was used by Armenians who formed guerrilla organizations and armed bands in reaction to the oppression and unchecked murder of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire . In the early 1990s , when the dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno - Karabakh erupted into the Nagorno - Karabakh war , the term was used by Armenians to describe Armenian irregular units operating in the region . The term was widely used and is still used to describe the volunteers , and can be found in literature and Armenian revolutionary songs . Eritrea . 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 . Notes . Derives from the word " fidāʼ " , which means redemption . Literally , someone who redeems himself by risking or sacrificing his life . The pronunciation varies for the first vowel , for example , hence the transcription difference .