Impalement in the history: Worst way to die

Impalement in the history: Worst way to die

The verb “Khazak” in Arabic means penetrating or stabbing, It is the source of the word “Khauzakah” – Impalement, which refers to an inhuman sadistic practice based on the use of a wooden stick with a pointed tip that is pushed through a human body, often through the anus or vagina, then they lift the stick up in the air and hold it to the ground vertically, and the victim rises with it as if he is sitting over it, and the tip of the stick begins to dive into his body more and more by gravity, until it penetrates the viscera and comes out again across the shoulder or mouth. The speed of death varies according to the experience of the executioner. The more the tip of the stick is pointed, the more greased it is, the faster it passes through the body, and the sooner death occurs.

The medieval executioners had creative ways and methods to increase agony. Perhaps they used a thick stick and made its head flat, so as to not penetrate the body quickly, and keep the victim alive on the stick for several hours, or even days. To increase the agony even more, they sometimes feed the victim and then make him drink a laxative drink to double the pain as he/she cannot defecate because of the head of the stick that blocks the anus.

A professional executioner was able to push the stick without rupturing the internal viscera, leaving the victim alive for as long as possible, and you can imagine the magnitude of the suffering and pain of the victims, especially those who have lived for a longer time. They would moving their bodies from side to side to get some comfort, just like what a modern traveler does when he/she spends long hours on the bus chair, but the problem with the impalement is that each movement leads to further penetration of the stick’s pointed head more and more inside the body.

Crucifixion and Impalement

Through my quickg research for sources to write this article, I noticed that people
sometimes confuse between crucifixion and impalement, even though the difference between the two punishments is obvious, crucifixion is the bounding of a victim to a long wooden stick or trunk of a tree or a rock or a castle wall etc… by ropes and nails. The crucified victim may remain alive for several days and dies only after being starved or dehydrated, or may be killed on the wood by flogging or stoning or burning. All the nations knew the crucifixion and practiced it, until the cross became a living part of human memory and culture, when the stick that was used in the crucifixion of Christ turned into the most famous religious icon in the world.

So crucifixion is basically bounding the human body to a stick, while the impalement is to fix the stick to the human body. There is no doubt that the latter was more severe on the victim than the first, it is true that the two penalties are close in sadism and brutality, and that the consequence of both is one, as one Arab poet said:

Whoever does not die by the sword
Will die with something else
There are many reasons for death
But the result is one

But I think that the impalement was aimed beyond the execution of the person, otherwise why the executioners took all this effort to impale a person while they can kill him easily with one sword strike, and why they sometimes bring his wife and female relatives to watch… I assume that the original purpose was to humiliate the victims and break their will. It is clear that this punishment includes humiliating sexual connotations, especially for men.

Impalement also play a large role in spreading terror and panic in the hearts of people, the armies of the Middle Ages, for example, might impale some prisoners of war near the walls of besieged cities, in order to break the morale of the population and intimidating them with the possibility of meeting the same miserable fate if they keep resisting, which leads them to surrender their city without a fight.

Also the rulers may turn to impalement to intimidate their political opponents, discourage rebels, or intimidate thieves and criminals.