Some Christians are supposed to have been martyred by the saw too. One of Jesus’ lesser known disciples, Simon the Zealot for instance got hung up by his feet with legs akimbo and chopped down the middle in Persia.

The fullest description of a death by saw incident comes from Morocco in 1705. The poor victim was a guy called Melec who had been blamed for leading a rebel uprising and for beheading family members of some important people. Mulay Ismail (pictured above) who was the head of Morocco at the time sent for his carpenter and asked whether his saws could cut through a human. The carpenter said that they surely could and was duly handed the grisly task.

Melec was brought on the back of a mule into an auditorium packed with 4000 of his fellow tribesmen and family members. The crowd was audibly disturbed but Melec was a figure of calm as he smoked his pipe and waited for his fate.

Melec was strapped to a board and as instructed by Mulay Ismail they began to cut from the head down. The sons of one of Melec’s victims halted the proceedings and asked that the slicing start from the crotch to ensure the most scintillating painful of deaths…

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