This article is devoted to so-called voluntary martyrs’ movement in mid-ninth century Cordoba. The author observes the traditional historiography of this subject and comes up with the conclusion that generally accepted interpretation of martyrs’ movement can be overestimated in case of social history. Based on the original sociological methods of collecting and analyzing information, the author reconstructs social description of voluntary martyr (sex, age, place of birth, education, occupation, social status, official religion and marital status). It is shown that different socials groups took part in the martyrs’ movement, which had wide social context.