Fs puted187 (© BiwtedHen 1987 igh sd No pu of is ck sabe pod o sad ty om ohare o nt Ialitingporcogpng. rg oy ay nbaten age na steal em, witht pion in wing ome Pee Bash ie in Pubeton Dat roan, Edd rant i Assis mai) — Hi Ee) was os.a8 ISBN nssz7e0or2 ome Cis an mpi of “The Aston hen Pt of he That Ring Giap ond si bond Get Bin taste waeas ay CONTENTS Preface Page 7 Introduction Page 9 PART F THE PERSIAN ASSASSINS 1 “The Origins of the Assassins Page 15, 2 Hasan Sabbah Page 28, a ‘Alamut and the Persian Castes Page 39 4. ‘The Assassins asa Secret Society Page 54 —_s. ‘After Hasan Sabbah Page 74 PART Ie THE SYRIAN ASSASSINS. — Tinto Syria, 1103-62 Page 93 7 ‘Masyaf and the Syrian Castles Page 1028, ‘The Old Man of the Mountains Page 100 ——ee ‘Assassins and Crusaders Page 122 PART be ‘MYTHS AND LEGENDS OP THE ASSASSINS $0 ‘The Contemporary Legend Page 133 1 ‘The Historiography ofthe Astin Page 144 — ‘The Assassins and the Occult Page 158 ce Modera Tiavellers to Alamut Page 165 14 Re-emergence: The Aga Khans Tage 174 Select Bibliography Rage 186 References Page 192 Tndex Page 208 PREFACE ‘THE Assasin have had abad pres Since the thirtenth century thei name has heen asocsted with an act which appears to us today abominable but which was not then considered sin ts specif, almost strategic, use for political motives, Far bloodier stories and societies cast in the chronicles of western history, while even in the Moslem world there has never been a dearth of assassinations for avowedly politcal reasons Yet the moser term ‘assassin’ derives its origin fom this set. ‘The reason isthat the repotation ofthe Assasins stems from hostile soarces which provided biased and sinister accounts, crusaders who viewed ther suicidal courage with awe and Moslems who considered ‘them as heretics. The innate scretiveness ofthe Iams of wom the Assassins, or Nizari Ismaili, were abranch, has made it almost impossible to gain eliable information about them until very recently. [isonly with eheewentieth ezntury that scholars have begun to ieee together a reliable history of the Ismaili Hiasan-i Sabbah, founder of the Assassins in Peesia, is usally portrayed as «ruthless, tyrannic leader of band of murderers who lived in the impregoable valleys of the mountains of Persia. While such an account may be based on fact, it must not be forgotten that “Hasan was a theologian and philosopher of extreme subtlety. The revolutionary slim which underpinned his political aeivtes derived from careful philosophical reasoning, and his thought and powers cof argument wer ecognized and admired even by Hasan's enemies in Petsa, Perhaps it was ftom this thatthe initial fer stemmed? ‘Throughout the history of both Christianity and Islam there have ben heretical sects, but few survive longer than ther leaders and immediate disciples, and most are eventually worn down by the8____tue assassins cont egy ofthe rl Chucho tn Bn Spee drag ma cnuy ADs ye tg est yo ao ST led ‘ley wie Anoate Bu sue dow eo Ssh Alanya ou ne een ens tine cas nd soup ce hal sed bh Persia and Syria. ee ee Te her spn nan ls ia hen, noone mer ges a thivona oy Haan Sabah —fam wise can el Matwedama de Asta oie ey ‘sere blown nse don est sisi, in terms of thee longevity a a sect and their importance as pat of thor ft waa an ty sa ees iboats usher lad ad nee ine. et gol shane slay et ef Maal Holga Berd ce he plains gence oon impone Sete ‘eference are given in the notes. 8 INTRODUCTION EVEN today acces to the castle of Alamut, the fortress retreat of Haan: Sabbah, which became almost egendary afer the supposed 1273 visit of Mateo Polo and his description of the ‘Old Man of the Mountains" and che ‘Ashish’ is diffu “Alamut, the “Eagle's Nest, sandsin te Albore Mountains north- ‘west of Tehran and north-east ofthe city of Qazvin. Today, the use of good dirt tacks and motorized vehicles has rendered the journey ‘eatvely fs: until the beginning of this entury the trip from Quzvin to Alamut — by far the easiest route co the fortress — took at least ‘thre days. From the tun about rwo kilometres before the roundabout at the eastern end of Qazvin on the modern TehranTabriz road, to the point at which ven today cats must be exchanged for mules is ninety-sx kilometres of rough, rockstewn tack which the presence ‘of brigands sll enders dangerous, and which requires about thee hours driving, Teisimportan torealize that loa villagers do not know the caste, orits ruins, by the name Alamur, which s used of the whole valley rather than of any particular place. In his paper written afer a study of the Alamt area in 1929, Ivanour states that the district then ‘comprised sixty-six villages Te scemsikely that in Hasan'stime, too, the word ‘Alamut” was used to refer to the whole area dominated by the Assassins, andit will beused inthis way throughout the present study. This are inludes the valley ofthe Alamut Rive, and che Inger and more important valley of the Shahrad River into which it drains ‘The Shahrud runs parallel to the main Tehran-Tabriz oad, and from ite vlley boginal he mountain passes which alloe communications between the Central Iranian Plateaa to the south, and the Caspian Seato che north. The Shahrud itself lows west nto the Seiad, which