CHAPTER XI

THE ASSASSIN COMMONWEALTH AND ITS DESTRUCTION BY THE MONGOLS

The Ismailians, known later by their enemies as Molahids (lost ones), and by all Europe in the sequel as Assassins, were an offshoot from one of the two great divisions into which Islam ranged itself after the death of the Prophet in 632. These divisions were caused by the problem of finding a successor to Mohammed—a Kalif.

The founder of Islam had died without saying whom he wished to succeed him. The first of the Kalifs, Abu Bekr, father-in-law of Mohammed, was elected by Medina, only one voice opposing. Abu Bekr on his death bed named Omar, who was confirmed by the people of Medina in 634. The second Kalif, when mortally wounded by a murderer, named electors to choose the third Kalif. Those electors chose Othman and when he was slain by insurgents, Aly, the son-in-law and cousin of Mohammed, was elected by Medina directly. A.D. 656.

Various and intricate causes brought about civil war, and deep hatred followed quickly; after that came the election in Damascus of Muavia, the governor of Syria, as a Kalif to overthrow Aly, whom many Mohammedans would not acknowledge. The father of Muavia had been one of the most bitter enemies of the Prophet. This hatred was shared fully by the son, who left nothing undone to rouse Syria to the utmost against Aly; he even had the blood-stained clothes of Othman exhibited in the principal mosque of Damascus. A fierce but drawn battle at Siffin between these two Kalifs was fruitless; an arbitration as to who should be Kalif settled nothing and pacified no man.

Next came the winning of Egypt by Muavia as the first Ommayad Kalif. There were two Kalifs now ruling de facto in Islam, Muavia at Damascus, and Aly at Kufa. In 661 Aly fell by the hand of an assassin. Aly’s son, Hassan, succeeded him, but resigned after six months of rule, and retired to Medina where one of his many wives poisoned him, incited, as

## partisans of Aly insisted, by Muavia. Muavia was now the sole Kalif of

Islam.

Election had been attended with peril; there was danger of outbreaks and slaughter. In three cases the chance had been narrow, and the fourth choice had brought bitter warfare. Three elections had been held at Medina, and made by the men of that city; the fifth, that of Hassan, at Kufa. Muavia had been chosen at Damascus. Since Medina was no longer the capital really, it could not choose a Kalif or confirm him. Election must be at the chief place of government, if anywhere.

Troubles such as those which had followed the election of Aly might recur in the future and threaten, or even cut short the existence of Islam. The system of election was unsafe in that turbulent society. To avoid these great perils Muavia planned to choose a successor while he himself was still ruling. His own son Yezid was the candidate. If he could win for Yezid an oath of allegiance from most of the Moslems he would secure power for his family and prevent a contested election. After working a time with great industry and keenness Muavia succeeded. Deputations from all the chief cities, also from each province, appeared at Damascus to do the hidden will of Muavia.

These deputations all named Yezid as heir of the Kalif and chose him. They gave then an oath of allegiance and homage. Arabian Irak and Syria also joined in this oath.

Muavia went next to the two holy cities as it were on a pilgrimage, but his great ruling purpose was to win or to force the consent of Medina and Mecca to the recent election. The chief dissentients in Medina were Hussein, son of Aly, Abd al Rahman, son of Abu Bekr and both Abdallahs, sons of Omar and Zobeir. Muavia treated them so rudely that to avoid offense they departed immediately for Mecca. The rest of the people accepted Yezid and gave him the oath without waiting. Muavia went on then to Mecca, where he bore himself mildly toward all men, but near the end of his visit he spoke to the city concerning an heir to the Kalifat. It was answered that the election of an heir was opposed to precedent but Mecca men offered to accept any one of three methods: first, that of the Prophet who left the election to Medina, or that of Abu Bekr who chose a Kalif from the Koreish, or of Omar who appointed electors to choose from among themselves a candidate; the Kalif omitting, like Omar, his sons and the sons of his father.

“As for the earliest method,” said Muavia, “there is no man among us who is like Abu Bekr to be chosen by the people. As to the other two methods I fear the bloodshed and struggles which will follow if the succession be not settled while a Kalif is living.”

Since all his reasons proved powerless, Muavia summoned his attendants and forced Mecca men at the sword point to give the oath of allegiance to Yezid.

The example of Syria, Irak and the two holy cities was followed throughout the whole Empire, and this new method conquered in large measure afterward.

The theory of a right of election residing in the people existed in form, but the right was not real. In practice the oath of allegiance was obtained by the sword against every refusal.

After the days of Muavia, the Kalif in power proclaimed as his heir or successor the fittest among all his sons—that one of course who most pleased him. To him as the heir an oath of allegiance was given. To increase the assurance of safety two heirs were sometimes created, one of whom was elected to follow the other. This method begun by the Ommayed line was continued by the Abbasids.

Muavia died in 680. Yezid, who succeeded, made those first of all take the oath to him who had refused it at Medina. The sons of Omar and Abbas gave this oath straightway, but Hussein, son of Aly, and the son of Zobeir went to Mecca asking time to consider. No one had dared to attack that holy city since its capture by Mohammed, and there in full safety every plotter could work out his plan against the Kalif or others.

Ibn Zobeir, as Muavia had noted, was eager for dominion, but while Hussein was living he feigned to work only for that grandson of the Prophet. Offers of support went from Kufa to Hussein with advice to appear there immediately. True friends of Hussein at Mecca distrusted these offers and strove to dissuade him from going, but Ibn Zobeir, who in secret burned to be rid of this rival, urged him on always. Hussein yielded at last and set out for Kufa. Muslim, his cousin, had been sent ahead to prepare for his coming. This move became known at Damascus, so Yezid summoned hastily to Kufa Obeidallah, then governing in Bussorah with unpitying severity. On arriving he sought and found Muslim, who was lodging with Hani, an adherent of the Alyite family.

At first a majority of the people sided with Hussein and rose promptly against Obeidallah. They attacked him in his castle and came very near killing him, but their ardor cooled quickly. Obeidallah was triumphant, Muslim was taken and killed with his co-worker Hani.

Toward the end of 680 Hussein rode out of Mecca with his family and a small band of followers, all kinsmen. When the desert was crossed, and he was advancing on Kufa, news came to him that Muslim’s life had been taken. He might have turned back then to Mecca, but Muslim’s kinsmen were clamorous for vengeance. Besides there remained the wild hope that those who had invited him might rally at last; but each man whom he met gave darker tidings.

Farazdak the poet, who had left Kufa recently, had only these words to offer: “The heart of the city is on thy side, but its sword is against thee.”

The Beduins, ever ready for warfare, had been coming to Hussein, but when they saw his cause weakening they fell away quickly, and no one was left except the original party. A chance chieftain passing southward advised him to turn to the Selma hills and to Aja. “In ten days,” said the man, “the Beni Tay and twenty thousand lances above them will be with thee.”

“How could I take these children and women to the desert?” asked Hussein, “I must move forward.”

And he rode northward till a large troop of horsemen from Kufa, under an Arab named Horr, stood before him.

“Command has been given me,” said Horr, “to bring thee to the governor. If thou come not, then go to the left, or the right, but return not to Mecca.”

Leaving Kufa on his right, Hussein turned to the left and moved westward. Obeidallah soon sent a second man, Amr, son of Sad, with four thousand horse, and a summons. Hussein now fixed his camp on the plain of Kerbala near the river, five and twenty miles above Kufa. There he denied every thought of hostility and was ready to yield if he might take one of three courses: “Let me go to the place whence I came, or attend me to the Kalif of Damascus. Place my hand in the hand of Yezid, let me speak face to face with him. If not, let me go far away to the wars and fight against enemies of Islam.”

Obeidallah insisted on absolute surrender, and directed that Amr stop every approach to the river, thus taking water from the party. Hussein, fearing death less than the governor of Kufa, adhered to his conditions. He even brought Amr to urge Obeidallah to lead him to the Kalif. Instead of agreeing, Obeidallah sent a certain Shamir to urge

## action. “Hussein,” said he, “we must have dead or living in Kufa

immediately; if Amr loiters, Shamir must depose him.”

Amr then encircled the camp very closely. Hussein was ready to fight to the death, and the scenes represented as following swiftly are retained in the minds of believers to this day with incredible vividness.

Hussein received a day’s respite to send off his family and kinsmen, but not one person left him.

On October 10th of 680 the two sides faced each other, and opened a parley. Hussein’s offer was repeated, Obeidallah rejected it. Hussein slipped down from his camel, his kinsmen gathered round him, and the whole party waited. From the Kufa attackers at last came an arrow which opened that struggle of tens against thousands. One after another Hussein’s brothers, sons, nephews, and cousins fell near him. No enemy struck Hussein till tortured by thirst he turned toward the river, and Shamir cut him off from his people; then, stricken down by an arrow, he was trampled by horses. Hussein’s attendants were slain every man of them. Two sons of his perished and when the action was over, six sons of Aly were corpses, also two sons of Hassan and six descendants of Abu Talib, Aly’s father. The camp was plundered, but no harm inflicted on the living, mainly women and children, who with seventy heads of the slain were taken to Obeidallah. A shudder ran through the multitude of people as the bloody head of the Prophet’s grandson was dropped at the feet of the governor. When he turned the head over roughly with his staff an aged man cried to him: “Gently, that is the grandson of the Prophet. By the Lord I have seen those lips kissed by the blessed mouth of Mohammed.” Hussein’s sister, his two little sons, Aly Ashgar and Amr, with two daughters, sole descendants of Hussein, were treated with seeming respect by the governor, and sent with the head of their father to the Kalif. Yezid disowned every share in the tragedy. Hussein’s family were lodged in the Kalif’s own residence at Damascus for a time, and then sent with honor to Medina, where their coming caused a great outburst of grief and lamentation. Many objects in that city made the day of Kerbala seem dreadful. The deserted houses in which had dwelt those kinsmen of Mohammed who had fallen; the orphaned little children, and the widows, gave great reality to every word uttered. The story was told to weeping pilgrims in that city of the Prophet by women and by children who with their own eyes had looked at the dead and the dying and had lived through the day of Kerbala. The tale, repeated in many places, was heightened by new horrors; retold by pilgrims in their homes and on their journeys from Medina, it spread at last to every village of Islam.

The right of Aly’s line to dominion had been little thought of till that massacre, but compassion for Aly’s descendants, who were also the great grandsons of Mohammed, sank into men’s minds very deeply after that dreadful slaughter on the field of Kerbala. The woeful death of the grandsons of the Prophet seized hold of the Arab mind mightily, and fascinated millions of people. This tragic tale helped greatly to ruin the Ommayed dynasty and when, through it and other causes, the Abbasids rose to dominion and hunted to death or to exile the descendants and kinsmen of Muavia, that same tale affected the Abbasids and made it possible to raise up against them a nation in Persia and a dynasty in Egypt. So strong were men’s feelings on this point in Islam and so many the people who favored the descendants of Aly that Mamun, the son of Harun al Rashid, made an effort to consolidate the Alyite and Abbasid families. Moreover the teaching of Persian adherents of Aly had such influence that they captured this Kalif intellectually.

In Mamun’s day the Moslem world became greatly imbued with ideas from Persia and India, and with Greek theories and learning. The Koran was treated as never before till that period. Opinions and systems of all sorts were brought into Islam. A time of tremendous disturbance succeeded as the fruit, or result, of these teachings and these were all connected, both in life and in politics with views touching Aly.

One Babek, a man of great energy, appeared in 816 of our era as a leader in religion, in practical life, and in management of people, preaching indifference of action and community of property. Through various mystic doctrines most cunningly compounded with incitements to robbery and lust and dishonor, he rallied multitudes to his standard, and during twenty whole years he visited many parts of the Empire with ruin and slaughter. He had fixed himself firmly in those strong mountain places west and south of the Caspian, and thence scattered terror in various directions through sudden attacks which were ever attended by terrible bloodshed, till at last his forces were defeated in great part and driven westward.

In 835 Motassim, the Kalif, sent Afshin, one of the best among all his Turk generals, to seize this arch enemy and destroyer at all costs. Only after two years of most desperate fighting and many deceitful devices, were Babek’s strong places all taken and his own person captured. Thousands of women and children were taken with him, and restored to their families; and all the treasures which during two decades had been gathered by this murderous deceiver fell now to the Turk general, Afshin.

Babek had defeated six famous generals of Islam and slain, as some state, a million of people during twenty years of rebellion. One of his ten executioners declared that he alone had taken the lives of twenty thousand men; so merciless was the struggle between the partisans of the Kalifat and the advocates of freedom and equality.

The prisoner was brought by his captor to Samira in chains and confined there. Motassim went in disguise to the prison to look at this demon of Khorassan, this “Shaitan” (Satan), as they called him. When the Kalif had gazed at Babek sufficiently the captive was exhibited through the city as a spectacle, and brought at last to the palace where Motassim, surrounded by his warriors, commanded Babek’s own executioner to cut off the arms and legs of his master, and then plunge a knife into his body. The executioner obeyed, Babek meanwhile smiling as if to prove his own character, and the correctness of his surname, “Khurremi” (The Joyous). The severed head was exhibited in the cities of Khorassan, and the body impaled near the palace of the Kalif.

In the ninth century, and contemporaneous with these horrors, there lived in Southern Persia, at Ahwas, a certain Abdallah, whose father, Maimun Kaddah, and grandfather, Daisan the Dualist, had taught him Persian politics and religion. This Abdallah conceived a broad system, and planned a great project to overturn Arab rule in his country and reëstablish the ancient faith and Empire of Persia. This involved complete change in the structure of Islam, and all its present ideals. He could not declare open war against the accepted religion and dynasty, since all the military power was at their command; hence he decided to undermine them in secret.

From Ahwas he went to Bussorah and later to Syria where he settled at Salemiya, whence his teachings were spread by Ahmed, his son, by two sons of that Ahmed, and also by his Dayis, men who performed each of them all the various duties of spy, secret agent, and apostle. The most

## active of those Dayis was Hussein of Ahwas, who, in the province of

which Kufa was the capital, instructed many agents in the secrets of revolt and in perversion of the teachings of Islam. Among these agents the most noted was one famous later as Karmath. This man delayed not in showing his character and principles “through torrents of blood, and destruction of cities.” Crowds of men rallied to his war cry.

The Karmathites declared that nothing was forbidden, everything was a matter of indifference, justified by the fact of its existence, hence should receive neither punishment nor reward. The commands of Mohammed were pronounced parables disguising political maxims and injunctions. They differed from Abdallah’s disciples in that they began action immediately, and, in most cases, openly, while the others were preparing for a new throne in Islam to be occupied by a man of their own, a true and zealous co-believer.

The Karmathite outbreak was more terrible, continuous, and enduring than that begun twenty years earlier by Babek, and far more dangerous. The Karmathites fought savage battles in the East and the West, in Irak and Syria. They plundered caravans and destroyed what they found with tiger-like fury unless it was valuable and they could bear it away with them. They attacked the holy city of Mecca and captured it through desperate fighting. More than thirty thousand true Moslems were slain while defending the temple. The sacred well, Zemzem, was polluted by corpses hurled into it by people to whom nothing whatever was sacred. The temple was fired, and the black, holy stone of the Kaaba, which in Abraham’s day had come down from heaven into Mecca, was borne off to be ransomed for fifty thousand gold coins two and twenty years later.

This Karmathite madness, after raging at intervals for a century and torturing most parts of Islam, was extinguished in bloodshed. The career of the Karmathites proved the wickedness and folly of their method. Its turn came now to the system of Abdallah.

Ismailian teaching had spread through the Empire of Mohammed and reached even Southern Arabia. About 892 a certain Mohammed Alhabib, who claimed his descent from Ismail, son of Jaffar es Sadik, sent one Abu Abdallah to the north coast of Africa. Abu Abdallah impressed the Berber tribes greatly, and his success was so enormous that they drove out the Aglabid dynasty then ruling them. He roused expectations to the highest degree by announcing a Mahdi, or infallible guide for believers. He then summoned in Obeidallah, a son of that Mohammed Alhabib, who had sent him to Africa.

Obeidallah, after many strange deeds and adventures, and finally an imprisonment from which Abu Abdallah released him, was put on a throne in 909 and made the first Fatimid [12] Kalif at Mahdiya, his new capital near Tunis. Abu Abdallah, the successful assistant and forerunner, was assassinated soon after at command of Obeidallah, who owed him dominion, but who now had no wish for his presence. The new Kalif, since this man knew, of course, many secrets, might well think him safer in paradise. Obeidallah now proclaimed himself the only true Kalif, a descendant of the Prophet through Fatima his daughter, and became a dangerous rival of the Abbasids. By 967 his descendants had won Egypt and Southern Syria. A fortified palace was built near the Nile, and called Kahira. [13] Around this palace rose the city known later as Cairo.

In 991 Aleppo was added to the Fatimid Empire which, beginning at the river Orontes and the desert of Syria, extended to Morocco. In view of this great success and its danger to the Abbasids the world was informed now from Bagdad that the Fatimid dynasty was spurious; that the first Kalif installed at Mahdiya was no descendant of the Prophet, he was merely the son of that Ahmed who was a son of Abdallah, son of Maimun Kaddah, son of Daisan the Dualist, his mother being a Jewess. Hence he was son of that Ahmed whose emissary, Hussein of Ahwas, had raised up and trained the detestable Karmath, whose crimes, and the crimes of whose followers, had tortured all Islam for a century.

That society, or order, which met at the famed House of Science in Cairo, was dreaming of power night and day and struggling always to win it. Power it could reach by supplanting the Abbasids, but not in another way, hence this order aimed at the overthrow of the Abbasids. It also spread secret doctrines by its Dayis (political and religious missionaries) continually. Through this activity the Fatimids were rising. Meanwhile the Abbasids were failing till Emir Bessassiri, a

## partisan of the Fatimids, seized and held for one year the two highest

marks of dominion in Islam, the mint and the pulpit at Bagdad in the name of Mostansir the Kalif at Cairo, and would have held them much longer had not his career been cut short in 1058 by Togrul the first Seljuk Sultan, who hastened to the rescue of the Abbasids. Meanwhile the Dayis from Cairo and their aids filled a great part of Asia with their labors.

One of these Dayis, Hassan Ben Sabah, founded a sect, the Eastern Ismailites, renowned later as the Assassins. This Hassan was son of Ali, a Shiite of the old city Rayi, who claimed that his father, Sabah Homairi, had gone from Kufa to Kum and later to Rayi. People from Tus in Khorassan, and others insisted that his ancestors had passed all their lives in Khorassan. Ali, suspected of heresy, made lying oaths and confessions to clear himself; since his success was but partial he strove to increase it by sending Hassan, his son, to the Nishapur school of Movaffik, a sage of eighty years at that period, and the first scholar among Sunnite believers.

This sage, it was said, brought happiness and good fortune to all whom he instructed. His school was frequented by multitudes, and the success of his pupils was proverbial. Among his last students were three classmates, later on very famous: Omar Khayyam, the astronomer and poet; Nizam ul Mulk, the first statesman of the period, and Hassan Ben Sabah, who founded a sect upon sophisms, and a State upon murder.

Hassan’s ambition was active from the earliest; while in that Nishapur school he bound both his classmates by a promise. Nizam ul Mulk himself tells the story: “‘Men believe,’ remarked Hassan one day to us, ‘that the pupils of our master are sure to be fortunate; let us promise that should success visit one of us only, that favored one will share with the other two.’ We promised.” Years later when Nizam ul Mulk was grand vizir to Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Seljuks, he showed Omar Khayyam sincere honor and friendship, and offered him the dignity of second vizir, which the poet rejected, but at his request the vizir gave him one thousand gold pieces each year instead of the office. Thenceforward Omar Khayyam was enabled to follow his bent and do great work, as astronomer and poet.

Hassan Ben Sabah lived on in obscurity till the death of Alp Arslan in 1072.

Nizam ul Mulk retained his high office with Melik Shah the new Sultan. Hassan Sabah went now to his friend and quoting bitter words from the Koran reproached him with forgetting sacred promises, and mentioned their agreement of school days. The vizir, who was kind, took his classmate to the sovereign and gained for him favor.

Hassan Sabah, who had reproached his old friend out of perfidy, soon won great influence through cunning, feigned frankness and hypocrisy. In no long time Melik Shah called him frequently to his presence, advised with him, and followed his counsels. Soon Nizam ul Mulk was in danger of losing his office. Hassan had resolved to ruin his benefactor and classmate; in one word to supplant him. Each apparent omission of the great man was reported by tortuous ways to the sovereign, whose mind was brought to doubt the vizir, and to test him. The most painful blow of all, according to Nizam ul Mulk’s own statement, was given when Hassan promised to finish in forty days the whole budget of the Empire. Nizam ul Mulk needed ten times that period for the labor.

Melik Shah gave all the men called for by Hassan, and with their aid the work was accomplished. But to defeat the vizir was not easy; Nizam ul Mulk had abstracted certain pages, hence Hassan’s budget was imperfect. He could not explain why the pages were lacking, and he could not restore them, so he went on a sudden to Rayi and to Ispahan somewhat later. In the latter city he lived in concealment at the house of Abu Fazl, the mayor, whom he converted, and who became his most intimate adherent.

One day in 1078, when complaining of Nizam ul Mulk and the Sultan, Hassan added: “Had I but two friends of unbending fidelity I would soon end this rule of the Turk and the peasant (Sultan and vizir).” These words describe Hassan’s forecast completely, and show the germ of the Assassin creation, which was cold-blooded murder, carefully pondered, thought out with slowness, but executed on a sudden. Abu Fazl could not credit that statement, and thought Hassan demented. To restore his mental balance he placed on the table before him meat and drink mixed with saffron which was believed at that time in Persia to be a mind strengthening herb. Hassan noted his meaning immediately, was angry, and would not remain longer. Abu Fazl did what was possible to detain the apostle of murder, but every effort on his part was fruitless; Hassan left Ispahan quickly for Egypt.

The Ismailite mysteries of atheism and immorality had been taught to Hassan Ben Sabah by a Fatimid apostle in Persia. He had also conversed long and intimately with others. He knew all the secrets of Cairo, and had been tried and found worthy to spread the beliefs of the great House of Science. The fame of his learning and gifts, and the high position which he had held at the court of Melik Shah, went before him. Mostansir desired to show honor to a servant who might help him to wider dominion. The chief of the new House of Science was therefore sent to the boundary with greetings; a residence was assigned to the visitor, while through ministers and dignitaries he was loaded with favors until a great quarrel broke out on a sudden in Egypt.

Mostansir had declared his son, Nesar, as his successor, and heir to the Kalifat; thereupon rose a faction. The commander-in-chief of the war forces was at the head of it. He insisted that Mosteali, another son of Mostansir, was the only one fitted for the dignity. Hassan was in favor of Nesar, and this enraged the commander, who had Hassan imprisoned in Damietta. The apostle was barely in prison when a great tower fell in the city without evident reason. The amazed and terrified people saw in this accident a miracle performed by Hassan, so his enemies and admirers joined straightway in bearing him off to a vessel just ready to sail for West Africa. Soon after starting a storm rose and terrified every man on the ship except Hassan. When asked why he was not alarmed he answered: “Our Lord has promised that no harm shall meet me.” The sea became calm soon after. All on board turned then to Hassan, accepted his teaching and became devoted and faithful disciples. As the voyage continued a contrary wind drove the vessel to Syria where the apostle debarked and went to Aleppo. Thence he traveled farther, to Bagdad, Ispahan, Yezd, Kerman and many other places, publishing his doctrines with the greatest industry.

In Damegan Hassan spent three years, and made numerous converts. Rayi he could not visit since Nizam ul Mulk had instructed the governor to seize him. Dayis converted by Hassan and attached to him personally had gone to Kirdkuh and many other fortresses and cities in that marvelous region. He passed now through Sari, Demavend, Kazvin and Dilem and halted at last at Alamut.

Hussein Kaini, one of Hassan’s devoted and skilful Dayis, had been sent some time before to Alamut to secure an oath of allegiance and fidelity to Kalif Mostansir. Most of the inhabitants had already given the usual oath, but the commandant, Ali Mehdi, who held the fortress in the name of Melik Shah, refused, declaring that he would acknowledge the spiritual dominion of no one save the Kalif of Bagdad of the family of Abbas, and submit to no sovereign but Melik Shah of the family of the Seljuks. Hassan then offered to pay him three thousand ducats for the fortress, but Mehdi refused this bribe. Finding all persuasion useless Hassan took possession by force and Mehdi was driven out. As if to show his great influence and authority Hassan then gave Mehdi a letter to Reis Mosaffer, commander of the fortress of Kirdkuh, instructing him to pay Mehdi three thousand ducats. Mehdi, knowing well the confidence placed in Mosaffer by the Seljuk Sultan, was amazed when the three thousand ducats were paid to him. He learned then that Mosaffer was a devoted follower of Hassan Ben Sabah, and one of his earliest adherents.

Alamut [14] was the largest and strongest of fifty castles in that country. It was built in 860 by Hassan Ben Seid Bakeri, and now in 1090 Hassan Sabah, who had hitherto sought in vain for a stronghold, was in possession of it. He at once began to build walls and ramparts around his fortress and had a canal dug which would ensure a water supply. Gardens and orchards were planted in the surrounding country and the inhabitants were soon engaged in agricultural pursuits. Men of power in the Seljuk country Hassan won by secretly placing Assassins at their service; whoso wished in those days to ruin any man had but to accuse him of connivance with Hassan Ben Sabah. Informers increased, suspicion was general. Melik Shah distrusted his most intimate associates and servants whom ill-will or envy strove to ruin. But now an Emir to whom Melik Shah had given Rudbar in fief, that is the whole region in which Alamut was the main stronghold, stopped every road to the fortress and cut off all supplies. The inhabitants were ready to abandon the place, but Hassan assured them that fortune would soon show them favor, as in fact it did, and the name “Abode of Good Fortune” was bestowed on the castle. Melik Shah, who hitherto had treated Ismailians with contempt, resolved now to crush them. He commanded Arslan Tash, his Emir, to destroy Hassan Sabah with all his followers.

Though Hassan had only seventy men, and not much food to give them, he defended the fortress with great courage till Abu Ali, his Dayi, hastened up in the night time with three hundred men. These, with the seventy of the garrison, attacked the besiegers and dispersed them.

Melik Shah who was greatly alarmed by this defeat sent troops from Khorassan against Hussein Kaini, Hassan Sabah’s main agent, who was spreading heresy in the Kuhistan province. Hussein retreated to a castle in Mumin where soon he was besieged and in no less danger than Hassan had been very recently in Alamut.

Up to this time Hassan had acted as a political agent and religious nuncio in the name of Mostansir, but now he saw an opportunity for securing power for himself and he did not hesitate. Knowing well that lawlessness of the people brought destruction to the throne, he established a system of religion and politics based upon atheism and absolute freedom of action which became the tenet of the Assassins, known, however, to but few and concealed under the veil of religion.

Hassan determined to deliver his first great blow at this juncture and begin his career of surprises. He had resolved to rid himself of opponents unsparingly, and to terrify those of his enemies whom he left living. His first victim was Nizam ul Mulk, his classmate, friend and benefactor, a statesman renowned throughout one half of Asia as chief vizir under three Seljuk Sultans, the first of their dynasty, a man of profound wisdom and keen foresight, whose Treatise on the Principles of Government was written for Melik Shah and adopted as his code. In this code the wise vizir explains in the clearest terms the duties of a sovereign. Melik Shah, the most famous and best of the Seljuk Sultans, died three weeks later (1092). The sudden deaths of these two great men filled Western Asia with terror. The vizir was cut down by Hassan Sabah’s Fedavi, or devoted assistants. Melik Shah died of poison. His loss was greatly lamented for he had ruled with justice and made his country prosperous. He was both a statesman and a warrior. To extend commerce he had built bridges and canals; to ensure the safety of merchants and all who traveled he had made each village and hamlet responsible for the crimes committed within its precincts. In this way the entire population assisted in the suppression of robbery, one of the great evils of that time. Hassan had made a notable beginning—he had alarmed all Asia.

What were the doctrines of the Ismailians, used by Hassan Ben Sabah?

The Ismailian apostles trained in the House of Science in Cairo, which had been founded and developed in the Fatimid interest, taught their secret doctrines to a few chosen followers. These doctrines were communicated slowly and with many precautions. The chiefs or apostles at Cairo, the prime masters of all sacred wisdom, initiated disciples. There were nine degrees through which those of the faithful had to pass to receive the great mystery. But before giving the first degree to any novice whatever the Master took from him an oath devoting the applicant to the greatest calamities of this life, and the keenest sufferings of the next, if he kept not strict silence touching that which was revealed to him, or if he ceased to be the friend of all friends of the Ismailians, and the enemy of all their enemies. When the oath was accepted the Master took a fee for that which he was going to communicate, and he never advanced any novice from degree to degree, till he saw that the man had assimilated to the utmost everything taught him.

The first step in instruction was that God has at all times given the task of establishing His worship, and preserving it, to Imams, his chosen ones, who are the sole guides of the faithful. As God has created the most beautiful of all things and the noblest, by sevens, such as the heavens and the planets, he has fixed the number of Imams at seven, namely: Aly, Hassan, Hussein, Ali Zayn al Abidin, Mohammed Bakir, Jaffar es Sadik, and Ismail, or Mohammed, the son of Ismail, who surpasses all other Imams in occult wisdom and in knowledge of the mystic sense of things visible. He explains these mysteries to those of the initiated who inquire, for he has been instructed by God himself, and he communicates his marvelous gifts to the Dayis, or Ismailian apostles, to the exclusion of all other sectaries of Ali.

Like the Imams, the word-endowed prophets sent to establish new religions were seven in number. Each prophet had one vicar (siwes) as aid who upheld true religion after the death of his principal, and six other vicars, who appeared after him among men. In distinction to the word-endowed prophets the vicars were called “the dumb,” because they merely walked in the way which had been traced for them previously. When these seven vicars pass from the earth, a new prophet comes who sets aside the preceding religion and is followed by seven mute vicars. These changes follow one another till the coming of the seventh word-endowed prophet, who is the lord of the present, that is, lord of the age in which he is manifest.

The first prophet was Adam, for whom his son Seth served as vicar; after Adam his religion had seven successive vicars. Noah was the second prophet, and his vicar was Sem; Abraham was the third prophet, his son, Ismail, was his vicar; Moses, the fourth, had Aaron his brother first as vicar, after Aaron’s death Joshua, son of Nun, was his vicar. The last of his vicars was John, son of Zachary; Jesus, son of Mary, the fifth prophet, had Simeon as vicar. With the sixth prophet, Mohammed, was associated Aly. After Aly were six mute chiefs of Islam. These are the Imams whom we have named from Hassan to Ismail. Ismail is the seventh and most recent prophet. When he appeared preceding religions were abolished. Endowed with an all-knowing wisdom he alone can explain sacred teaching. All people owe him obedience, and it is only through his guidance that man can advance in salvation.

These were the doctrines taught in the first four degrees. In the fifth degree the disciple learned that the Imam, as supreme priest, should have apostles to visit all places. The number of these was fixed by Divine wisdom at twelve like the months of the year, the tribes of Israel, the companions of Mohammed, for God in all he does has views of deep wisdom.

In the sixth degree the Master commenced by explaining the mystic significance of the precepts of Islam touching prayer, alms, pilgrimages, and all other practices which were, as he showed, to turn men from vice to perfection. He recommended the study of Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Plato; he warned against blind belief in tradition, against yielding credit to simple allegations, and against taking accepted proof unless it be rational.

In the seventh and the eighth degree the Master taught that the founder of every religion requires an associate, a vicar to hand down his precepts; the latter is the image of the world here below enveloped by that which is above it; one precedes the other as cause does effect. The first principle has neither attribute nor name; one may not say that it exists, or does not exist, that it is ignorant, or knowing. And thus farther on with all its attributes, for every affirmation regarding it implies a comparison with things that are created, every negation tends to deprive it of an attribute; it is neither eternal nor temporal, but its commandment, its word is that which exists from eternity. The disciple—that is, he who follows—aspires to the height of the one who precedes him, and he who is endowed with the word on earth aspires to be one with him who is master of the word in heaven.

In the ninth degree, which is the last, the teacher restates all that he has taught up to that time, and on seeing that the disciple understands he removes the last veil, and says to him in substance: All that is said of creation and of a beginning, describes in a simile the origin and changes of matter. An apostle delivers to mankind that which heaven has revealed to him. For the sake of justice and order, he adapts his religion to the needs of the race. When this religion is needed for the general welfare it is binding, but the philosopher is not bound to put it into practice. The philosopher is free, is bound to nothing; knowledge for him is sufficient, since it contains the truth, that towards which he is striving. He should know its whole meaning, all that it binds men to execute, but he need not be subject to vexations, which are not intended for sages. Finally it is explained to the disciple that if word endowed apostles have the mission to uphold order among mankind in general, sages are charged to teach wisdom to individuals.

From all that has been preserved by the chroniclers of those days regarding the Assassin kingdom, it is clear that in great part these teachings were borrowed from Greece, Palestine, and Persia.

The Fatimid Kalifs of Egypt had many secret agents in Persia and Syria. The Assassins went to Syria about the same time as the Crusaders. In the first year of the XIIth century Jenah-ed-devlet, then Prince of Emesa, died by their daggers while he was hastening to the castle of the Kurds, Hosn Ak Kurd, which the Count of St. Gilles was besieging. He had been attacked four years earlier in his palace by three Persian Assassins, but had succeeded in saving his life. Risvan, the Prince of Aleppo, was suspected of causing this attack. There was reason to suspect him, since he was a bitter enemy of Jenah-ed-devlet, and a friend of the Assassins.

Risvan had been won to the Order by one of its agents who was very persuasive; an astrologer and a physician, who had the power to attract by methods of his own, which were separate from those of the Order. Four and twenty days after this unsuccessful attempt, the astrologer died, but his place was soon filled by a goldsmith from Persia named Abu Tahir Essaigh, who roused Risvan to still greater activity. This Prince of Aleppo was hostile to every Crusader, and to his own brother, Dokah, the Prince of Damascus. He was anxious for a new influx of Assassins, since their acts favored his policy.

Abul Fettah, the nephew of Hassan Sabah, was at that time Grand Prior in Syria; his chief residence was Sarmin, a fortified place one day’s journey from Aleppo.

Some years later, when the people of Apaméa implored aid of Abu Tahir Essaigh, the goldsmith, now the commandant in Sarmin, against Khalaf, their governor from Egypt, he had Khalaf slain by Assassins under Abul Fettah, and took Apaméa for Risvan, but he could not hold it against Tancred, who seized the place and took Abu Tahir to Antioch where he kept him till ransomed. Abul Fettah expired under torture. Other captives were given to Khalaf’s sons. Tancred took from the Assassins the strong castle of Kefrlana.

Abu Tahir on returning to the Prince of Aleppo used all his influence to kill Abu Harb Issa, a great Khojend merchant, who had come to Aleppo with five hundred camels bearing much merchandise. This man had done what he could to cause harm to the Order. A man named Ahmed, who was secretly an Assassin, had been present in the caravan from the boundary of Khorassan, and was watching to avenge his brother slain by the people of that merchant. On reaching Aleppo he went to Abu Tahir and Risvan, whom he won through accounts of Abu Harb’s immense wealth, and his hatred of the Assassins. On a day, while the merchant was counting his camels, the murderers fell upon him, but his slaves, who were near, showed their courage and slew the attackers before they could injure Abu Harb. The merchant complained to Syrian princes and they reproached Risvan bitterly, but he denied every share in that action. No one believed him, however. Abu Tahir, to save himself from punishment, fled to North Persia and remained there for a season.

Hassan’s policy swept through the country, selecting its victims from the powerful and the rich. In 1113 Mevdud, then Prince of Mosul, fell, stabbed to death while walking with Togteghin of Damascus through the forecourt of the great mosque in that prince’s capital. The Assassin who killed him was decapitated straightway. That same year died Risvan, Prince of Aleppo, who had long protected the murderous Order most carefully, and had used it effectually in extending his own dominions.

Risvan’s son, Akhras, succeeded him. This youth of sixteen was assisted in governing by Lulu, a eunuch. He began rule by condemning to death all people belonging to the Assassin Order. By this sentence more than three hundred men, women and children were slain, and two hundred were thrown into prison. Abul Fettah, a son of Abu Tahir the goldsmith, and his successor as head of the Assassin Order in Syria, met with a death no less terrible than that of his namesake, the nephew of Hassan Ben Sabah. The trunk of his body was hacked into pieces at the gate looking eastward toward Irak, his legs and arms were burned, and his head was borne through Syria as a spectacle. Ismail, a brother of that astrologer who had brought the Order into friendship with Risvan, died with the others. Many Assassins were hurled into the moat from the top of the fortress. Hossam ed din, son of Dimlatsh, a Dayi who had just come from Persia, fled from the rage of the people to Rakka where death found him promptly. Many saved themselves by flight, and were scattered in towns throughout Syria; others, to avoid all suspicion of belonging to the Order, denounced their own brothers, and killed them. The treasures of the Order were searched out and taken. Thus did Akhras, Prince of Aleppo, take vengeance on the Assassins for their evil influence over his father.

Later on the Order avenged this “persecution” in various ways, and most cruelly. In an audience given by the Kalif of Bagdad to Togteghin, the Atabeg of Damascus, three murderers attacked and killed the Emir, Ahmed Bal, then governor of Khorassan, whom they mistook, as it seems, for the Atabeg. The Emir was their enemy, but not the enemy whom they had come to destroy with their daggers,—though of this they were ignorant.

In 1120 Ilghazi received a command from Abu Mohammed, the chief of the Assassins in Aleppo, to surrender the castle of Sherif. Ilghazi, who feared the Order, feigned to yield up the castle, but ere the envoy could return with this answer the people had pulled down the walls, filled the moats, and joined the castle to Aleppo. Khashab, who had thought out this exploit and saved a fortress from the Assassins, paid with his life for the service. Bedü the governor of Aleppo became their victim, as did also one of his sons. His other sons cut down the murderers, but a third slayer sprang forward and gave one of them, wounded already, his death blow. When seized and taken to Togteghin the surviving Assassin was punished with simple imprisonment, for Togteghin did not dare to mete out justice.

A few years later Nur ed din, the famous Prince of Damascus, received from the Assassins a command to surrender the castle of Beitlala. He yielded apparently and then roused up the people in secret to prevent the Order from gaining the fortress. They did this by destroying it hastily. So greatly did the princes fear the Assassins that they dared not refuse to obey their commands; they would promise obedience, and then rouse the people to pull down their own strongholds.

Governors of provinces both in Persia and Syria were the chief agents in keeping peace and good order, hence were opposed to the Assassins, and were exposed to their daggers more than all other men.

In Persia as in Syria the Assassins murdered many of the most distinguished men, men whom the Order feared or whom they removed to win favor or money. Sindjar, Sultan of the Seljuks, sent troops to retake Kuhistan castles which the Ismailians had seized. Hassan Sabah sought peace more than once with this Sultan through envoys. When all efforts proved futile, he won over officers of Sindjar’s own household who spoke in his favor, and even prevailed on a servant of that prince to thrust a dagger into the floor before his bedside while he was sleeping. When Sindjar woke and saw the dire weapon he resolved to say nothing, but soon he received from Hassan Sabah a note with the following contents: “Were I not well inclined toward Sindjar, the man who planted that dagger in the floor would have fixed it in the Sultan’s bosom. Let him know that I, from this rock, guide the hands of the men who surround him.”

This letter made such an impression on Sindjar that he ceased to disturb Ismailians. His reign thereafter was the period of their greatest prosperity.

Hassan Ben Sabah died thirty-four years after his entrance into Alamut, and during that time he never came down from the castle, nay more, he never left, except twice, his own dwelling. He passed his life studying and writing on the dogmas of his system, and in governing that murderous Commonwealth which began in his brain, and was of his own invention.

He showed the truth of his doctrine by concise, captious arguments. “As to the knowledge of God,” said he, “one of two courses must be followed: Claim to know God by the sole light of reason, or admit that one cannot know him by reason, but that men need instructors. Now he who rejects the first statement may not reject another man’s reason without admitting thereby the necessity of guidance.” Hassan combated in this way the claims of Greek sages. “The need of a guide being admitted we must know if every teacher is good, or if we must have infallible instruction. Now he who maintains that every teacher is good may not reject his opponent’s instructor without acknowledging the need of a teacher deserving the obedience and confidence of all men. It is shown,” added he, “that mankind has need of a true and infallible teacher. This teacher must be known so that men may accept his instruction with safety. He must have been designated and chosen; he must be installed; his truth must be proven. It would be folly to go on a journey without a skilled guide and director. This guide must be found before starting on the journey.

“Variety of opinion is a real proof of error, accord in opinion shows truth, and unity is the sign of it. Diversity is a clear sign of error; unity comes from teaching obedience, diversity from freedom of thought; unity indicates submission to an Imam, freedom of thought goes with schism, and many leaders.”

Apparently austere in his morals and respecting the Koran, Hassan Sabah forced all his subjects to live just as he did. The sternness of his methods may be known from these examples. He had one son clubbed to death for mere suspicion of being connected with the slaying of the Kuhistan governor without orders; the other for wine drinking and dissolute conduct. In the execution of his elder son he gave to his subjects an example of the penalty paid for interfering with the prerogative of the Grand Prior. The execution of the younger showed them the result of disobedience to principles—the principles ruling at Alamut.

Just before his death in 1124 Hassan Sabah made his old comrade Kia Busurgomid his successor. Under this second chief murder increased very greatly; not merely enemies of the sect fell now by the dagger, but any prince or man who had an enemy could hire one of the Order to murder him. Rather than expose themselves to death, sovereigns and men of authority lived in apparent accord with the Assassins and obtained from the chief as a price of good-will a number of his devotees as aids in carrying out their own evil schemes for aggrandizement. Those men slew all pointed out to them, frequently, however, whole populations were punished for these crimes of their co-religionists. Kia Busurgomid was a man of great activity who followed the methods of Hassan, destroying the most illustrious leaders of the enemy.

Mahmud, the successor of Sindjar, at first met the Assassins with their own tactics of murder and deceit; but, for an unknown reason, after being in open war with Kia Busurgomid for some time, he asked that an envoy be sent to discuss terms of peace. The envoy from the Assassins was received courteously by the Sultan, but upon leaving the presence of Mahmud he was seized and murdered by the enraged populace. The Sultan sent an envoy to Alamut immediately to assure Kia Busurgomid that this unfortunate incident was due wholly to the hostility of the citizens, and that he himself was in no way to blame.

Kia Busurgomid replied that he had believed in the assurances of safety which the Sultan had given. If the Sultan would deliver the murderers of the man to the Assassins there would be no difficulty, otherwise he would take revenge for the death of his envoy. Mahmud fearing the rage of the people gave no reply, and was shortly after attacked by a large number of Assassins who killed four hundred men and carried off many horses and camels.

In 1129 the Sultan got possession of the Alamut fortress, but was soon forced to relinquish it. Not long after Mahmud died, probably by poison administered by a member of the Order.

In Risvan’s time, as already stated, the Assassins enjoyed immense influence at Aleppo, but under his son they were hunted down and slaughtered. A somewhat similar fate struck them in Damascus where during Busi’s time, Behram, an Assassin from Astrabad, won over to his side the vizir who gave him in 1128 the castle of Banias, which immediately became the center of influence in Syria, and so remained until twelve years later when the Assassins made Massiat their capital. On gaining a firm foothold in Syria by possession of Banias, the Assassins flocked to their new capital from all sides. No prince now had courage to give any man protection against them. But the career of Behram the shrewd Assassin was of short duration.

Dohak, the chief man in Taim, a part of the district of Baalbek, determined to avenge the death of his brother who had been murdered at command of Behram, hence he summoned the warriors of Taim with assistance from Damascus and places around it. Behram planned to surprise Dohak and his army and crush them, but he fell into their power unwarily, and they killed him. His head and hands were taken to Egypt, where the Kalif had them borne in triumph to Cairo, and gave a rich gold embroidered robe to the man who brought them. Those Assassins who escaped fled from Taim to Banias, where before the expedition Behram had given chief command to Ismail, an Assassin from Persia.

Tahir, the vizir, was as ready to negotiate with Ismail as he had been with Behram. Ismail had as aid Abul Wefa, a man without faith or principle, but adroit and successful. The Crusaders, whose power was then rising in Syria, seemed to Abul Wefa the best allies possible for Assassins. Enemies of Mohammedanism, they were friends to its opponents. Attacked from without by Crusaders and corrupted from within by Ismailian teachings, Abbasid Mohammedanism seemed nearing its downfall. Abul Wefa now made a treaty with the King of Jerusalem, through which he engaged to give him Damascus on a certain Friday. While Busi, the Emir, and his great men, were assembled in the mosque at devotion all approaches were to be opened to the king and his forces. In return for this service the king was to give Abul Wefa the city of Tyre on the seacoast. The Templars’ earliest Grand Master, Hugo De Payens, appears as main agent, it is stated, in urging the king to this arrangement.

During a decade of years after its organization, the Order of Templars remained in obscurity, observing vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and performing the labor of protecting all pilgrims. It was, however, merely a private society at that time without distinguishing habit or statutes. Rules given by St. Bernard and confirmed by the Pope raised it to be a great Order created to defend the Holy Sepulchre and pilgrims.

During this year, 1129, Hugo arrived in Jerusalem with a numerous escort of pilgrims and knights, who through his influence had taken the cross and raised arms in defence of Christ’s sepulchre.

The winning of Damascus was now decided upon, but marvelous events happened meanwhile to prevent the carrying out of this plan. Tahir Ben Saad, the vizir, who, as we have seen, exercised supreme power at direction of Tajul Muluk Busi, Prince of Damascus had arranged with Abul Wefa, the surrender of Damascus in secret. Tajul Muluk Busi, discovering the treachery of his vizir and the plot of the Assassins to get possession of Damascus, had Tahir Ben Saad put to death immediately, and then commanded a slaughter of all the Assassins in the city. It is stated that “six thousand fell by the sword which thus avenged many victims of the dagger.”

While this was taking place a strong Christian army was rapidly approaching Damascus to take possession of the city. Of this army a large number, while marching, went with knights to plunder villages and obtain provisions, permitting, as was customary, a considerable force of pilgrims to accompany them. They advanced without order and were in great part cut down by a picked corps of warriors from Damascus. On hearing of this disaster the rest of the Christian army hurried forward to attack those men of Damascus. While they were thus hastening dreadful darkness appeared on a sudden, darkness broken only by flashes of lightning; then came a tempest with the roaring of thunder and a downrush of rain which overspread everything. When the roads were all flooded and the whole country covered with water, a great cold set in quickly; frost of amazing severity turned flood and rain into ice and snowflakes. When light came again it disclosed winter scenery. The disaster, storm, change and frost were considered by the Christians as manifestations of Heaven’s terrible anger because of their great sin in making a compact with murderers.

The only advantage obtained from this league with criminals was the restoration of the castle of Banias. Ismail remembering the fate of Damascus Assassins restored Banias, but three years later, in 1132, he retook it, and the Christians in the end gained nothing whatever.

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