The Rise and Fall of the Assassins

When one thinks of the word assassin, the image that comes to mind is a man hidden from view, lying in wait with his sniper rifle ready to kill a renowned personality in return for a briefcase full of dollars. Assassinations have been used to further various political and personal agendas throughout history. Some have caused wars while others may have led to peace.

The first of the assassins were ruthless killers who would kill high profile people in the middle ages as acts of revenge. However they were different from their modern day counterparts in that their motivation was not monetary gain and more importantly they did not hide when striking a target. Their main aim was to strike fear and terror into the hearts of their opponents. The assassins were part of a secretive sect which based itself in mountain fortresses in the Middle East. The fortresses were small but the community was very united who trusted their martial reputation to survive in hostile territories.

In the beginning…

An element of mystery shrouds the cult of Assassins much on the lines of Christian orders of Knights Templar or the Hospitallers. The story of the assassins start from a man called Hasan Ibn Sabah. Hasan Ibn Sabah was born in Qom in modern day Iran into a Shiite Muslim family. His family traced its ancestry to a Yemeni Arab tribe who had settled in Qom which is a seat of learning for Shiite Muslims with its numerous seminaries and educational institutions. Hasan Ibn Sabah was educated in accordance with the prevailing tradition of the day which included theology, mathematics, philosophy and astronomy among others. As he grew older he came in frequent contact with Ismaili missionaries who were very active in Persia at the time. The Ismaili missionaries were different from the twelver Shiites in that they had accepted the hereditary Fatimid ruler of Cairo as their Imam and ruler. The Fatimid ruler traced his lineage to the Islamic Prophet Mohammad and according to Shiite beliefs were the rightful ruler of all Muslims.  Hasan impressed with their teachings converted to Ismaili Islam and left for Cairo to train as a full time missionary. During this time he became close to the caliph however earned his ire when he expressed support for the Caliph’s elder son Nizar to be the successor. The caliph himself wanted his younger son Mustaali to be the next caliph which was a break with established norms and tradition where the eldest son was the heir of the imamate. Hasan was deported on the caliph’s orders and arrived back in Persia and resumed his missionary activities in the earnest. Persia at the time was part of the great Seljuk Empire which was a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkish origins. The empire at the time was at its zenith and was ruled by Malik Shah whose empire bordered China in the east to Europe in the west.

Malik Shah’s grand vizier was a man named Nizam ul Mulk, a very capable administrator who had a major role in managing the affairs of the great empire. Nizam ul Mulk was informed of Hasan’s missionary activities and ordered his arrest fearing political consequences of his preaching. Hasan however managed to escape into the Alborz Mountains which was inhabited by people who in addition to having sympathy for the Shiite branch of Islam were also fiercely independent in nature and difficult to rule. Having avoided capture Hasan moved further into a mountain valley where he was ultimately able to base himself in an impregnable fortress. This fortress was called Alamut. Hasan never left the fortress again in his lifetime and led a life of solitude and missionary activities. After the death of Fatimid caliph Nizar the elder son was put imprisoned and Mustaali assumed the caliphate. Hasan was of the view that Nizar being the rightful heir should be the new caliph. Nizar later died in prison and Ismaili community split into two factions. Hasan became the leader of Nizari Ismaili community. His aim was clear and that was to unite all Islamic lands under the rightful heirs of the Prophet of Islam. His stance was radical even for the twelver Shiite community and it was only a matter of time before the other Islamic empires surrounding his enclave became sworn enemies of Hasan and his band of “heretics”.

Hasan understood that if his community was to survive he had to make his fortress impregnable and train his people in defending their enclave with a fervent devotion. The Alamaut valley with its deep gorges and inaccessibility provided just the right geographical leverage to achieve that. Hasan also trained an elite group of fighters to carry out political assassinations that would benefit his community and protect them from persecution. These fighters ultimately came to be known as assassins. From their mountain top bastion, Alamaut, the assassins held out against all invaders from 1092 to 1257.

The first strike and the modus operandi of the assassins

In 1092 the assassins made their first kill. Nizam ul Mulk, the powerful vizier of Malik Shah, was stabbed to death by an assassin disguised as a dervish, while being carried in a litter in Baghdad. The surprising aspect of the attack was that the assassin carried out the deed in public and did not try to escape after the murder. He was quickly cut down by the guards of Nizam ul Mulk who faced no resistance from the attacker. Some have argued that this may have been the first instance of a suicide attack with the aim of striking terror into the hearts of the opponents. Thereafter this became the selected method of all assassin attacks. The assassin would attack his target in a public place while taking utmost care to kill no civilians. After the deed he would surrender himself to the striking swords and lances that would quickly bring about his end. This was such an odd practice for mainstream Muslims that they believed that it was not possible for somebody mounting a suicide attack to be of a sane disposition. Therefore they called these audacious killers Hashasheen…or those intoxicated by hashish. The word Hashasheen became anglicized to the word Assassin.

Another legend about how the assassins got their names is that Hasan Ibn Sabah would intoxicate the trained assassins and then take him to a garden where he was offered food, wine and female company as a taste of the paradise that awaited him after death should he go through with the assassination.

The strategy of the assassins was to kill important people who had wronged them or had attempted to massacre their tiny community. They did not have numbers to wage long wars with hostile powers so they had to terrorize their opponents with threat of violent deaths. They cultivated this image meticulously and the secretive nature of their communities naturally added to the mystique. It appears that many of the killings associated to the assassins in the Seljuk Empire may have actually had different perpetrators who conveniently associated their own politically motivated killings to the assassins.

Other Assassin Strongholds

In addition to having a stronghold in Alborz Mountains, the assassins also had a presence in Syria where they had managed to capture a few castles in Nussayriya Mountains in the 12^th century. Here they were also successful in securing themselves from hostile forces surrounding them. Their reputation as ruthless killers meant that they were hired by crusaders as well as Islamic armies as mercenaries to augment their armies as needed. This group of assassins was ruled by Rashiduddin Sinan more commonly known as Sheikh al Jabal or the old man of the mountains. He was able to rule largely autonomously from the Alamaut stronghold due to geographic distance between the two fortresses. This group of assassins made two attempts on the life of Saladin the king of Egypt and Syria who was at war with Kingdom of Jerusalem during the crusades. The second attempt was of such daring that the assassin was able to penetrate the dagger past Saladin’s battle helmet injuring him slightly before the Sultan was able to subdue and kill the attacker. This led to Saladin mounting a campaign against the assassin strongholds but was unable to capture any of the castles. Ultimately he made piece with Sinan who thereafter supported Saladin in some of his military campaigns.

The end of the assassin power

The assassins used their survival instincts and reputation of seeking terrible revenge survived for over 170 years in their mountain fortresses. Their enclaves seemed insulated against the events that surrounded them. The dissolution of Seljuk and Fatimid Empire and the first and the second crusade did not seem to affect their insulated world. They were skillful in allying themselves with powerful kingdoms surrounding them. However another threat from the east broke their back. The Mongol armies attacked a number of assassin stronghold following which assassins were dispatched to kill Mongke Khan. The attack failed and increased the hostility between the two parties. The last Imam ruling Alamaut joined hand with the Abbasid caliph in seeking European help to resist the bloodthirsty Mongols who were routing all kingdoms in their way as they expanded westwards. The help never came and the Imam of assassins decided to submit to the great Khan of the Mongols in return for peace for his community.

The Mongols after capturing and dismantling Alamaut and its surrounding fortresses broke their promise and massacred the small community by the thousands including their Imam who was killed returning from a journey to pay homage to the great Khan in Mongolia. The assassins lost their main bastion Alamaut in 1256 at the hands of Helagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan.

The community in Syria survived a few more years until Baibars I, the legendary Mamluk king who is well known for handing crushing defeats to the armies of the seventh crusade and to the Mongols, finally routed the assassin fortresses in Syria. This defeat in 1273 effectively decimated any residual political power that the assassins wielded and spelled the end of the cult of assassins.

Aftermath:

The assassins and the Nizari Ismaili community was routed from their seats of power and dispersed over a large area in the Middle East. For many years they practiced Taqqiya or hiding their faith and practices from the mainstream Muslims to avoid persecution while waiting for their imams to rouse them and to form a righteous caliphate in the Islamic lands. The history of assassins is poorly documented as Helagu Khan ordered the library in Alamaut to be burned to the ground destroying much of the documentary evidence of the order.

The Nizari Ismaili Shiite community today is led by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV who resides primarily in Switzerland in a chateau named Aiglemont in reference to the time his ancestors spent in Alamaut. His grandfather Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan III was one of the founding fathers of Pakistan and the president of league of nation from 1937-1938.

The Ismaili Diaspora today exists in many countries but is more concentrated in Pakistan, India, Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom. The violence associated with the assassins is now a thing of the past as the community today is peace- loving and progressive. The castle of Alamaut which the Mongols destroyed today lies in ruins however remains a UNESCO world heritage site.

Further Reading:

The Assassins: A Radical Sect of Islam by Bernad Lewis

World enough and time: Memoirs of Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan III by Aga Khan III

The Assassin Legends: The myths of the Ismailis by Farhad Daftary

Masyaf Fortress...assassin stronghold in Syria

Guard tower of Alamaut castle

Alamaut castle today

Aga Khan IV and his family