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.