HOW THE OLD MAN USED TO TRAIN HIS ASSASSINS.
When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so charming,
they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the ladies and
damsels dallied with them to their hearts’ content, so that they had
what young men would have; and with their own good will they never
would have quitted the place.
Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his Court in grand and
noble style, and made those simple hill-folks about him believe firmly
that he was a great Prophet. And when he wanted one of his _Ashishin_
to send on any mission, he would cause that potion whereof I spoke to
be given to one of the youths in the garden, and then had him carried
into his Palace. So when the young man awoke, he found himself in the
Castle, and no longer in that Paradise; whereat he was not over well
pleased. He was then conducted to the Old Man’s presence, and bowed
before him with great veneration as believing himself to be in the
presence of a true Prophet. The Prince would then ask whence he came,
and he would reply that he came from Paradise! and that it was exactly
such as Mahommet had described it in the Law. This of course gave the
others who stood by, and who had not been admitted, the greatest desire
to enter therein.
So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he would say to such a
youth: “Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest my Angels
shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so
will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise.” So he caused
them to believe; and thus there was no order of his that they would
not affront any peril to execute, for the great desire they had to get
back into that Paradise of his. And in this manner the Old One got his
people to murder any one whom he desired to get rid of. Thus, too,
the great dread that he inspired all Princes withal, made them become
his tributaries in order that he might abide at peace and amity with
them.{1}
I should also tell you that the Old Man had certain others under him,
who copied his proceedings and acted exactly in the same manner. One
of these was sent into the territory of Damascus, and the other into
Curdistan.{2}
NOTE 1.—Romantic as this story is, it seems to be precisely the
same that was current over all the East. It is given by Odoric at
length, more briefly by a Chinese author, and again from an Arabic
source by Hammer in the _Mines de l’Orient_.
The following is the Chinese account as rendered by Rémusat: “The
soldiers of this country (Mulahi) are veritable brigands. When
they see a lusty youth, they tempt him with the hope of gain, and
bring him to such a point that he will be ready to kill his father
or his elder brother with his own hand. After he is enlisted,
they intoxicate him, and carry him in that state into a secluded
retreat, where he is charmed with delicious music and beautiful
women. All his desires are satisfied for several days, and then
(in sleep) he is transported back to his original position. When
he awakes, they ask what he has seen. He is then informed that
if he will become an Assassin, he will be rewarded with the same
felicity. And with the texts and prayers that they teach him they
heat him to such a pitch that whatever commission be given him he
will brave death without regret in order to execute it.”
The Arabic narrative is too long to extract. It is from a kind
of historical romance called _The Memoirs of Hakim_, the date of
which Hammer unfortunately omits to give. Its close coincidence in
substance with Polo’s story is quite remarkable. After a detailed
description of the Paradise, and the transfer into it of the
aspirant under the influence of _bang_, on his awaking and seeing
his chief enter, he says, “O chief! am I awake or am I dreaming?”
To which the chief: “O such an One, take heed that thou tell not
the dream to any stranger. Know that Ali thy Lord hath vouchsafed
to show thee the place destined for thee in Paradise.... Hesitate
not a moment therefore in the service of the Imam who thus deigns
to intimate his contentment with thee,” and so on.
William de Nangis thus speaks of the Syrian Shaikh, who alone was
known to the Crusaders, though one of their historians (_Jacques
de Vitry_, in _Bongars_, I. 1062) shows knowledge that the
headquarters of the sect was in Persia: “He was much dreaded far
and near, by both Saracens and Christians, because he so often
caused princes of both classes indifferently to be murdered by his
emissaries. For he used to bring up in his palace youths belonging
to his territory, and had them taught a variety of languages, and
above all things to fear their Lord and obey him unto death, which
would thus become to them an entrance into the joys of Paradise.
And whosoever of them thus perished in carrying out his Lord’s
behests was worshipped as an angel.” As an instance of the implicit
obedience rendered by the _Fidáwí_ or devoted disciples of the
Shaikh, Fra Pipino and Marino Sanuto relate that when Henry Count
of Champagne (titular King of Jerusalem) was on a visit to the Old
Man of Syria, one day as they walked together they saw some lads
in white sitting on the top of a high tower. The Shaikh, turning
to the Count, asked if he had any subjects as obedient as his own?
and without giving time for reply made a sign to two of the boys,
who immediately leapt from the tower, and were killed on the spot.
The same story is told in the _Cento Novelle Antiche_, as happening
when the Emperor Frederic was on a visit (imaginary) to the Veglio.
And it is introduced likewise as an incident in the Romance of
Bauduin de Sebourc:
“Vollés veioir merveilles? dist li Rois Seignouris”
to Bauduin and his friends, and on their assenting he makes the
signal to one of his men on the battlements, and in a twinkling
“Quant le vinrent en l’air salant de tel avis,
Et aussi liément, et aussi esjois,
Qu’il deust conquester mil livres de parisis!
Ains qu’il venist a tière il fut mors et fenis,
Sur les roches agues desrompis corps et pis,”[1] etc.
(_Cathay_, 153; _Rémusat, Nouv. Mél._ I. 178; _Mines de l’Orient_,
III. 201 _seqq._; _Nangis_ in _Duchesne_, V. 332; _Pipino_ in
_Muratori_, IX. 705; _Defrémery_ in _J. As._ sér. V. tom. v. 34
_seqq._; _Cent. Nov. Antiche_, Firenze, 1572, p. 91; _Bauduin de
Sebourc_, I. 359.)
The following are some of the more notable murders or attempts at
murder ascribed to the Ismailite emissaries either from Syria or
from Persia:—
A.D. 1092. Nizum-ul-Mulk, formerly the powerful minister of Malik
Shah, Seljukian sovereign of Persia, and a little later his two
sons. 1102. The Prince of Homs, in the chief Mosque of that city.
1113. Maudúd, Prince of Mosul, in the chief Mosque of Damascus.
About 1114. Abul Muzafar ’Ali, Wazir of Sanjár Shah, and Chakar
Beg, grand-uncle of the latter. 1116. Ahmed Yel, Prince of Maragha,
at Baghdad, in the presence of Mahomed, Sultan of Persia. 1121.
The Amir Afdhal, the powerful Wazir of Egypt, at Cairo. 1126.
Kasim Aksonkor, Prince of Mosul and Aleppo, in the Great Mosque at
Mosul. 1127. Moyin-uddin, Wazir of Sanjár Shah of Persia. 1129.
Amír Billah, Khalif of Egypt. 1131. Taj-ul Mulúk Buri, Prince of
Damascus. 1134. Shams-ul-Mulúk, son of the preceding. 1135–38.
The Khalif Mostarshid, the Khalif Rashíd, and Daùd, Seljukian
Prince of Azerbaijan. 1149. Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191. Kizil
Arzlan, Prince of Azerbaijan. 1192. Conrad of Montferrat, titular
King of Jerusalem; a murder which King Richard has been accused of
instigating. 1217. Oghulmish, Prince of Hamadán.
And in 1174 and 1176 attempts to murder the great Saladin. 1271.
Attempt to murder Ala’uddin Juwaini, Governor of Baghdad, and
historian of the Mongols. 1272. The attempt to murder Prince Edward
of England at Acre.
In latter years the _Fidáwí_ or Ismailite adepts appear to have
let out their services simply as hired assassins. Bibars, in a
letter to his court at Cairo, boasts of using them when needful. A
Mahomedan author ascribes to Bibars the instigation of the attempt
on Prince Edward. (_Makrizi_, II. 100; _J. As._ XI. 150.)
NOTE 2.—Hammer mentions as what he chooses to call “Grand Priors”
under the Shaikh or “Grand Master” at Alamút, the chief, in Syria,
one in the Kuhistan of E. Persia (Tun-o-Kaïn), one in Kumis (the
country about Damghan and Bostam), and one in ’Irák; he does not
speak of any in Kurdistan. Colonel Monteith, however, says,
though without stating authority or particulars, “There were
several divisions of them (the Assassins) scattered throughout
Syria, _Kurdistan_ (near the Lake of Wan), and Asia Minor, but
all acknowledging as Imaum or High Priest the Chief residing at
Alamut.” And it may be noted that Odoric, a generation after Polo,
puts the Old Man at _Millescorte_, which looks like _Malasgird_,
north of Lake Van. (_H. des Assass._ p. 104; _J. R. G. S._ III. 16;
_Cathay_, p. ccxliii.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] This story has been transferred to Peter the Great, who is alleged
to have exhibited the docility of his subjects in the same way to
the King of Denmark, by ordering a Cossack to jump from the Round
Tower at Copenhagen, on the summit of which they were standing.