The Assassins
The Three SchoolfellowsThe Seljuqs first appeared at the beginning of the 11th century when they entered the service of Mahmud of Ghazni. They consisted of 24 Turkish tribes known as the Oghuz, or the Ghuzz, that originally came from Western Siberia. Before converting to Islam, when they settled in the area of modern day Kazakhstan, they worshipped the elements.
After the death of Mahmud of Ghazni the Seljuqs set out on their own and when their former employer’s son tried to get them to fall back into line they crushed him and the Ghaznavid Empire forever.
In 1034 Hasan bin Sabbah was born at Qumm, 240 km south of modern-day Iranian capital Tehran. His father, Hasan bin Aly bin Mohammed bin Ja-far bin Husayn bin Sabbah al-Hamari, was an immigrant from Yemen and a prominent leader of the Ashari (1) faith. He began home-schooling Hasan when he was seven and continued doing so for ten years. The boy excelled in mathematics, philosophy and language.
In 1038 the Seljuqs conquered all of northeast Persia and their leader and founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Toghril Beg, proclaimed himself Sultan at Nishapur. For the next half a century they conquered Baghdad, Syria, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor and the coast of Arabia. They reduced Georgia to tributary status creating an empire the size of which the Islamic world had not known since the heyday of the Ummayads.
The Seljuqs utilized archery to destroy the enemy followed by close combat once the enemy were sufficiently disordered and disheartened. Toghril Beg made Esfahan the capital of his domains.
About a decade after the great Avicenna had died, and one year after the first apperance of Upir (2) in written form, Omar Khayyam (3) was born in Nishapur, Persia on the 18th of May 1048. In his most famous poetic verse, translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859, he plays on the meaning of his own name:
Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,At the time of Omar Khayyam’s youth Persia was in a difficult and unstable military state with severe religious problems due to attempts to establish an orthodox Muslim state. It was not an empire in which those of learning, even those as learned as Khayyam, found life easy unless they had the support of a ruler at one of the many courts.
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned,
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!
It was according to Persian legend, when Hasan bin Sabbah went to law school, that he is said to have met the great poet and astrologer to be Omar Khayyam and his future enemy Nizam-al-Mulk. The three schoolfellows made a pact that whoever attained any fame, fortune or political importance first would aid the other two. (4)
Whether the legend of the pact is true or not one thing is certain; Nizam-al-Mulk was the first to reach a position in life that could be deemed fortunate when he became the vizier (5) of Sultan Arp Arslan (6) after the death of the Seljuq Sultan Toghril Beg in 1063.
Events at the Sultan’s Court
Nizam-al-Mulk, destined to become one of the most eminent statesmen in early Muslim history, was responsible for two institutions that led to a massive decentralisation of power, which helped and prolonged the factional fighting which dominated the Seljuqs period of supremacy.
One of these institutions were the offices of Atabeg, military advisers to young princes who often ended up taking over the power entrusted to them. The other was the right of Iqta, which is basically an Islamic form of feudalism based on giving state land to military commanders in return for military service. This led to the development of large hereditary estates.
Hasan bin Sabbah was now an intelligent and industrious man. He was offered an Islamic province to govern but believing he was destined for greater things he declined. In his mind he wanted a post in the Sultan’s court, perhaps even the position of vizier. This of course worried Nizam-al-Mulk who began to spread slandering gossip in the Sultans ear to such a degree that the he ordered Hasan to be arrested. But due to his charm the Sultan did not execute him and Hasan was allowed to flee to the town Rayy (where he had spent his childhood).
Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra
In 1070 Omar Khayyam moved to one of Central Asia’s oldest cities Samarkand in Uzbekistan. It was here he wrote his most famous work on algebra, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, displaying his outstanding mathematical skills. It fused algebraic and geometric methods, discussing the solution of cubic equations by geometric means and anticipating analytical geometry. Though it is unlikely Descartes knew of Omar Khayyam’s work he nevertheless picked up the thread 500 years later.
In the introduction Khayyam described the difficulties for men of learning in the times he was living, when any patronage would not provide too much stability, since local politics and the fortunes of the local military decided who at any one time held power.
”I was unable to devote myself to the learning of this algebra and the continued concentration upon it, because of obstacles in the vagaries of time which hindered me; for we have been deprived of all the people of knowledge save for a group, small in number, with many troubles, whose concern in life is to snatch the opportunity, when time is asleep, to devote themselves meanwhile to the investigation and perfection of a science; for the majority of people who imitate philosophers confuse the true with the false, and they do nothing but deceive and pretend knowledge, and they do not use what they know of the sciences except for base and material purposes; and if they see a certain person seeking for the right and preferring the truth, doing his best to refute the false and untrue and leaving aside hypocrisy and deceit, they make a fool of him and mock him.”
The Conversion of Hasan bin Sabbah
In around 1071 Hasan bin Sabbah converted to the Ismaili sect even though he was hesitant at first because they were considered to be heretics and outcasts. But he was drawn to them because of their intellectual force and religious passion and, after suffering a serious illness, he swore allegience to Fatimid Caliph in 1072 afraid that he would die before learning the True Path to Islam.
The Fatimid leader defined himself not only as caliph, leader of the Muslim world, but as mahdi, the promised leader of the Muslim world. According to old ideas of the caliph, the Fatimid caliphs saw themselves as infallible and sinless, and divinely chosen perpetuators of the true form of Islam.
The ultimate goal of the Fatimids was to replace the Abbasid (7) caliphate of Baghdad with their own, thereby correcting what they considered to have been a grave error back in the 7th century, when the initial schism between Sunni and Shiites had occurred.
The Observatory
Malik-Shah and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk sent an invitation to Omar Khayyam asking him to come to Esfahan for the purpose to set up an observatory with other leading astronomers. Khayyam accepted and found himself in an 18 year long period of peace in which he produced work of exceptional quality together with the other scientists. One thing he did was compiling astronomical tables and contributing to the 1079 calendar reform. He measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days. Which is outstandingly accurate. For comparison the length of the year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, while today it is 365.242190 days.
The Adventures of Hasan bin Sabbah
Hasan bin Sabbah began preaching and spreading the new faith he had accepted and this resulted in his ousting from Rayy in 1074. He headed for Cairo which was a city built by the Ismaili to serve as their capital and this journey took him several years and it wasn’t until 1078-9 that he finally reached it.
But Hasan soon found himself in prison due to his revolutionary temperament. As soon as he entered the prison at Dumyat a minaret collapsed and this was interpreted as a holy omen and Hasan was believed to be a divinely protected person. The Caliph released and granted him many valuable gifts, which he would use to set up his paradise. Then he was ordered to leave Egypt, exiled once again. Hasan burst out:
“If I had two, just two, devotees who would stand by me, then I could cause the downfall of that Turk and that peasant!”He was of course speaking of Sultan Malik-Shah and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk.
Hasan boarded a ship sailing from Alexandria. During the journey a violent storm caught the ship and everyone including the captain fell to their knees and began praying thinking they would soon die. Everyone except Hasan who stood calmly on deck. He proclaimed:
“The storm is my doing: how can I pray that it abate? I have indicated the pleasure of the Almighty. If we sink I shall not die, for I am immortal. If you want to be saved believe in me, and I shall subdue the winds.”No one believed him until the ship seemed to capsize and a couple of desperate passengers came to him and swore eternal allegiance. Eventually the storm went away and Hasan took full credit for saving the ship and everyone on board from certain death.
When the ship reached the coast of Syria Hasan bin Sabbah disembarked with two of the passengers that would become his first disciples, fulfilling his prophetic words he had spoken to the Caliph. This was the beginning of his career as a wandering missionary, or dais, recruiting and converting people to his cause. Once he got a new disciple he used that disciple to create more disciples just like the pyramid schemes, or cell systems, of modern society. His circle of followers widened like ripples on water and his army of self-sacrificers, Fida’is, was formed from his most loyal and promising followers
Alamut
Hasan bin Sabbah needed a fortress, a kind of headquarters, were he could set up his paradise. Hussein Kahini, one of his lieutenants, found a castle suitable for the purpose. It was located north of modern-day Tehran on the south side of the Alborz mountain range halfway between Teheran and the Caspian Sea. Close to important cities like Rayy and Kazwin, yet lying in the remote and forbidding mountains.
The fortress of Alamut, built in 861, was how it was known an it was under the governance of Ali Mahdi. There are two stories that tell how he retrieved the fortress. In one he Hasan asks Ali Mahdi to be granted all the land that can be covered with the hide of an ox. He then cut the skin up in thin strips and encircled the castle thus gaining it. In the other, and more probable tale, Hasan sent some of his preachers into the castle and converted some of its inhabitants. Then more of his men infiltrated the castle in disguise. Before Ali Mahdi had realised what was going on he was besieged and had to surrender. Hasan paid him 3000 gold dinars and in the year 1090 at the age of 56 he had his fortress secured.
In a flourishing valley below Alamut, also known as Eagles Nest, Hasan bin Sabbah created a ‘Garden of Paradise’. It was perfectly placed in a well-guarded ravine surrounded by a landscape of craggy rocks. Marco Polo wrote the following account in his book Travels in Asia:
”The Old Man of the Mountain dwelled in a most noble valley shut in between two very high mountains where he had made the largest garden and the most beautiful that was ever seen in this world. There were set to dwell ladies and damsels the most beautiful. Their duty was to furnish the young men who were put there with all delights and pleasures. And into this garden entered no man except only those base men of evil life whom he wished to make satellites and Assassins.”The word assassin is believed to be derived from the word hashassin, or hashish eaters. (8)
It is said Hasan gave young converts a drink spiked with hashish and they slept for three days. During their unconsciousness they were carried into the gardens. When they awoke they saw a beautiful paradise of running brooks, exotic plants and animals and shapely houris (dancing girls). Everywhere there was palaces and pavilions and wine, milk and honey flowed. And the maidens would perform their every desire. After a few days of this they were drugged and removed from this paradise. They also used Opium, poppy.
Now he began to attack the Turks and because the locals hated them he had no problem recruiting more soldiers for his cause. Fortress after fortress and village after village was conquered through any tactics necessary, like infiltration, bribery, poisoning, stabbing, direct assaults and raids. Dressed in white tunics and red sashes and armed with poison and daggers of solid gold they began to spread their terror.
The Assassinations of Malek Shah and Nizam-al-Mulk
After administering the affairs of Malek Shah for some thirty years Nizam-al-Mulk was overthrown at the instigation of Toorkan Khatun. Nizam-Al-Mulk was impeached after he had rashly declared that his cap and inkhorn, the badges of his office, were connected by divine decree with the throne and diadem of the Sultan.
At the age of ninety-three, Nizam-al-Mulk was thus dismissed from office. He travelled to Baghdad from Esfahan in November of 1092 were he met one of Hasan bin Sabbah’s adepts, Bu Tahir Arrani, in disguise as a Sufi holy man. He was allowed to approach the ex-vizier who was then stabbed to death becoming the first man to be killed by the Assassins. (9)
“The killing of this devil is the beginning of bliss,” Hasan said after the deed had been done relishing the fact that his greatest enemy was dead, but it would not be the end of the killing. Merely the beginning.
Emperor Malik-Shah died soon after of suspected poisoning having sent troops after Hasan. Then one of Nizam-al-Mulk’s sons Fakhri came across a beggar who said:
“The true Muslims are no more and there are none left to take the hand of the afflicted.”As soon as Fakhri took the beggars hand he received a dagger through the heart. His brother Ahmed was also attacked and stabbed but managed to survive. Many rival religious leaders were attacked and other political enemies assassinated. But not every attack was a certain victory.
The First Crusade
The First Crusade was called for by Pope Urban II in1095 in order to recover the Holy Land from its Islamic rulers. During a mass meeting in Clermont (south-central France) on the 27th of November 1095 Pope Urban II enthused the crowd with these words, reported by the attending Robert the Monk:
“It [Jerusalem] looks and hopes for freedom; it begs unceasingly that you will come to its aid. It looks for help from you, especially, because God has bestowed glory in arms upon you more than any other nation. Undertake this journey, therefore, for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of ‘glory which cannot fade’ in the kingdom of heaven.”The following year, in 1096, the campaign was underway with the battle cry Deus le volt! God wills it! (10) Pilgrims became Crusaders and by wearing the cross they became entitled certain privileges and immunities. Any crusader who died were considered martyrs and assured by the Roman Catholic Church their place in heaven. Debts were suspended and exempts from having to pay tax were issued. The crusaders family and possesion fell under the protection of the Church and his only obligation was to fulfill his vow. Failing to do so would result in automatic excommunication.
The most radical response did not come from the class of knights that the Pope had assumed. Instead it came from the poor who ignited at the glorius ideals and the great benefits of becoming a crusader. During the medieval times a man could go to hell for practically anything and joining the crusade was an opportunity to gain a fresh start.
An undisciplined and illarmed army of idealistic degenerates and riff-raff began marching towards Jerusalem with the noble intention to liberate it from the Saracens. It was lead by Peter the Hermit (11) who claimed he had a letter from heaven authorizing the crusade.
The first to be attacked were the Jewish communities by contingents of Germans under a priest called Gottschalk. The real motive behind this was not mistaking them for Muslims, but realising that they possessed valuables that, for some crusaders, would finance their journey.
Peter the Hermit’s army reached Constantinople (12) without major embarrassment to Urban II but there they began to wreak havoc on the city’s suburbs ignoring the order to wait for the rest of the crusading army. Due to their incompetence the Turks wiped them out on the 21st of October 1096. This was the end of the Peoples Crusade, but not the end of the First Crusade.
The Deaths of Hasan Bin Sabbah and Omar Khayyam
In 1118 the Sultan besieged Alamut, but the army returned home when the Sultan drastically died and the fort was left standing.
Hasan bin Sabbah, known as the Old Man of the Mountain, since he had not left his fortress for over 30 years finally died in May 1124. Before his death he had appointed Kiya Bozorg-Ummid (13) as his successor.
The deaths of Nizam-al-Mulk and Malik-Shah had ended Omar Khayyam’s peaceful existance. Funding to run the Observatory had ceased and Khayyam’s calendar reform was put on hold. He also came under attack from the orthodox Muslims who felt that his questioning mind did not conform to the faith. He died where he had been born on the 4th of December 1131.
Kiya Bozorg-Ummid would reign for 14 years and expanded into Syria. It was here that the Assassins fought the Crusaders and thus their stories were brought back to Europe and the word assassin entered into the language.
Two years later in Syria the Grand Master Sinan disguised two of his killers as monks and sent them into the camp of the Christian knight Conrad of Montferrat and he was stabbed to death. This assassination caused the Assassins to figure in every chronicle of the Third Crusade.
Henry Count of Champagne once said he had been demonstrated the obedience of the Assassins when meeting with their Grand Master. Two white-robbed men stood on the rampart of the castle and at the Grand Masters signal they threw up their hands and leapt to their deaths.
“Could you command the same?” the Grand Master then asked Henry.
Such demonstrations were the reason why the myths of the Assassins spread, not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe. And it proved how willingly they would sacrifice their lives and such knowledge eventually broaden the fear of them.
In 1223 Roger Bacon, a now renowned occultist, joined the Order of St. Dominic during a time when Genghis Khan and his hordes (14) swept down from Mongolia to Peking and in the next decades they would conquer an empire that stretched from the Yellow River in China to the Danube in Europe, from the Persian Gulf to Siberia growing to twice the size of the Roman Empire when it covered its greatest mass of land. The Mongols were military geniuses with immense individual courage, but more than anything else they had a cultural tolerance without equal amongst the European rulers of hereditary lines. Without the Mongols the road to China would have been kept closed for all of Europe.
The End of the Assassins
The Mongols, under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, would cause the end of the Assassins. In 1256 the last Assassin Grand Master, Rukin-ad-Din, and 12000 men were put to death in a gruesome manner. There had been more than 60 castles and the Mongols dismantled every single one of the Ismaili fortifications. All the scientific equipment were destroyed and all the libraries burned, and everything of value ransacked. No trace was left and the Assassins became a fairy tale and more important an inspiration for future organisations.
Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati (which history will be dealt with elsewhere), used hashish for heightening the consciousness of the mind and structured his organisation after the Assassins cell system.
This system was also used by the Al-Qaeda consisting of compact action groups within a network of isolated individual cells. These cells were controlled through a chain of blind links making them difficult to trace back to the central command. Just like Hasan bin Sabbah Osama bin Laden would become an Old Man of the Mountain, or more so, an Old Man of the Cave in Afghanistan. Both had high religious motives and Osama’s father Mohammed rebuilt and refurbished, under the bin Laden Corporation, the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina proving his religious zeal. The suicide-bombers of Hezbollah have much credit to give to the dedication of an Assassin and lets not forget the word in itself and what it has come to represent in modern times. Hired gun, killer and murdurer.
Footnotes:
(1) Asharism is the name of a school of thought in Islam that developed during the 4th and 5th, 10th and 11th centuries. The movement attempted to cleanse Islam of all non-Islamic elements and to harmonize the religious consciousness with the religious thought of Islam. It laid the foundation of an orthodox Islamic theology or orthodox Kalam, as opposed to the rationalist Kalam of the Mu'tazilites; and in opposition to the extreme orthodox class, it made use of the dialectical method for the defence of the authority of divine revelation as applied to theological.
(2) Upir is an early form of the word vampire and it appeared in a document referring to a Russian Prince as Upir Lichy or Wicked Vampire.
(3) His full name was Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. Literally al-Khayyami means tent maker and was probably the profession of his father Ibrahim.
(4) This legend, like most legends, is not the truth but holds some of it. For one thing Nizam-al-Mulk was born 30 years earlier than Omar Khayyam and could therefore not have been in school with him. But because they were all three contemporaries and they all lived within the same region of Persia they are connected, not only in what they did and achieved, but also how their lives ended up.
(5) A word used to designate the person and the institution that represented the ruler towards his subject like a modern day prime minister. The word comes from and older form vçir which was used to describe a judge.
(6) Muhammed ben Da‘ud obtained the surname Alp Arslan, a valiant lion, because of his military skills. He was Toghril Beg’s nephew.
(7) The Abbasids were all of one big family that claimed to descend from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed. They governed from Baghdad, a city the second Abbasid Caliph founded in 762, and Samara for some periods in the 9th century. The Abbasids took the power from the Ummawiyys in 750, and stayed in power until the Mongols conquered Baghdad in 1258, and had the Caliph killed.
(8) They also used the poppy (Opium). The Assasins were also known as the Yezidees.
(9) Nizam-al-Mulk’s guards caught and slayed Bu Tahir Arrani immediately after.
(10) About 900 years after the launch of the First Crusade the President of the United States of America, George W Bush, called the War on Terrorism that would ensue the 9/11 attacks a crusade. Bush also promised to give Iraq and Afghanistan, like Urban II had wanted to give Jerusalem, its freedom back. History always repeats itself to the misfortune of the individual.
(11) He was actually not a hermit, but wore a hermit’s cape, and loved crowds of people possessing a great skill in moving them.
(12) Istanbul.
(13) The Great Hope.
(14) The word hord comes from the Turkish word ordû , which means camp.
© deviadah
