Under Nizam al-Mulk’s watch Seljuk authority had expanded from China to the Red Sea: he had authored an important treatise on government, and founded several noted theological schools in his home city of Isfahan.  Yet on the night of Friday, October 16, 1092 (12 Ramadan, 485), one of the Seljuk Empire’s most powerful leaders fell victim to a wandering Sufi who charged his litter and stabbed him to death.  The followers of Hassan-i-Sabah, the “Old Man of the Mountains” had claimed their first victim in a long and legendary reign of terror.

By the 11th century, the office of Caliphate had become as much a political title as a religious one.  Those leaders who followed after Mohammed were frequently more worldly than spiritual; as the empire grew, they found themselves ruling over ethnically and culturally diverse populations.  Persian and Turkish Moslems felt little affinity to their Arabic-speaking rulers; rather, they came to resent them as impious and corrupt.  A new movement spread among these disaffected masses.  These “Shia Ali” (Partisans of Ali, or “Shi’ites”) believed that Islam should be ruled not by elected Caliphs but by Imams who claimed blood descent from the Prophet Muhammed and his retinue.  While the eleventh Imam had died young, and his child had disappeared, the Shi’ites believed that he would come again as the twelfth Imam and Madhi (Messiah) to usher in a new era of peace and piety and reclaim the throne been usurped from the Prophet’s descendents.  Other Shi’ites traced the descent of their leadership to Ismail, disinherited son of the sixth imam.  Hassan-i-Sabbah was one of these “Seveners.”  Born into a moderate “Twelver” Shia family, Hassan was learned, witty and charismatic.  He came to Ismailism comparatively late in life (at 35.  Once convinced he became a tireless proponent of the doctrine and attracted many followers, many of whom came to see him as the Madhi incarnate

One of the doctrines of Ismailism, “taqiyya,” allowed for dissimulation in situations that “would cause definite or probable danger as a result of the actions of those who are opposed to the religion.”  (Allama Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai).  The  fida’i (followers of Hassan) would gain jobs in trusted positions, waiting months or years for their moment to strike.  When that moment came, they would use dagger or poison to kill their target.  The murder of political enemies was nothing new: what was unnerving was the utter disregard with which these assassins sacrificed their own lives.  They would not hesitate to strike their target even when it meant that target’s bodyguard would slay them seconds later.  When captured and tortured, they would proclaim themselves blessed to suffer for the Imam’s sake.  Those who visited Hassan’s fortress at Alamut would sometimes be treated to a display of his control.  Upon his command, soldiers would jump from towers to their deaths.

The Assassins soon became the terror of the Islamic world.  The great warrior Saladin was attacked twice by Assassins; Count Raymond II of Tripoli fell victim to their daggers.  Throughout the Levant Moslem and Christian leaders alike took to wearing chainmail, ever mindful of the threat which could come from anywhere.  Often murder was unnecessary; a dagger placed beside a troublesome emir’s bedside could get the message across.  Assassins gave one anti-Ismaili scholar a choice between a bag of gold or a dagger: when asked why he had changed his views, he remarked that “the Ismaili arguments are both weighty and pointed.”  The terror of the Assassins ended only at the hands of a far greater terror: the Mongol hordes, which conquered Alamut in the 13th century.

As it is today, people found it difficult to understand this kind of devotion.  Rumors soon spread that Hassan had drugged his followers, then brought them to a beautiful garden and told them Allah had given them a preview of the heaven which would be theirs if they obeyed him.  People came to refer to them as “hashisheen” (eaters of hashish); this story was repeated by the enemies of the Ismaili movement and written down as truth by people like Marco Polo.  This is now regarded as a legend: history has shown that one need not resort to drugs to produce fanatical martyrs.