Assassins

okay the term assasins come from th epopular (but not necessarily true) assersion that the smoked hashish, therefore the hashishan or something.

Lets see I just read a book on them but my mind is drawing a blank right now...

Part of the Ismaili sect of Islam they were founded by Hasan i Sabah and eventually this "dynastic " line came to think of themselves as the successor to the prophet, some of whom meant that Islamic law no longer mattered and let their followers be pretty hedonistic, others tried to make hte movement more mainstream.

They lived in mountain fortresses and assasinated alot of Seljuk dudes, ususally with a lone assasin is disgiuse with a dagger.  Not usually very popular and unfreindly towards most conventional nations eventually the Mongols under Huleugu destroyed their Persian branch, though later Baybars got rid of the ones in Syria.

 

Weren't they the ones who would have their new recruits drink "poison" and find themselves in a beautiful garden with even more beautiful woman only to wake up and find themselves back in their mountain-fortress the next day. Having been told that their leader had brought them back from the dead, so they wouldn't fear death on a mission?

The book I was reading is called " The Devil's Crown: a history of HenryII and his son's" By Richard Barber and all he says is They are a military order similar to the Templars bound to obedience to their master who was Sheikh Sian at the time in question.They held the mountianous region to the northwest of Persia and murdering their political opponants was thier specialty. They where apposed to ordinary moslims and christians and did not regard murder as a crime they hired themseves out to kill people. He also says that they pobably killed Conrad of Montferrat and not nessassarly at Richard's disire.  

As I said in HG Alamut was really an unconquerable castle!

The castle is built on a narrow ridge on top of a high rock in the heart of the mountains and dominating an enclosed valley, about 25 kilometres in length. More than 6,000 feet above sea level, the castle lies several hundred feet above the base of the rock, and could only be reached by a narrow, steep and winding path. The approach to the rock was through the narrow gorge of the Alamut river, between perpendicular and sometimes overhanging cliffs. The steep defile at the western entrance to the valley is also defended by two forts constructed on each side of the 350 metres high cliffs. The eastern end of the valley is completely blocked by the Alamkum/Takht-e-Suleyman mountain knot. To the north and south are mountain ranges up to 3,500 metres. Hasan-i- Sabbah deliberately chose the Alamut Valley as his headquarters because of its remoteness and inaccessibility.

 

Alamut Gorge

Edited by Cyrus Shahmiri

Do you know when it was built?

Should we move this thread to the Islamic board?

There was a group of Assasssins that tried to kill Saladin, twice, but never suceeded (Obviously, if he lived until natural death). I know I have that city written down somewhere, but he never took it, and eventually just gave up.

They once tried to kill Saladin too, but he struck back by sieging their castle. But suddenly he gave up, likely because they threatened to kill his family according to one theory.

well, from what I know the Assassins were rich, so they bought those mountain castles that were almost impregnable.

Of course, since the Assassins were only intent on terrorizing the leaders of governments they didn't like, and not the entire population of a nation, it would have been a waste of resources to kill an innocent bystander.

Because they used their abilities skillfully and sparingly, just the threat of them striking was often enough.  You may have heard about the time when the Seljuk sultan Sanjar was about to attack Alamut, until he woke up one morning to find an assassin's dagger in his pillow, just inches from where he had laid his head.  Impaled on the dagger was a note containing a one-word message:  "Negotiate!"  Sanjar thought that was a good idea.