The Assassins (aka Nizari Ismailis), were a heretical group of Shiite Muslims who were powerful in Persia and Syria from the 11th century CE until their defeat at the hands of the Mongols in the mid-13th century CE. Secure in their fortified hilltop castles, they became infamous for their strategy of singling out opposition figures and murdering them, usually in knife-wielding teams. The group was known as the Assassins by their enemies in reference to their use of hashish, 'assassin' being a corruption of the Arabic hasisi ('hashish-eater'), and so the name has since come to be associated with their chief modus operandi, the act of murder for political or religious purposes. The Nizari Ismailis continue to exist as a branch of Islam today.

The Assassin Name

The Nizari Ismailis ate powdered hemp leaves (hashish) which contain a natural psychoactive (mind-altering) drug, reportedly doing so before they went on an assassination mission. The name 'Assassin' in English comes from the Latin term assassinus, which is a corruption of the Arabic words hasisi, al-Hashishiyyun or hashashun, meaning 'hashish-eater.' As the Nizari Ismailis used the strategy of assassination so often, the name medieval Arabs used to describe their drug habits became synonymous with the act of murdering a political or religious opponent.

The use of drugs by the Assassins may have been a way for their enemies to explain their extraordinary abilities and willingness to die for their cause. Alternatively, they may never have used any such stimulants and their reputation as drug users was rather a fictional demonisation or invented excuse for their unnaturally high success rate in killing people and the almost complete ineffectiveness of anyone to stop them.

Heretical Beliefs

The Ismailis were a Shiite Muslim sect formed in the 8th century CE after they split from other Muslims over their adherence to Ismail (d. 760 CE), the eldest son of the sixth imam (leaders of the faith after the Prophet Muhammad), Jafar al-Sadiq (d. 765 CE). The Ismailis believed that Ismail, despite predeceasing his father, had already been nominated by the latter as his successor.

Therefore, the next (7th) imam was Ismail's son Muhammad al-Mahdi, as opposed to the orthodox Shiite support for Ismail's brother Musa al-Kazim (d. 799 CE). For this reason, the Ismaili's are often referred to as the 'Seveners.' The Ismailis awaited the arrival of the Mahdi or 'the rightly-guided one' who would restore peace and justice, and signal the arrival of the Qa'im, 'the bringer of the Resurrection.' The Ismailis were, then, seen as heretics by other Muslim groups, not only by other Shiite Muslims but also the Sunnis of the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE) based at Baghdad.

The Assassin Territories

The Nizari Ismailis, first led by a missionary from Egypt, Hasan Ibn al-Sabbah (c. 1048-1124 CE), set up bases in Iran and formed a new political-religious community much like the European orders of medieval knights. Members were educated, trained, and initiated, then ranked according to their knowledge, reliability, and courage. All members swore absolute obedience and loyalty to the order's leader.

The sect grew and eventually managed to acquire a string of hilltop castles between 1130 and 1151 CE. Many strongholds were located in northern Syria in the Jabal Ansariyya region, then a border zone with the Syrian Crusader States. These acquisitions included the fortress town of Masyaf in the Orontes valley of Syria, taken c. 1141 CE, which effectively became the Nizari capital of an Assassin 'mini-state' in Syria.

By the 13th century CE, the sect had spread and there were Nizari Ismailis in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, southern Iraq, southwest Iran (Khuzestan), and Afghanistan, although they remained essentially isolated from their enemies and each other, but at least well-protected, in their impregnable castles. Rumour spread, nevertheless, of their existence and the head of their sect became known to the West via the crusaders, as the 'Old Man of the Mountain.' This title was particularly associated with Sheikh Rashid al-Din Sinan (r. 1169-1193 CE).

The Assassination Strategy

The Assassins did not enjoy a great military strength and so their strategy of targeting specific and powerful opponents was a good one. The weapon of choice for assassination was almost always the knife, and the mission was usually carried out by a small team, sometimes in disguise as beggars, ascetics, or monks. The assassination was often planned to be carried out in a crowded location to maximise the political and religious consequences of the act. The assassins were not expected to survive their mission and were known as fidain (sing. fidai) or 'suicide commandos.'

The Targets

Infamous victims of the Assassins included the great and powerful vizier of Baghdad, Nizam al-Mulk, murdered on 14 October 1092 CE. Another successful target, and the first Christian victim, was Raymond II, the Count of Tripoli, in 1152 CE. Raymond (r. 1137-1152 CE) had probably upset the Assassins by granting the Knights Hospitaller a swathe of land near their base in the Nosairi Mountains in Syria. The murder brought a massacre of all indigenous easterners in the County of Tripoli in a crude and unsuccessful attempt to find the guilty parties.

A third notable victim was, on 28 April 1192 CE, Conrad of Montferrat. Conrad, made King of the Kingdom of Jerusalem just a few days before, was stabbed by a double team of assassins one night as he walked home from dinner in Tyre. The Assassins had been disguised as monks and had caught Conrad off-guard by showing him a letter before fatally stabbing him.

One near victim was Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193 CE). Saladin, a Sunni Muslim, had earned the Assassins' wrath by publicly proclaiming that all Muslim heretics would be crucified. The Assassins responded in their tried and tested way. Twice, though, assassins failed to kill their target

Destruction by the Mongols

Mongke Khan, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (r. 1251-1259 CE) had made his younger brother Hulegu (d. 1265 CE) viceroy of Iran. Hulegu was given an army and told to go on campaign and expand the empire in the west. This he did with great success, and on the way, he defeated the Assassins in 1256 CE by taking their previously thought impregnable castles one by one, including Alamut. The Assassins had made the strategic error of carrying out one of their infamous hits on a Mongol commander, one Chaghadai, and the previous Great Khan, Guyuk (r. 1246-1248 CE), had already singled them out as troublesome insubordinates to the Mongol hegemony.

The Mongols were successful thanks to their technologically advanced siege machines and catapults which could, amongst other missiles, throw gunpowder bombs great distances with accuracy and power. In order to fire at the Assassin castles perched on their mountaintops, the Mongols often laboriously climbed an adjacent peak and carried up their catapults and siege crossbows in pieces; from there they were able to fire across at the enemy.

In the end, the castles were taken - often helped by parading the captured Assassin grandmaster Rukn al-Din Khur-Shah in front of the walls - and the sect was repressed. The Nizari Ismailis were thus ultimately all but exterminated in Persia, but a few castles did survive in Syria before they were attacked by the Mamluk leader, Al-Zahir Baybars, Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1260-1277 CE). By the 1270s CE, many former Assassin castles had been taken over by the Mamluks.

Legacy

The medieval Assassins might have long gone but the Nizari Ismailis continued as a branch of Shiite Islam, and their leaders came to be represented by the Agha Khans of Iran from 1817 CE. The current leader or imam of the Nizari Ismailis is Prince Shah Karim al-Husseini, Aga Khan IV (r. 1957 CE - present). Many of the Ismaili ruined castles can still be seen by those intrepid enough to discover them; good examples include Alamut and Masyaf. The sect has also gained a whole new level of awareness thanks to the 2007 CE video game Assassin's Creed and its various sequels, which are loosely based on the Nizari Ismailis.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes struggle sessions over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here nerd

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

Remember nerds, no current struggle session discussion here to the general megathread, i will ban you from the comm and remove your comment, have a good day/night :meow-coffee: