The Assassins of Alamut by Anthony Campbell.pdf

THE ASSASSINS OF ALAMUT

Anthony Campbell

PROLOGUE

Who were the Assassins?

Assassins and assassination are, regrettably, very much with us today. Our heads of

government must be protected by elaborate security day and night, while the rest of us in

many parts of the world are constantly at risk of being caught up in the fanaticism of zealots

of one kind or another who feel it justifiable, or even meritorious, to kill innocent

bystanders. Assassination as a political weapon is no doubt as old as organized human

society but the word itself is of mediaeval origin and refers to the activities of a Persian sect

who were popularly supposed to drug themselves by means of hashish, whence the name.

The Assassins did indeed carry out political murders with as much publicity as possible and

therefore were terrorists, but unlike their modern counterparts they did not kill innocent

bystanders; they were highly selective in their activities. But who were the original Assassins,

and what did they believe about themselves? These are fascinating questions, whose interest

is not confined to politics or history; the ramifications extend to religion, mysticism, and

ideas about the millennium.

The Assassins were a heretical Islamic sect. They were a potent source of myth and legends;

this emerges in an imaginative account written by Marco Polo, who visited the site of their

castle at Alamut in Iran just after its destruction by the Mongols. He repeats the legend of

how the future assassins were supposedly prepared for their missions by being drugged with

hashish, brought into a secret pleasure garden, and told they had visited Paradise, to which

they would return if they were killed in action.

By the time Marco Polo reached Alamut, the prevailing view of the sect as supremely wicked

yet dangerously alluring was already well established in people's minds. Alamut was already

well past its heyday when it fell to the Mongols, but the legend of depravity and license had

arisen much earlier, when the castle was the centre of a widespread and, from the orthodox

point of view, most dangerous heresy.

Even before Marco Polo, the West had encountered the Assassins through their Syrian

branch, which was known to the Crusaders. The great contemporary historian of the

Crusades, William of Tyre, had written about them in a way that reveals a fair amount of

understanding, and a remarkable embassy from the Assassins had gone to the King of

Jerusalem offering their conversion to Christianity. At one time the Syrian Assassins were in

loose alliance with the Franks against Saladin, whom they attempted more than once to

murder, though later -- and especially after the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 -- they

took part in the Muslim struggle against the Franks. In 1192 Conrad of Montferrat was

murdered by men disguised as monks, and it is generally supposed that these were Assassins,

though the English King Richard I has also been suspected of instigating the murder. From

this time on, it seems, the Crusaders, already severely demoralised by the loss of Jerusalem,

became more fearful of the Assassins, to whom they ascribed devilish cunning, a mastery of

disguise, and a knowledge of various Frankish languages.

Count Henry of Champagne visited the Assassins in 1194, and is supposed to have

witnessed a remarkable display of loyalty on behalf of the followers of the "Old Man of the

Mountain". (This is another misconception, based on a literal translation of "sheikh", which

should have been rendered as "master".)

While walking together in the castle one day, Henry and the Assassin chief began to talk of

obedience. Some youths in white were sitting on top of a high tower. "I will show you what

obedience means", the chief said; he gave a sign, and immediately two of the youths leapt

from the tower and were dashed to pieces at the foot of the rock.

Stories such as these made up the legend of the Assassins that persisted in the West until

quite recently. In the nineteenth century a Viennese amateur historian called von Hammer

Purgstall wrote a book about the Assassins in which he ascribed to them, if not quite every

conceivable form of infamy, at least most of those that could be openly referred to in print

at the time. Whenever more than one possible interpretation of a statement or event existed,

von Hammer automatically preferred the one that showed the Assassins in the worst

possible light. His motive in writing seems to have been as much to emphasize the

wickedness of all secret societies (including the Jesuits and Freemasons of his day) as to

make a historical study of the Assassins, and his book has little historical value; nevertheless,

it remained the standard reference work on the sect as late as the 1930s, when Freya Stark

went to Alamut.

Since that time, however, much new information has come to light, some of it material

preserved by descendants of the Assassins themselves. This has been extensively studied and

edited by the Russian scholar W. Ivanow, who apparently has had access to a large number

of documents and manuscripts that are not generally available. The other main authority on

the sect is the American M.G.S. Hodgson.

From all this modern scholarship has emerged a picture of the Assassins which, if it lacks

some of the lurid qualities of the legend, has at least the merit of credibility. Moreover, the

truth turns out to be more enthralling than the fiction. No longer can we believe in the Old

Man of the Mountain hatching his evil plots and sending forth his murderous emissaries

drugged with hashish. Such a state of mind hardly seems compatible with the legendary

accomplishments of the assassins -- their superlative cunning, patience, knowledge of

languages, and so forth -- and in any case our modern experience of terrorism does not

suggest that its perpetrators require any narcotic stronger than fanaticism itself. Besides, if

the claims of modern users of hashish are to be believed, the effects of the drug tend more

towards pacificism than murderousness. But there is no real evidence that the Assassins used

hashish at all, at least for this purpose. (It is possible that they used it as a psychedelic agent

for religious reasons, but that is another matter.) The term "hashishin", from which our

word Assassin probably derives, was not used by members of the sect themselves but was a

nickname applied by their enemies; even so, it was not in common use. The usual names for

the Assassins were "esotericists" (batinis), Isma'ilis, or Nizaris.

The real story of the Assassins contains several fascinating elements. First, there is the use of

political murder, which is what the sect is chiefly remembered for today. Then there is their

complex philosophy, which guided their development and culminated in the extraordinary

proclamation of the 'Resurrection' at Alamut. This in turn was followed by the tragedy of the

destruction of Alamut by the Mongols. Yet, amazingly, this was not the end for the

Assassins, for they were reborn as the Khojas in India; the Agha Khan is the lineal

descendant of the rulers of Alamut. This is the story that I tell in this book.

A visit to Alamut (1966)

I first heard of the Assassins many years ago when I read Freya Stark's classic travel book

The Valley of the Assassins . Probably because she was such a remarkable writer, the notion of

the Assassins lodged in my mind, so it was natural that when I later found myself living in

Iran I should think of making a journey to see the Assassins' stronghold for myself. In 1966

I did so.

It was of course a much easier expedition for me, even in 1966, than it had been for Freya

Stark thirty-five years earlier; it was probably also easier than it would be today, though for

different reasons. In 1930 Freya Stark had to make the whole journey on foot, but in 1966 a

road, of sorts, went at least part of the way, though there was still a half-day's walk to reach

the Castle from the road. Even in 1966 not many people went there, however, and it was

difficult to obtain much reliable information in advance, so that a little of the spirit of

discovery still attended the project. Indeed, shortly after I went I was followed by no less

distinguished a traveller than Wilfrid Thesiger, who was passing through Iran on his way to

some more adventurous journey. Thesiger no doubt regarded his visit to the Castle as little

more than a pleasant stroll, whereas for me it was a major undertaking.

Unlike Freya Stark -- and thanks largely to the sketch map in my well-worn Penguin copy of

her book, which accompanied me -- I at least knew exactly where the valley lay. It is set

among the mountains at the Western edge of the Alborz range, between the plain of Qazvin

in the south and the province of Mazanderan bordering the Caspian Sea to the north. In

earlier times a part of these mountains formed the district of Daylam, which was, and still is,

remote and wild. They separate the central Iranian plain from the Caspian, and they are a

formidable barrier, with passes at about 10,000 feet. On the south side the mountains are dry

and barren, with scattered oases of cultivation. On the north side you enter a different world,

where the slopes are densely forested. Wild animals -- boar, bear, leopard -- are still to be

found there today, and in mediaeval times must have been much more plentiful.

The main castle of the Assassins lies in the Alamut valley, on a tribute of the Alamut River

near a village called Qasir Khan. I had been told that there were lorries that carried paraffin

from Qazvin to the mountain villages; they called at Shahrak, at the head of the valley, and

from there it was about six hours' walk to reach Qasir Khan. My plan was to visit the castle

and then to go on northwards over the mountains and down through the forest to the

Caspian. I knew no one who had done this but it looked quite feasible on the map.

My equipment consisted of a back pack in which I carried some spare clothes and

emergency rations and also a sleeping bag and an aerial survey map of the mountains kindly

lent me by a friend in the US embassy. The map was not really detailed enough for my

purpose but it was all I had since Freya Stark had not continued on the route I intended to

follow. I relied on being able to get local advice.

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