When the opportunity arose, the assassin would stab the unsuspecting sultan, vizier or mullah.Īn assassin martyred for the cause (which typically happened shortly after the attack) was assured a place in Paradise. The spy sometimes spent years gaining the trust of the victim and their advisers. They would then plant a spy in the inner circle of the intended victim. The Assassins carefully studied their targets, learning their language and culture. This is when the group first becomes known as the “Hashshashin” – Assassins in English. Hassan-i Sabbahīased out of a fortress on a mountaintop, Sabbah and those who followed him developed a network of strongholds and challenged the Seljuk Turks, who were Sunni Muslims in control of Persia at the time. He led his followers into the castle of the king of Dayam and successfully pulled off a bloodless coup in 1090.
The founder of the group was a Nizari Ismaili missionary named Hassan-i Sabbah. We do know that the Assassins were an offshoot of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. Accounts of their existence that have survived into our times come in the form of the recollections of their enemies or European accounts, which were surely embellished as they were passed along. When the fortress of the Assassins was conquered in 1256, their library was destroyed so there are no written historical accounts from the sect itself available to us. There is another, perhaps more compelling explanation in the Egyptian word “hashasheen” which translates to “noisy people” or “troublemakers.” Engraving of the Elder from the Mountains, as Hassan-e Sabbah was called, 19th century. In truth, the group strictly adhered to the Koran when it forbade the use of intoxicants. It is possible that this explanation developed after the fact as a convenient way to lend credence to an original story but we have no way of reliably verifying this.
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