Assassins: centuries-old myths and cruel reality. The Assassin's Creed universe The Assassins really are

Back in the Middle Ages, a special group of people with a religious orientation gained great fame - they were called “Assassins,” otherwise known as Ismailis or Nizari. In Russian, the word appeared thanks to a translation from English - “assasin” means “killer”.

How did the assassins appear?

According to the legend, which became widely known in Europe thanks to the Italian merchant Marco Polo, one old man named Allah-One, living in the mountains of the country Mulekt, built a real paradise in the understanding of Muslims in a place hidden from everyone - it was a magnificent garden in which there were young girls and an abundance of a wide variety of food. Allah the One drugged young guys into unconsciousness with alcohol, after which he transferred them to this garden.

After they had spent the whole day in it, the elder soldered them again and took them back. Ready to do anything to find themselves in paradise again, the young men were deceived by the elder - if he needed to eliminate any important person or carry out a dangerous assignment, he sent the young man a message in which he said that he needed to carry out his order, and if in the process of fulfilling If the young man dies, he will immediately find himself in paradise. All men without exception fulfilled any will of Allah-One, just to be there again.

There is an opinion that the elder did not drug the young guys with alcohol, but clouded their minds with the help of hashish. As a result, they went on missions under the influence of the same substance, although Marco Polo does not indicate hashish in his manuscripts on this topic.

Under the influence of hashish, heaven could well seem to them, and not actually exist, which prompted them to act on orders solely for the sake of a new “dose” - that is, they were real drug addicts. This theory is baseless, although it seems much more plausible.

Several mythical facts about assassins, rather non-obvious, but they all have real confirmation:

• The first to fall at the hands of an organized group of secretive killers was Allah-Odin’s comrade, with whom they studied together. While childhood friends, they eventually turned into political enemies, which led to the murder. It was done right in front of a huge number of guards, in the very heart of this man's estate.
• The fortress in which the assassins' base was located was captured, albeit by force, but without bloodshed - not a single person was injured. Allah Alone converted the overwhelming number of inhabitants of this fortress to his side, who forced the commander to flee. In the future, the assassins will build more than a hundred castles, which are sovereign territory.
• The Assassins are not a secretive group, but an open organization. Murders in plain sight were a normal practice, which in most cases led to the death of the perpetrator - he did not try to hide after completing his business.
• Often, assassins practiced extortion - in order to avoid being killed or maimed, people in danger of attack constantly paid a sum for supposed protection from killers, but fearful citizens paid the killers.
• The end of the Assassins came due to aggressive actions on the part of the Mongols. As a result of the bloody “Yellow War,” which was based on religious principles, the Assassins were defeated and destroyed. The gunpowder weapons used by the Mongols played a big role in this - the enemy did not have such equipment, so the capture of fortresses was quite advantageous in relation to the Mongols.
• One of the besieged Assassin fortresses held a siege for more than twenty years - hidden food delivery routes not stopped by the enemy allowed the fortress to exist and successfully conduct defensive activities under the banner of the no longer existing Assassin order. The people inside did not lay down their arms even after their leader ordered them to surrender.
• A direct descendant of the assassin dynasty is alive and well. His name is Karim Aga Khan, by his title he is still the leader of the Nazraites, but in fact he is an ordinary citizen of one of the European countries. He is a billionaire and has an excellent education. Remarkably, Karim Aga Khan personally met with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

Assassins in culture

Assassins gained mainly their fame in the twenty-first century thanks to the series of very popular video games “Assasins Creed”, which tells about secretive assassins. Although the game is based on a real-life organization, it has little connection with historical actions, which often discourages many video game fans.

The vast majority of legends, myths and fiction surround the history of this group, and they are associated with this game, which continues to be released constantly.

With the introduction of the popular game “Assassins Creed”, many questions arose: “Who are the assassins?”, “Does the game have a connection with reality?” Indeed, such a society existed in the Middle Ages.

In the 10th-13th centuries, the state of Alamut existed in the mountainous regions of Persia. It arose as a result of the split in Islam and the development of the Ismaili sect of the Shiite trend, with whom the dominant religious system waged an irreconcilable struggle.

Ideological clashes in Islamic countries have often turned into questions of life and death. Hassan ibn Sabbah, the founder of the new state, had to think about survival in a hostile environment. In addition to the fact that the country was located in a mountainous region, and all the cities were fortified and inaccessible, he made extensive use of reconnaissance and punitive operations against all enemies of Alamut. Soon the entire eastern world learned about who the assassins were.

In the palace of Hasan-ibn-Sabbah, who was also called the King of the Mountain, a closed society of the chosen ones was formed, ready to die for the approval of the ruler and Allah. The organization consisted of several stages of initiation. The lowest level was occupied by suicide bombers. Their task was to complete the task at all costs. To do this, one could lie, pretend, wait a long time, but punishment for the condemned person was inevitable. Many rulers of Muslim and even European principalities knew firsthand who the assassins were.

Joining the secret society was desirable for many young people in Alamut, as it provided the opportunity to receive universal approval and become familiar with secret knowledge. Only the most persistent received the right to enter the gates of the mountain fortress - the residence of Hassan-ibn-Sabbah. There the convert underwent psychological treatment. It boiled down to the use of drugs and the suggestion that the subject had been to heaven. When the young people were in a state of drug intoxication, half-naked girls came to them, assuring them that the pleasures of heaven would become available immediately after the will of Allah was fulfilled. This explains the fearlessness of suicide bombers - punishers who, having completed the task, did not even try to hide from retribution, accepting it as a reward.

Initially, the Assassins fought against Muslim principalities. And even after the crusaders came to Palestine, their main enemies remained other movements of Islam and unrighteous Muslim rulers. It is believed that for some time the Templars and the Assassins were allies, even hiring the assassins of the King of the Hill to solve their own problems. But this situation did not last long. The Assassins did not forgive betrayals and exploitation in the dark. Soon the sect was already fighting against both Christians and fellow believers.

In the 13th century, Alamut was destroyed by the Mongols. The question arises: was this the end of the sect? Some say that since then they begin to forget about who the assassins are. Others see traces of the organization in Persia, India, and Western European countries.

Everything is permitted - this is how the King of the Hill instructed his suicide bombers when he sent them on a mission. The same motto continues to exist among a number of people who use all methods to solve their problems. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they simply use the religious feelings, needs and hopes of suicide bombers. At the highest levels of initiation, religious pragmatism reigns. So assassins also exist in our time - they are called, perhaps differently, but the essence remains: intimidation and murder to achieve their political or economic goals. This connection is especially evident in Islamic terrorist groups. At the same time, it should be noted that individual terror has been replaced by public terror, which means that any ordinary resident of the country can become a victim.

At the beginning of this year, a new Hollywood action film “Assassin’s Creed”, based on the series of mega-popular computer games Assassin’s Creed, was released on the wide Russian screen. However, now we are not talking about the artistic merits of this work, especially since they are, to put it mildly, quite controversial. The plot of the film centers on the activities of the Brotherhood of Assassins - a secret organization of cold-blooded spies and murderers who fight the Spanish Inquisition and the Templars.

One gets the impression that the Western world, having had its fill of Far Eastern martial arts, has found a new toy, and now the mysterious ninjas have been replaced by even more mysterious assassins. Moreover, on the Internet you can even find a description of the assassins’ special combat equipment, which, of course, never actually existed. The image of an assassin that has developed in popular culture today has nothing to do with real history. Moreover, it is absolutely crazy and not true.

So how does modern popular culture portray assassins? During the Crusades in the Middle East, there was a secret sect of sophisticated and skilled killers who easily sent kings, caliphs, princes and dukes to another world. These “Middle Eastern ninjas” were led by a certain Hasan ibn Sabbah, better known as the Old Man of the Mountain or the Old Man of the Mountain. He made the impregnable fortress of Alamut his residence.

To train fighters, Ibn Sabbah used the latest psychological methods at that time, including the influence of drugs. If the Elder needed to send someone to the next world, he took a young man from the community, stuffed him with hashish, and then carried him, drugged, to a wondrous garden. There, a variety of pleasures awaited the chosen one, including beautiful houris, and he thought that he had really gone to heaven. After returning back, the man could not find a place for himself and was ready to fulfill any task from his superiors in order to again find himself in a wonderful place.

The Elder of the Mountain sent his agents throughout the Middle East and Europe, where they mercilessly destroyed the enemies of their teacher. The caliphs and kings trembled, because they knew that hiding from the murderers was pointless. Everyone was afraid of the Assassins, from Germany to China. Well, then the Mongols came to the region, Alamut was taken, and the sect was completely destroyed.

These bikes have been in circulation in Europe for many hundreds of years, and over the years they only acquire new details. Many famous European historians, politicians and travelers had a hand in creating the legend of the Assassins. For example, the myth of the Garden of Eden was started by the well-known Marco Polo.

Who exactly were the assassins? What was this secret society? Why did it arise, and what tasks did it set for itself? Was every assassin really such an invincible fighter?

Story

To understand who the assassins are, you need to immerse yourself in the history of the Muslim world and travel to the Middle East during the birth of this religion.

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, a split occurred in the Islamic world (the first of many). The Muslim community was divided into two large groups: Sunnis and Shiites. Moreover, the bone of contention was not religious dogma, but a banal struggle for power. Sunnis believed that elected caliphs should lead the Muslim community, while Shiites believed that power should be transferred only to the direct descendants of the prophet. However, there was no unity here either. Which descendant is worthy to lead the Muslims? This issue led to further divisions in Islam. Thus arose the Ismaili movement or adherents of Ismail, who was the eldest son of the sixth Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.

The Ismailis were (and are) a very powerful and passionate branch of Islam. In the 10th century, followers of this movement created the Fatimid Caliphate, which controlled vast territories, including Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, North Africa, Sicily and Yemen. This state even included the cities of Mecca and Medina, sacred to any Muslim.

In the 11th century, another split occurred among the Ismailis. The Fatimid caliph had two sons: the elder Nizar and the younger Al-Mustali. After the death of the ruler, strife began between the brothers, during which Nizar was killed, and Al-Mustali took the throne. However, a significant part of the Ismailis did not accept the new government and formed a new Muslim movement - the Nizari. They play the main role in our story. At the same time, the key character of this story appears on the foreground - Hasan ibn Sabbah, the famous “Old Man of the Mountain,” the owner of Alamut and the actual founder of the Nizari state in the Middle East.

In 1090, Sabbah, having rallied a large number of associates around himself, captured the fortress of Alamut, located in western Persia. Moreover, this mountain stronghold surrendered to the Nizari “without firing a single shot”; Sabbah simply converted its garrison to his faith. Alamut was only the “first sign”; after it, the Nizaris captured several more fortresses in northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Very quickly, a whole network of fortified points was created, which, in principle, was already quite “pulling” on the state. Moreover, all this was done quickly and without bloodshed. Apparently, Hassan ibn Sabbah was not only a smart organizer, but also a very charismatic leader. And, besides, this man really was a religious fanatic: he himself fervently believed in what he preached.

In Alamut and other controlled territories, Sabbah established the most brutal order. Any manifestations of a beautiful life were strictly prohibited, including rich clothing, exquisite decoration of homes, feasts, and hunting. The slightest violation of the ban was punishable by death. Sabbah ordered one of his sons to be executed for tasting wine. For some time, Sabbah managed to build something like a socialist state, where everyone was more or less equal, and all boundaries between different layers of society were erased. Why do you need wealth if you can't use it?

However, Sabbah was not a primitive, narrow-minded fanatic. Nizari agents, on his orders, collected rare manuscripts and books from all over the world. Frequent guests in Alamut were the best minds of their time: doctors, philosophers, engineers, alchemists. The castle had a rich library. The Assassins managed to create one of the best fortification systems of that time; according to modern experts, they were several centuries ahead of their era. It was in Alamut that Hassan ibn Sabbah came up with the practice of using suicide bombers to destroy his opponents, but this did not happen immediately.

Who are the assassins?

Before moving on to the further story, you should understand the term “assassin” itself. Where did it come from and what does it really mean? There are several hypotheses on this matter.

Most researchers are inclined to think that “assassin” is a distorted version of the Arabic word “hashishiya,” which can be translated as “hashish user.” However, this word has other interpretations.

It should be understood that during the early Middle Ages (as indeed today), different directions of Islam did not get along very well with each other. Moreover, the confrontation was by no means limited to force; an equally intense struggle was waged on the ideological front. Therefore, neither rulers nor preachers hesitated in denigrating their opponents. The term “Hashishiya” regarding the Nizaris first appears in the correspondence of Caliph al-Amir, who belonged to another movement of the Ismailis. Then the same name, when applied to the followers of the Old Man of the Mountain, is found in the works of several Arab medieval historians.

Of course, it is possible that al-Amir simply wanted to call his ideological enemies “stupid stoners,” but he probably meant something else. Most modern researchers believe that the word “hashishiya” had another meaning at that time, it meant “rabble, people of low class.” In other words, hungry people.

Naturally, the warriors of Hassan ibn Sabbah did not call themselves either assassins or “hashishiya”. They were called “fidai” or “fidayeen”, which literally translated from Arabic means “those who sacrifice themselves in the name of an idea or faith.” By the way, this term is still used today.

The practice of eliminating one's political, ideological or personal opponents is as old as the world; it existed long before the appearance of the Alamut fortress and its inhabitants. However, in the Middle East, such methods of conducting “international relations” were associated specifically with the Nizaris. Having a relatively small number, the Nizari community was constantly under severe pressure from its far from peaceful neighbors: the Crusaders, Ismailis, and Sunnis. The Elder from the Mountain did not have a large military force at his disposal, so he got out as best he could.

Hassan ibn Sabbah passed away to a better world in 1124. After his death, the Nizari state existed for another 132 years. The peak of his influence came in the 13th century - the era of Salah ad-Din, Richard the Lionheart and the general decline of Christian states in the Holy Land.

In 1250, the Mongols invaded Persia and destroyed the Assassin state. In 1256 Alamut fell.

Myths about assassins and their exposure

The myth of selection and preparation. There are many legends regarding the selection and training of future assassin warriors. It is believed that for his operations Sabbah used young men from 12 to 20 years old; some sources speak of children who were taught the art of killing from a young age. Allegedly, getting into the assassins was not very easy; for this, the candidate had to show remarkable patience. Those wishing to join the ranks of the elite “mokrushniks” gathered near the castle gates (for days and weeks), and they were not allowed inside for a long time, thus weeding out the unsure or faint-hearted. During training, senior comrades organized a fierce “hazing” for the recruits, mocking and humiliating them in every possible way. At the same time, recruits could freely leave the walls of Alamut and return to normal life at any time. Using such methods, the assassins allegedly selected the most persistent and ideological.

The truth is that there is no mention of selection for assassins in any of the historical sources. Roughly speaking, all of the above are just later fantasies, and what actually happened is unknown. Most likely, there was no strict selection at all. Any member of the Nizari community who was sufficiently devoted to Sabbah could be sent to the “case.”

There are even more legends about the training of assassins. To reach the heights of his art, an assassin allegedly had to train for years, master all types of weapons and be an unsurpassed master of hand-to-hand combat. Also included in the list of educational subjects were acting, the art of transformation, making poisons and much more. Well, in addition, each member of the sect had his own specialization in the region and had to know the necessary languages, customs of the inhabitants, etc.

No information about the training of assassins has also been preserved, so all of the above is nothing more than a beautiful legend. Most likely, the fighters of the Old Man of the Mountain were more reminiscent of modern Islamic martyrs than highly trained special forces soldiers. Naturally, they were eager to give their lives for their ideals, but the success of their actions depended more on luck than on professionalism and training. And why waste time and resources on a disposable fighter if you can always send a new one. The effectiveness of the assassins has more to do with the suicidal tactics they chose.

As a rule, murders were committed demonstratively, and usually the assassin did not even try to hide. This achieved an even greater psychological effect.

The myth about hashish. Most likely, the idea that the Assassins practiced frequent use of hashish is due to an incorrect interpretation of the word “hashishiya”. By calling their opponents this way, opponents of the assassins wanted to emphasize their low origins, and not their addiction to drugs. The peoples of the Middle East were well aware of hashish and its destructive effects on the human body and mind. For Muslims, a drug addict is a finished person.

And given the strict morals that reigned in Alamut, it is difficult to assume that anyone there seriously abused psychoactive substances. Here we can recall that Sabbakh executed his own son for drinking wine; such a person can hardly be imagined as the head of a huge drug den.

And what kind of fighter does a drug addict make? Responsibility for creating such a myth lies partly with Marco Polo. But this is the next myth.

The myth of the Garden of Eden. This story was first described by Marco Polo. He did travel throughout Asia and probably met with the Nizaris. According to the famous Venetian, before completing the task, the assassin was put to sleep and transferred to a special place, which was very reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, as described in the Koran. There was plenty of wine and fruit, and the warrior was pleased by seductive houris. After awakening, the warrior could only think about how to find himself in the halls again, but for this he had to fulfill the will of the Elder. The Italian claimed that before this action the person was pumped with drugs, although in his work the Italian did not specify which drugs.

The fact is that Alamut (like other Nizari castles) was too small to create such an illusion, and no traces of such premises were found. Most likely, this legend was invented to explain the devotion that Sabbah's followers showed to their leader. To understand it, you don’t need to invent gardens and houris; the answer is in the very doctrine of Islam, and especially in its Shiite interpretation. For Shiites, an imam is a messenger of God, a person who will intercede for him during the Last Judgment and give him a pass to Paradise. After all, modern martyrs are trained without any drugs, and ISIS and other radical groups use them on an industrial scale.

Origins of the legend

The legend of the Assassins began with the crusaders returning to Europe after the unsuccessful Crusades. Mention of terrible Muslim killers can be found in the works of Burchard of Strasbourg, Bishop of Acre Jacques de Vitry, and German historian Arnold of Lubeck. In the texts of the latter one can read for the first time about the use of hashish.

It should be understood that Europeans largely received information about the Nizaris from their worst ideological enemies - the Sunnis, from whom it is difficult to expect objectivity.

After the end of the Crusades, contacts between Europeans and the Muslim world practically ceased, and the time had come for fantasies about the mysterious and magical East, where anything could happen.

The most famous medieval traveler Marco Polo added fuel to the fire. However, compared to modern figures of mass culture, he is just a child, honest and sincere. Most of today's fantasies on the theme of assassins have nothing to do with reality.

Results

By the way, another myth about assassins is the idea of ​​their omnipresence. In fact, they operated mainly in their own region, so they were unlikely to be feared in China or Germany. And the reason is very simple: in these countries they simply had no idea about the existence of such an organization. But in the Middle East they even knew very well about the Nizari sect.

During the existence of Alamut, seventy-three people were killed by one hundred and eighteen fidayeen. The warriors of the Elder of the Mountain counted three caliphs, six viziers, several dozen regional leaders and spiritual leaders who, one way or another, crossed the path of Sabbah. The famous Iranian scientist Abu al-Mahasina, who was especially active in criticizing them, was killed by the Nizari. Among the famous Europeans who fell at the hands of the Assassins are the Marquis Conrad of Montferrat and the King of Jerusalem. The Nizarits staged a real hunt for the legendary Saladin: after three assassination attempts, the famous commander finally decided to leave Alamut alone.

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Who are the assassins? The history of the Assassins begins at the end of the 11th century, when a certain man named Hassan ibn Sabbah founded the Nizari Ismaili order in Persia and Syria. These were the same notorious assassins who captured many mountain fortresses and posed a serious threat to the Sunni Seljuk dynasty. The Brotherhood of Assassins gained widespread fame and glory due to their methods of eliminating opponents through highly professional assassinations. The very word “assassin”, derived from the name of the order – “hashshashins” (hashshashins), became a common noun and acquired the meaning of a cold-blooded professional killer.
Although there are many stories telling about the activities of the order, it is now quite difficult to separate fact from fiction. Firstly, most of our information about the Assassins comes either from European sources or from people hostile to this order, the same Templars. For example, according to one of the stories that the Italian traveler Marco Polo heard in the east, Hassan used drugs, in particular hashish, to lead his followers “to paradise.” When these same followers came to their senses again, Hassan allegedly inspired them that he was the only one who had the means that would allow them to return “to paradise.” Thus, the members of the order were completely devoted to Hassan and carried out his every will. However, there are a number of inconsistencies associated with this story, pardon the pun. The fact is that the term hashshishi (hashishes) was first used by Caliph Al-Amir from the Fatimid dynasty in 1122 as an offensive name for the Syrian Nizaris. Instead of its literal meaning (that these people smoke hashish), the word was used rather figuratively and had the meaning of “outcasts” or “rabble”. The term was then applied to the Persian and Syrian Ismailis by chroniclers hostile to this Shia branch and was eventually spread throughout Europe by the Crusaders.

The assassin kills Nizamal-Mulk. Source - Wikipedia

Thanks in no small part to these historians and chroniclers, the Assassins throughout their existence earned a reputation as cold-blooded killers. No, the individuals killed by assassins in broad daylight really existed. Perhaps one of their most famous victims is Conrad of Montferrat, de facto king of Jerusalem in the late 12th century. According to history, Conrad was killed during one of his walks, accompanied by armored knights in one of the courtyards of Tyre. Two assassins, dressed as Christian monks, walked into the center of the courtyard, struck Conrad twice and killed him. Historians have not yet been able to answer the question of who hired these assassins, but there is a generally accepted opinion that Richard the Lionheart and Henry of Champagne were responsible for this.

The most impressive achievement of the Assassins, even more impressive than their courage and audacity, is probably their ability to use methods of “psychological warfare”. For, by instilling fear in the enemy, they managed to conquer their mind and will without risking their own lives. The great Muslim leader, Salah ad-Din (Salaaddin, Salaaddin), for example, survived two assassination attempts on his life. Despite the fact that he survived the assassination attempts, he was haunted by fear and paranoia, fear of new assassination attempts and fear for his life. According to legend, one night during the conquest of Masyaf in Syria, Saladdin woke up and saw someone coming out of his tent. Next to his bed were hot buns and a note on a poisoned dagger. The note stated that he would be killed if he did not withdraw his troops. It seems that there is nothing surprising in the fact that in the end Salah ad-Din decided to conclude a truce with the Assassins.

Despite all the scandalous glory, skill, audacity and dexterity of the assassins, their order was destroyed by the Mongols who invaded Khorezm. In 1256, their fortress, once considered impregnable, fell to the Mongols. Although the Assassins managed to recapture and even hold Alamut for several months in 1275, they were ultimately defeated. From the point of view of historians, the Mongol-Tatar conquest of Alamut is a very significant event, since the sources that could present the history of the order from the point of view of the assassins themselves were completely destroyed. As a result, we are left with only rather highly romanticized ideas about the notorious brotherhood of assassins. This is best seen in the famous, now cult game “Assassin’s Creed”.
Whether assassins exist in real life these days is not known for certain. Here, as they say, to each his own. He who wants to believe, believes.

The Assassins are a secret sectarian organization of neo-Ismaili-Nizaris, formed in Iran at the end of the 11th century as a result of a split in Ismailiism. Founder - Hassan ibn Sabbah. The leadership of the Assassins (large feudal lords) practiced them as a means of political struggle and the murder of their opponents. The center of the Assassins was Alamut Castle in Iran. The activities of the Assassins spread to Iran, Syria and Lebanon. A characteristic feature of the teachings of the Assassins from the mid-12th century was the deification of the imam, the head of their organization. The existence of the Assassins in Iran was put to an end by the Mongol army of Hulagu Khan in 1256. In Lebanon and Syria, the Mamluks dealt the final blow to the Assassins in 1273.

Origins

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, a split occurred among his Muslim followers. One of the branches of Islam, which has undergone more than one transformation in history, was made up of the Ismailis - those of the Shiites who recognized the legal heir of Imam Jafar as his eldest son Ismail. The core of the religious and political doctrine of the Ismailis was the doctrine of the imamate: obedience to the imam-president from the clan of Ali.

Ismaili propaganda was a great success: by the end of the 10th century, the Maghreb, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Hijaz came under their rule. At the same time, rivalries and divisions within the Ismaili leadership intensified. At the end of the 11th century, the followers of one of the Ismaili groups - the Nizaris, who operated in the mountainous regions of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, created an independent state centered in the fortress of Alamut (Iran), which existed until the middle of the 13th century. In the practice of political struggle, the Nizaris, who were subjected to severe persecution by the Arab Caliphate, themselves widely used terrorist methods.

There is a legend that the perpetrators of terrorist acts used drugs (hashish), for which they were sometimes called “hashishiyin.” This name, in a distorted form, "assassin" came into European languages ​​with the meaning of "killer." The assassins formed a secret society, the members of which showed unquestioning obedience to their ruler, usually called the "old man of the mountain" in European chronicles. The Assassins were gradually accustomed by their rulers to the fact that they fight and kill for their faith. He, claiming to be a new prophet, explained to them that in the chain of creation of the world there were seven links and divine wisdom is revealed at each joint of the links as the initiate moves towards God. Initiates at each stage of knowledge received revelations that refuted everything that was previously known. And only at the highest level was the final secret of the assassins revealed: the kingdom of heaven and hell are one and the same.

Such initiates bore the name of seekers. All younger members of society were accustomed to murder; they were intoxicated with hashish, then taken to a beautiful garden and seduced there by heavenly pleasures, urging them to voluntarily sacrifice their lives in order to eternally enjoy the same joys as martyrs. Such people were called fidairns (self-sacrificing); they often received instructions from the head of the order to track down one or another powerful enemy and, if necessary, defeat him. In addition, the head of the order could also do favors for his powerful friends and thereby oblige them; namely, when they needed to free themselves from a personal enemy, he placed his people at their disposal, who carried out the assignments assigned to them as conscientiously as if they were acting against the enemy of the community.

“Old Man of the Mountain” or “Lord of the Mountain” was the name given to Hassan ibn Shabbat, the leader of the Muslim sect of Assassins. Seventy thousand people, loyal to him and ready to die at one sign from him, constituted a formidable power that was feared by many rulers from Iran to Scandinavia. No one could escape Hassan's people. Dressed in white clothes, girded with red belts (the colors of innocence and blood), they overtook the victim, overcoming the most impregnable fortress walls and the most powerful guards.

And it all started with the fact that the vizier of the Sultan of the Seljuk state, Nizam al-Mulk, noticed Hassan’s outstanding abilities. He brought him closer to himself and soon achieved the post of minister for that position. The “gratitude” of Hassan, who even became the Sultan’s favorite, was expressed in the fact that he began to weave intrigues against his patron. The wise vizier, having realized in time the lust for power of his protégé and his desire to take the place of the vizier himself under the Sultan, skillfully “framed” Hassan, convicting him of a lie.

Anyone else would have been executed for such an offense, but the great Sultan took pity on his former favorite. They left him alive, but took away all his titles, sending him into distant exile to the north. From that day on, revenge became for Hassan the meaning of his whole life. He decided to create his own empire, without borders or limits. And he created it. From the mountain castle of Alamut the order was given to execute the Sultan and the Vizier Nizam. The Assassins successfully completed their assigned task.

For thirty-four years, until his death, the “old man of the mountain” did not leave his castle: his eyes, ears and long arms with daggers were everywhere. The number of supporters of the secret emperor did not decrease; more and more young people replaced those killed or executed by Hassan. He killed two of his sons with his own hands, one for killing the day, and the other for tasting the wine (perhaps they died because they poorly concealed their desire to take his place).

According to stories, he also wrote theological works and was often involved in religious rituals. The “old man” made sure that after his death the order would be led by the “most worthy.” He turned out to be Hassan the second, nicknamed the Hated One and soon declared himself a god, and then transferred power to his son Muhammad the second.

Devotion of Followers

Sometimes Hassan announced that he was dissatisfied with someone and ordered that the guilty person’s head be cut off. Usually the victim was chosen from those closest to the ruler. When everyone already knew that the execution had been carried out, Hasan invited a group of novices preparing for initiation. On the carpet they saw a dish with a bloody death's head. “This man deceived me,” said Hassan. “But by the will of Allah, his lie was revealed to me. But even dead, he remained in my power. Now I will revive his head.” After the prayer, Hasan made magical signs, and to the horror of those present, the dead head opened its eyes. Hassan spoke to her, asked others to ask her questions, and they received answers from a person known to them. The fear of the great power of the “old man of the mountain” grew even more rapidly. When everyone left, Hassan pushed apart the dish, made up of two halves. The man, sitting in the pit so that only his head rose above the floor, asked: “Did I say so, lord?” - "Yes. I'm pleased with you." And an hour or two later, the head of the executed man, this time severed for real, impaled on a pike, was placed at the castle gates.

The obedience of the faithful did not stop with the death of Hassan. One of his successors invited Henry, Count of Champagne, to the fortress. As they inspected the towers, two of the “faithful,” at a sign from the “Lords,” struck themselves with daggers in the heart and fell at the feet of the guest. The owner, meanwhile, coolly remarked: “Say the word, and at my sign they will all fall to the ground in this way.” When the Sultan sent an envoy to persuade the rebel assassins to submit, the Lord, in the presence of the envoy, said to one faithful one: “Kill yourself,” and he did so, and to another: “Jump off this tower!” - he rushed down. Then, turning to the messenger, the Lord said: “Seventy thousand followers obey me in exactly the same way. This is my answer to your master.”

Victims and allies

According to one story, the Persian caliph set out to attack the Assassin base and destroy it. One day he discovered a dagger at the head and a letter from Hassan-Saba: “What is placed near your head can be stuck in your heart.” The powerful ruler considered it best to leave the sect alone. It is believed that Richard the Lionheart made an attempt on the life of the French king through the assassins, and there were also rumors that it was Richard who incited the assassins to kill Conrad of Montferrat.

Two assassins allowed themselves to be baptized, and when a favorable opportunity presented itself, they killed Conrad of Montferrat and one of them disappeared into the church. But, hearing that Conrad was carried away while still alive, he again reached him and struck him a second time, then died without the slightest murmur under sophisticated torture. Barbarossa's nephew Frederick II was excommunicated by Innocent II for teaching the assassins to kill the Duke of Bavaria, and Frederick II himself, in a letter to the Bohemian king, accuses the Archduke of Austria of attempting to assassinate himself through such agents. There is also a mention of an Arab who in 1158 was caught in the imperial camp during the siege of Milan, with the intention of killing the emperor.

The end of the sect

In 1256, even more ruthless than the Assassins, the Mongol cavalry defeated the secret empire and its capital, Alamut. In Syria and Lebanon, the Mamluks finished off the remnants of the sect. For a long time it was believed that the Order of Assassins ceased to exist. And yet the order, professing not only the fight for faith, but also the cult of the warrior, continued to exist underground.

A French researcher discovered that in a small village between Isfahan and Tehran, the leader of the Assassins lives surrounded by guards and followers, and they all revere him and obey him as a god. Other information about the assassins dates back to the 19th century. Legend has it that some of them managed to escape and fled to India, where they joined the servants of the Hindu goddess Kali. It was the Assassins who founded the caste of hereditary killers in India, known as Tagis (deceivers, murderers) or Fansigars (stranglers).

Assassins today

The traditions were most strongly preserved in the actions of terrorist Muslim sects such as “Jihad” and “Hezbollah” and especially in the fidayeen units. The term “fidayeen” (self-sacrificing) was widespread in the middle and second half of the 20th century, mainly in the countries of the Near and Middle East to describe people fighting with weapons in their hands for the sake of an idea and ready to give their lives for a “holy cause.”

If in the Middle Ages murderers were called assassins, then in the 20th century in Iran some fearless members of the people's militia in the revolution of 1907-1911 were called fidayeen, and after World War II - members of the terrorist religious-political organization "Fedayane Eslam" who carried out assassination attempts political and public figures of Iran and the Middle East. This organization, founded by the Iranian mullah Navwab Safavi, was dissolved in 1949, but similar illegal groups exist in Lebanon and Iran to this day. And today their members are sometimes called assassins.

The Assassins are members of the secret Shia religious sect of the Ismailis. In Europe, the earliest mention of assassins dates back to the time of the first crusades. In their intelligence reports, the Crusaders reported on the Grand Master of a secret fanatical Muslim sect of assassins, Sheikh Hassan ibn Sabbah. These were cruel killers who knew neither doubt nor pity. A secret organization, consisting predominantly of Persians, with a rigid internal hierarchy and discipline, fanatical devotion to its leaders, as a result of terrorist activities and the atmosphere of secrecy that shrouded it, acquired an influence that was completely out of proportion to its numbers.

For almost three centuries, this sect of suicidal fanatics terrorized almost the entire early medieval world, instilling mystical horror in it. From the Far Eastern Celestial Empire to the Western European court of Charlemagne, there was not a single person capable of escaping the death sentence imposed by the Assassins. More than one Arab and European prince fell from their dagger. Despite numerous guards and high impregnable walls, kings were killed right on their thrones, imams, sheikhs and sultans found death in their bedchambers. Since then, in many European languages, the word “assassin” means “killer” or “hired killer.” In order to understand the reasons that gave birth to this terrible sect, the conditions in which it was created, to understand as deeply as possible the peculiarities of its internal structure and the processes that took place within the sect of assassins from the day of its foundation to the time of its death, it is necessary to make a brief excursion to the origins of the formation of Islam. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, when the question arose about who would become the head of the Muslim community, and therefore a huge and very powerful state at that time, Islam underwent a significant split into two warring camps: Sunnis, adherents of the orthodox branch of Islam and Shiites, who were initially called Protestants of the Islamic world.

Some Muslims advocated that power should belong only to the direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, that is, the direct descendants of Ali, the prophet's cousin, married to Fatima, Muhammad's most beloved daughter. Close kinship with the Prophet Muhammad makes his descendants the only worthy rulers of the Islamic state. This is where the name of the Shiites came from - "shi" at Ali" or "Party of Ali". Shiites, being in the minority, were often persecuted by the Sunni ruling majority, therefore, as a rule, they were forced to remain underground. Scattered Shiite communities were isolated from each other from each other, contacts between them were fraught with the greatest difficulties, and often a threat to life.Often members of individual communities, being nearby, were not aware of the proximity of fellow Shiites, since their accepted practice allowed the Shiites to hide their true identity, posing as devout Sunnis.

We are talking about the so-called “taqiyya” practice, widespread among Shiites. His principle was that outwardly it is necessary to adhere to the views of the society around you, but in fact, complete trust and submission must be expressed only to your leader. Probably, the fact of centuries-old isolation and forced isolation can try to explain a large number of very diverse, sometimes extremely absurd and reckless, sectarian branches in Shiism. The Shiites, by their definition, were Imamis who believed that sooner or later the world would be led by a direct descendant of the fourth caliph, Ali. The Imamis believed that one day one of the previously living legitimate imams would resurrect in order to restore the justice trampled upon by the Sunnis. The main direction in Shiism was based on the belief that the twelfth imam, Muhammad abul Kasim, who appeared in Baghdad in the 9th century, would act as the resurrected imam. and disappeared at the age of twelve. Most Shiites firmly believed that it was Muhammad Abul Kasym who was the “hidden imam” who in the future would return to the world and reveal himself as the messiah-mhadi.

The followers of the twelfth imam subsequently became known as “Twelvers.” Modern Shiites belong to this direction of Shiism. Approximately the same principle was used to form other branches of Shiism. "Pentaterists" - believed in the cult of the fifth imam Zeid ibn Ali, the grandson of the Shiite martyr-imam Hussein. In 740, Zayd ibn Ali led a Shia revolt against the Umayyad Caliph and died in battle while fighting in the front ranks of the rebel army. Later, the Pentaterists were divided into three small branches, recognizing the right of imamate for one or another direct descendants of Imam Zeid ibn Ali. In parallel with the Zaydids (Pentatearchists), the Ismaili movement was born, which subsequently received a wide response in the Islamic world. The dominant influence of this sect for several centuries spread to Syria, Lebanon, Sicily, North Africa, Palestine, and also, sacred to all Muslims, Mecca and Medina. The emergence of the Ismaili sect is primarily associated with a split in the Shiite movement itself that occurred in 765. Jafar Sadiq, the sixth Shia Imam, deprived his eldest son Ismail of the right to legitimate succession to the Imamate in 760. The formal reason for this decision was the eldest son’s excessive passion for alcohol, which is prohibited by Sharia law. However, the real reason why the right of succession to the Imamate was transferred to the youngest son was that Ismail took an extremely aggressive position towards the Sunni caliphs, which could upset the existing strategic balance between the two religious concessions, beneficial to both Shiites and Sunnis. In addition, the anti-feudal movement began to rally around Ismail, which unfolded against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in the situation of ordinary Shiites. The lower and middle strata of the population pinned hopes for significant changes in the socio-political life of Shiite communities with Ismail's coming to power.

Over time, the Ismaili sect strengthened and grew so much that it had all the signs of an independent religious movement with an Islamic bias. The Ismailis deployed a well-covered, extensive network of preachers of the new teaching in the territories of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Persia, North Africa and Central Asia that were not yet under their control. At this initial stage of development, the Ismaili movement met all the requirements of a powerful medieval organization, which had a clear hierarchical model of internal structure, its own very complex philosophical and theological dogma, partially borrowed from Judaism, Christianity and small, sectarian cults common in the territories of the Islamic-Christian world. The Ismaili organization had nine degrees of initiation, each of which gave the initiate certain access to awareness of the affairs of the sect. The transition to the next degree of initiation was accompanied by unimaginable, very impressive mystical rituals. Advancement up the Ismaili hierarchy was primarily related to the degree of initiation. With the next period of initiation, a new truth was revealed to the Ismaili, moving further and further away from the basic dogmas of the Koran with each step. Thus, at the fifth stage, it was explained to the newly initiated that the essence of the writings of the Koran should be understood not in a literal, but in an allegorical sense. The next stage of initiation revealed the ritual essence of the Islamic religion, which also boiled down to a rather allegorical understanding of rituals. At the last degree of initiation, all Islamic dogmas were actually rejected, even affecting the doctrine of the divine coming, etc. Excellent organization and strict hierarchical discipline allowed its leaders to easily and very effectively manage an organization that was huge at that time. One of the philosophical and theological dogmas, which the Ismailis ardently adhered to, said that Allah from time to time infused his divine essence into the flesh of the Natik prophets he sent down: Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. The Ismailis claimed that Allah sent down to our world the seventh natiq prophet - Muhammad, the son of Ismail, from whom the name Ismailis came. Each of the sent natik prophets was always accompanied by the so-called herald or “samit”. Under Moses it was Aaron, under Jesus it was Peter, under Muhammad it was Ali.

With each appearance of a natik prophet, Allah revealed to the world the secrets of the universal mind of divine truth. With the arrival of the new prophet, people accumulated new divine knowledge. According to the teachings of the Ismailis, seven natiq prophets should come into the world. Between their appearances, the world is ruled successively by seven imams, through whom Allah explains the teachings of the prophets. The return of the last, seventh natik prophet Muhammad, son of Ismail, will reveal the last divine incarnation, after which the world divine mind should reign in the world, bringing universal justice and prosperity to faithful Muslims. A secret teaching developed within the Ismaili sect, access to which only the highest levels of initiation had , for the lower strata of the Ismaili community, only philosophical and theological dogma was intended, which served as a universal weapon for the bearers of the secret teaching. Gradually, the Ismailis began to gain strength and influence, as a result of which, in the 10th century, they founded the Fatimitic Caliphate. It is to this period that the aforementioned spread of Ismaili influence to the lands of North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and the Muslim holy Mecca and Medina dates back to. However, in the rest of the Islamic world, including the Shiites, the Ismailis were considered the most dangerous heretics and were brutally persecuted at any opportunity. Around this historical period, even more radical and irreconcilable Nizarins emerged from among the militant Ismailis, better known as the sect of assassins. The Fatimitic caliph of Egypt, Mustansir, deprived his eldest son Nizar of the right to inherit the throne in favor of his younger brother Mustali. In order to avoid an internal struggle for power, by order of the caliph, his eldest son Nizar was imprisoned and soon executed, which led to major unrest within the Fatimitic Caliphate. Nizar's death did not prevent his name from becoming a symbol of open opposition. The Nizari movement so quickly gained strength and scope that it soon went far beyond the caliphate and spread to the vast northwestern territories of the Seljuk state. Nizari uprisings constantly shook the Arab Caliphate. In response, the authorities were forced to apply brutal repression against the Nizaris. The Baghdad, Egyptian caliphs, and the faithful Sunni Seljuk sultans persecuted anyone suspected of heresy. So in the 10th century, after the capture of the city of Rey, on the orders of Mahmud of Gazanvi, a real bloody massacre was carried out. Nizaris and other heretics were stoned to death, crucified on the walls of the city, hanged at the thresholds of their own houses... In one day, thousands of Ismaili Nizaris found their death. The survivors were chained and sold into slavery.

The brutal persecution of the Nizari Ismailis led to the development of a large-scale wave of resistance. Having gone illegal, the Nizari Ismailis responded with terror to terror. The creator of the Assassin sect and the founder of the Ismaili-Nizari state in the mountainous regions of Persia, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, Sheikh Hassan I ibn Sabbah (1051-1124), appeared on the political scene. The Nizaris expelled from Egypt actually seized the leadership of the Ismailis living in the regions of western Persia and Syria, headed by Hassan ibn Sabbah. The leader of the Nizari Ismaili party, Hasan ibn Sabbah, who fled from Egypt in 1090, settled in the mountains of northern Persia and began to recruit all the dissatisfied under the banner of the hidden imam of the Nizari dynasty. Very little is known about Hassan ibn Sabbah himself, as well as his life, hidden from prying eyes, which only strengthens the aura of mystery that, even during his lifetime, shrouded everything associated with this name. A native of the South Arabian tribes, Hasan ibn Sabbah was born in 1050 into a rather privileged family in the small town of Qom located in Northern Persia. He received an excellent education for that time and could, thanks to his family’s position, count on holding high government positions. However, a Shiite by birth, Hassan ibn Sabbah from early childhood was drawn to all kinds of different kinds of knowledge, which ultimately led him to the Ismaili camp. Already in adulthood, he moved to Cairo, the capital of the Ismaili Caliphate, hoping to find support there. However, the Fatimid Caliphate by that time was in complete decline,

His choice fell on an impregnable fortress built on the high rock of Alamut, hidden among the mountain ranges on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Alamut rock itself, which translated from the local dialect means “Eagle’s Nest,” seemed like a natural fortress against the backdrop of the mountains. The approaches to it were cut off by deep gorges and raging mountain streams. The choice of Hasan ibn Sabbah was justified in all respects. It was impossible to imagine a more strategically advantageous place to create a capital as a symbol of a secret order of assassins. Hassan ibn Sabbah captured this impregnable fortress almost without a fight. Later, the Ismailis also captured a number of fortresses in the mountains of Kurdistan, Fars and Alburs. Having captured several castles in the west - in the mountainous regions of Lebanon and Syria, the Ismailis invaded the “future” possessions of the Crusaders. The Assassins were somewhat lucky. Soon after the capture of the Alamut fortress, the Seljuk Sultan Melik Shah died. After this, for twelve long years, the Seljuk state was rocked by internecine strife for the throne. All this time they had no time for the separatists entrenched in Alamut. By uniting the mountainous regions of Persia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Hasan ibn Sabbah created the powerful Ismaili state of Alamut, which lasted for almost two centuries from 1090 to 1256. Hasan established a harsh way of life in Alamut, for absolutely everyone without exception. First of all, he demonstratively, during the great Muslim fast of Ramadan, abolished all Sharia laws on the territory of his state. The slightest retreat was punishable by death. He imposed a strict ban on any manifestation of luxury.

The restriction applied to everything: feasts, amusing hunts, interior decoration of houses, expensive clothes, etc. The bottom line was that all meaning in wealth was lost. Why is it needed if it cannot be spent? In the first stages of the existence of the Alamut state, Hassan ibn Sabbah managed to create something similar to a medieval utopia, which the Islamic world did not know and which European thinkers of that time did not even think about. Thus, he virtually eliminated the difference between the lower and upper strata of society. In my opinion, the state of the Ismaili-Nizaris strongly resembled a commune, with the difference that the management of the commune belonged not to the general council of free workers, but to the unlimitedly ruling spiritual leader-leader. Hassan ibn Sabbah himself set a worthy example for his entourage, leading until the end of his days extremely harsh, ascetic lifestyle. He was consistent in his decisions and, if necessary, callously cruel. He ordered the execution of one of his sons only on suspicion of violating the law he had established. Having announced the creation of the state, Hasan ibn Sabbah abolished all Seljuk taxes, and instead ordered all residents of Alamut to build roads, dig canals and erect impregnable fortresses. All over the world, his agents-preachers bought rare books and manuscripts containing secret knowledge. Hassan invited or kidnapped the best specialists in various fields of science to his fortress, from civil engineers to doctors and alchemists. The Assassins were able to create a system of fortifications that had no equal, and the concept of defense in general was many centuries ahead of its era. To survive, the Ismailis created the most terrible intelligence service at that time.

None of the caliphs, princes or sultans could have thought of going to open war against the Ismaili state of Alamut. Sitting in his impregnable mountain fortress, Hasan ibn Sabbah sent suicide bombers throughout the Seljuk state. But Hassan ibn Sabbah did not immediately come to the tactics of suicide terrorists. There is a legend according to which Hassan made such a decision thanks to chance. In all parts of the Islamic world, on behalf of Hassan, risking their own lives, numerous preachers of his teachings acted. In 1092, in the city of Sava, located on the territory of the Seljuk state, the preachers of Hasan ibn Sabbah killed the muezzin, fearing that he would hand them over to the local authorities. In retaliation for this crime, by order of Nizam El-Mulk, the chief vizier of the Seljukid sultan, the leader of the local Ismailis was captured and put to a slow, painful death. After the execution, his body was demonstratively dragged through the streets of Sava and for several days the corpse was hung in the main market square.

This execution caused an explosion of indignation and indignation among the Assassins. Outraged crowds of Alamut residents moved to the house of their spiritual mentor and ruler of the state. The legend says that Hassan ibn Sabbah climbed to the roof of his house and loudly uttered only one single phrase: “The murder of this shaitan will foreshadow heavenly bliss!” The deed was done, before Hasan ibn Sabbah had time to go down to his house, a young man named Bu Tahir Arrani stood out from the crowd and, falling on his knees before Hasan ibn Sabbah, expressed a desire to carry out the death sentence, even if it meant pay with your own life. A small detachment of fanatic assassins, having received the blessing of Hassan ibn Sabbah, split into small groups and moved towards the capital of the Seljuk state. Early in the morning of October 10, 1092, Bu Tahir Arrani, in some mysterious way, managed to enter the territory of the vizier's palace. Hiding in the winter garden, he began to patiently wait for the appearance of his victim, clutching a huge knife to his chest, the blade of which was prudently sprayed with poison. Towards noon, a man appeared in the alley, dressed in very rich attire. Arrani had never seen the vizier, but judging by the fact that the man walking along the alley was surrounded by a large number of bodyguards and slaves, the killer decided that it could only be the vizier. Behind the high, impregnable walls of the palace, the bodyguards felt too confident and the protection of the vizier was perceived by them as nothing more than an everyday ritual duty. Seizing an opportune moment, Arrani jumped up to the vizier with lightning speed and inflicted at least three terrible blows on him with a poisoned knife. The guards arrived too late. Before the killer was captured, the Grand Vizier Nizam El-Mulk was already writhing in his death throes, covering his expensive dresses with blood and red dust.

In impotent anger, the maddened guards practically tore the vizier’s killer to pieces, however, the death of Nizam El-Mulk became a symbolic signal for the storming of the palace. The Assassins surrounded and set fire to the palace of the Grand Vizier. The death of the chief vizier of the Seljuk state had such a strong resonance throughout the Islamic world that it involuntarily pushed Hassan ibn Sabbah to a very simple, but nevertheless ingenious conclusion: it is possible to build a very effective defensive doctrine of the state and, in particular, the Nizari Ismaili movement, without spending significant material resources on the maintenance of a huge regular army. It was necessary to create our own “special service”, whose tasks would include intimidation and exemplary elimination of those on whom the adoption of important political decisions depended, against which neither the high walls of palaces and castles, nor a huge army, nor loyal bodyguards could oppose anything, so that protect the potential victim.

First of all, it was necessary to establish a mechanism for collecting qualified information. By this time, Hassan ibn Sabbah already had countless preachers operating in all corners of the Islamic world, who regularly informed Hassan about everything that was happening in remote areas of the Islamic world. However, new realities required the creation of an intelligence organization of a qualitatively different level, whose agents would have access to the highest echelons of power. The Assassins were among the first to introduce the concept of “recruitment.” The Imam, the leader of the Ismailis, was deified, the devotion of Hasan ibn Sabbah's co-religionists made him infallible, his word was more than law, his will was a manifestation of divine reason. The Ismaili, who was part of the intelligence structure, revered the lot that befell him as a manifestation of the highest mercy of Allah, which descended to him through the Grand Master of the Order of Assassins, Sheikh Hassan I ibn Sabbah. He believed that he was born only to fulfill his “great mission”, before which all worldly temptations and fears faded. Thanks to the fanatical devotion of his agents, Hassan ibn Sabbah was well informed about all the plans of the enemies of the Ismailis, the rulers of Shiraz, Bukhara, Balkh, Isfahan, Cairo and Samarkand. However, the organization of terror was unthinkable without the creation of a well-thought-out technology for training professional suicide killers, whose indifference to their own lives and disdainful attitude towards death made them practically invulnerable. At his headquarters in the mountain fortress of Alamut, Hassan ibn Sabbah created a real school for training intelligence officers and terrorist saboteurs. By the mid-90s of the 11th century, the Alamut fortress was the best academy in the world for training highly specialized secret agents. She acted extremely simply, however, the results she achieved were very impressive. Hassan ibn Sabbah made the process of joining the order very difficult. Out of approximately two hundred candidates, a maximum of five to ten people were allowed to the final stage of selection.

Before getting into the inner part of the castle, the candidate was informed that, having joined the secret knowledge, he could not have a way back from the order, but this fact did not bother the young men, who were passionately thirsty for adventure and something else, in their opinion, more a worthy life. One of the legends says that Hassan, being a versatile person with access to various kinds of knowledge, did not reject other people's experience, honoring it as the most desirable acquisition. Thus, when selecting future terrorists, he used the methods of ancient Chinese martial arts schools, in which the screening of candidates began long before the first tests. Young men who wanted to join the order were kept in front of closed gates from several days to several weeks. Only the most persistent were invited into the courtyard. There they were forced to sit for several days, starving, on a cold stone floor, contented with the meager remains of food, and wait, sometimes in freezing pouring rain or snow, for them to be invited to enter the house. From time to time, his associates from among those who had passed the first degree of initiation appeared in the courtyard in front of the house of Hasan ibn Sabbah. They insulted and even beat young people in every possible way, wanting to test how strong and unshakable their desire to join the ranks of dedicated assassins was. At any moment the young man was allowed to get up and go home. Only those who passed the first round of tests were allowed into the house of the Grand Master. They were fed, washed, dressed in good, warm clothes... The “gates of another life” began to be opened for them. The same legend says that the assassins, having forcibly recaptured the corpse of their comrade, Bu Tahir Arrani, buried him according to Muslim rites. By order of Hasan ibn Sabbah, a bronze tablet was nailed to the gate of the Alamut fortress, on which was engraved the name Bu Tahir Arrani, and opposite it, the name of his victim - the chief vizier Nizam El-Mulk. Over the years, this bronze tablet had to be enlarged several times. Since the time of the first assassin-murderer, Arrani, this list has already included hundreds of names of viziers, princes, mullahs, sultans, shahs, marquises, dukes and kings, and opposite them, the names of their killers - fidayeens, ordinary members of the Order of Assassins. The Assassins selected physically strong young people into their battle groups. Preference was given to orphans, since the assassin had to break with his family forever.

Now his life belonged entirely to the Elder of the Mountain, as the Grand Master Sheikh Hassan I ibn Sabbah called himself. True, in the sect of assassins they did not find a solution to the problems of social injustice, but the Elder of the Mountain guaranteed them eternal bliss in the Gardens of Eden in return for the real life they gave up. He came up with a fairly simple but extremely effective method for preparing the so-called fidayeen. The elder of the mountain declared his home “the temple of the first step on the path to heaven.” The young man was invited to the house of Hassan ibn Sabbah and drugged with hashish. Then, immersed in a deep narcotic sleep, the future fidayeen was transferred to an artificially created “Garden of Eden”, where pretty maidens, rivers of wine and abundant food were already waiting for him. Enveloping the confused young man with lustful caresses, the beautiful maidens pretended to be heavenly Guria virgins, whispering to the future suicide assassin that he would be able to return here only if he died in battle with the infidels. A few hours later, he was again given the drug and, after he fell asleep once again, he was transferred back to the house of the Old Man of the Mountain - Sheikh Hassan ibn Sabbah. Waking up, the young man sincerely believed that he had been to heaven. From now on, from the first moment of awakening, this real world lost any value for him. All his dreams, hopes, thoughts were subordinated to one single desire, to once again find himself in the “Garden of Eden” among the beautiful maidens so distant and inaccessible. It is worth noting that we are talking about the 11th century, whose morals were so harsh that for adultery they could simply be stoned to death. And for many poor young people, due to the impossibility of paying bride price for a bride, women were simply an unattainable luxury. The elder of the mountain declared himself almost a prophet. For the assassins, he was Allah’s protege on earth, the herald of his sacred will. Hasan ibn Sabbah inspired the Assassins that they could once again return to the Gardens of Eden, immediately, bypassing purgatory, only on one condition: by accepting death, but only on his orders. He never ceased to repeat the saying in the spirit of the Prophet Muhammad: “Paradise rests in the shadow of swords.”

Death for the Islamic idea is a direct path to heaven. Thus, the assassins not only were not afraid of death, but passionately desired it, associating it with the gates of heaven. In general, Hassan ibn Sabbah was a “great master” of falsification. Sometimes he used an equally effective technique of persuasion or, as they now call it, “brainwashing.”

In one of the halls of the Alamut fortress, above a hidden hole in the stone floor, a large copper dish was installed, with a circle carefully cut out in the center. At the behest of Hassan, one of his assassins hid in a hole, sticking his head through a hole cut out in a dish, so that from the outside it seemed, thanks to skillful makeup, as if it had been cut off. Young people were invited into the hall and the “severed head” was shown to them. Suddenly, Hassan ibn Sabbah himself appeared from the darkness and began to perform magical gestures over the “cut off head” and pronounce mysterious spells in an “incomprehensible, otherworldly language.” Suddenly the “dead head” opened its eyes and began to speak. Hasan and the rest of those present asked questions regarding paradise, to which the “severed head” gave more than optimistic, comprehensive answers. After the guests left the hall, Hassan's assistant was cut off and the next day it was displayed in front of the gates of Alamut. Or another episode: it is known for certain that Hassan ibn Sabbah had several doubles. In front of hundreds of ordinary assassins, the double, intoxicated with a narcotic potion, committed demonstrative self-immolation. In this way, Hassan ibn Sabbah supposedly ascended to heaven. Imagine the surprise when the next day Hassan ibn Sabbah appeared before the admiring crowd safe and sound. One of the European ambassadors, after visiting Alamut - the headquarters of the Old Man of the Mountain, recalled: “Hassan had downright mystical power over his subjects. Wanting to demonstrate their fanatical devotion, Hassan made a barely noticeable wave of his hand and, several guards standing on the fortress walls, according to him ordered, they immediately threw themselves into a deep gorge...” In the mountains of Western Persia, a real industry for training professional killers was established, which today would be the envy of modern “special schools”. In addition to “ideological training,” the assassins spent a lot of time in grueling daily training. The future suicide assassin was required to be proficient in all types of weapons: accurate archery, saber fencing, throwing knives and fighting with his bare hands. He must have had an excellent understanding of various poisons.

The “cadets” of the assassination school were forced to squat or stand motionless for many hours in the heat and bitter cold, with their backs pressed against the fortress wall, in order to develop patience and willpower in the future “bearer of retribution.” Each suicide assassin was trained for “work” in a strictly defined region. His training program also included studying a foreign language of the state in which he could be deployed. Considerable attention was paid to acting skills. The assassins' talent for transformation was valued no less than their combat skills. If desired, the assassins could change beyond recognition. Posing as a traveling circus troupe, monks of a medieval Christian order, doctors, dervishes, oriental traders or local warriors, the assassins made their way into the very lair of the enemy in order to kill their victim. (The same technique is widely used by some modern Israeli anti-terrorist special forces). As a rule, the assassins, after executing the sentence passed by the Elder of the Mountain, did not even try to escape from the scene of the assassination attempt, accepting death as a well-deserved reward. The Sabbakhites, or “people of mountain fortresses,” as the assassins, supporters of Hassan ibn Sabbah from among the Nizari Ismailis, were often called, even in the hands of the executioner, having been subjected to savage medieval torture, tried to keep smiles on their faces.

“Let the infidels see how great the power of the Old Man of the Mountain is,” the assassins thought, dying in cruel torment. Rumors about the Old Man of the Mountain very quickly spread far beyond the Islamic world. Many of the European rulers paid tribute to the Old Man of the Mountain, wanting to avoid his wrath. Hasan ibn Sabbah sent his killers throughout the medieval world, never leaving, however, like his followers, his mountain refuge. In Europe, the leaders of the assassins were called “mountain sheikhs” in superstitious fear, often without even knowing who exactly held this post. Almost immediately after the formation of the Order of Assassins, the Elder of the Mountain Hasan ibn Sabbah was able to convince all rulers that it was impossible to hide from his wrath. "An act of retaliation" is only a matter of time. An example of a “delayed act of retribution” is a typical case that has come down to us thanks to numerous legends passed down from mouth to mouth by surviving assassins. (Since the time of the first suicide assassin Bu Tahir Arrani, the memory of those who died for the “holy idea” was carefully preserved and revered by subsequent generations of assassins.)

The Assassins hunted for one of the most powerful European princes for a long time and to no avail. The security of the European nobleman was so thorough and scrupulous that all attempts of the assassins to approach the victim invariably failed. In order to avoid poisoning or other “insidious eastern tricks,” not a single mortal could not only approach him, but also get close to everything that his hand could touch. The food that the prince took was first tasted by a special person. Armed bodyguards were near him day and night. Even for great wealth, the assassins were not able to bribe any of the guards.

Then Hassan ibn Sabbah did something different. Knowing that the European nobleman was known as an ardent Catholic, the Elder of the Mountain sent two young men to Europe, who, on his orders, converted to the Christian faith; fortunately, the so-called taqiyya practice, widespread among Shiites, allowed them to perform the rite of baptism in order to achieve a sacred goal. In the eyes of everyone around them, they became “true Catholics”, ardently observing all Catholic fasts. For two years, they visited the local Catholic cathedral every day, spending long hours in prayer on their knees. Leading a strictly canonical lifestyle, young people regularly made generous donations to the cathedral. Their house was open around the clock to anyone in need. The Assassins understood that the only narrow gap in the nobleman’s security could be found during his Sunday visit to the local Catholic cathedral. Having convinced everyone around them of their “true Christian virtue,” the newly converted Catholics became something taken for granted, an integral part of the cathedral.

The security stopped paying due attention to them, which the killers immediately took advantage of. One day, during another Sunday service, one of the hidden assassins managed to approach the nobleman and unexpectedly strike him several times with a dagger. Fortunately for the victim, the guards reacted with lightning speed and the blows inflicted by the assassin landed on the arm and shoulder, without causing serious injuries to the nobleman. However, the second assassin, located at the opposite end of the hall, taking advantage of the turmoil and general panic caused by the first attempt, ran up to the unfortunate victim and dealt a fatal blow to the very heart with a poisoned dagger. The organization created by Hassan ibn Sabbah had a strict hierarchical structure. At the very bottom were the rank and file - the "fidayeen" - the executors of death sentences. They acted in blind obedience and, if they managed to survive for several years, they were promoted to the next rank - senior private or "rafik". Next in the assassin hierarchy was the rank of sergeant or "dai". The will of the Elder of the Mountain was transmitted directly through the dais. Continuing to move up the hierarchical ladder, it was theoretically possible to rise to the highest officer rank of “dai el kirbal”, which reports only, hidden from prying eyes, to the mysterious “Sheikh el Jabal”, the Elder of the Mountain himself - the Grand Master of the Order of Assassins, the head of the Ismaili state of Alamut - Sheikh Hassan I ibn Sabbah.

It is impossible not to notice that the assassins, by their example, inspired many secret societies of the East and West. European orders imitated the Assassins, adopting from them the technique of strict discipline, the principle of appointing officers, the introduction of insignia, emblems and symbols. The hierarchical structure within the Assassin order was integrally associated with various “degrees of initiation”, which is very typical for all Ismaili communities of that period. Each new level of initiation moved further and further away from Islamic dogmas, acquiring more and more purely political overtones. The highest degree of initiation had almost nothing to do with religion. At this stage, such basic concepts as “sacred goal” or “holy war” acquired a completely different, diametrically opposed meaning. It turns out that you can drink alcohol, violate Islamic laws, question the holiness of the Prophet Muhammad and perceive his life as a beautiful instructive legend-fairy tale. From all of the above, we can come to the conclusion that the top management of the fanatical Islamic sect of assassins adhered to “religious nihilism”, carefully hidden both from the outside world and from ordinary members of the sect, or, to be more precise, “religious pragmatism”, through which those problems were solved. or other pressing political issues. From my point of view, such polar views and assessments of certain social and religious-political norms are characteristic not only of early Shiite sects, but also of other secret societies, religious concessions and political movements, an integral part of which, in one form or another, is the so-called " degree of dedication."

After 1099, the invasion of the Crusaders and their capture of Jerusalem, the situation of the Alamut state became somewhat more complicated. Now the Assassins had to fight not only Muslim rulers, but also European conquerors. On November 26, 1095, Pope Urban II at a church council in Climond called for the start of a crusade to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine from the rule of Seljuk Muslims. In August 1096, four columns of crusading knights moved towards the Middle East from different parts of Europe. From southern France - under the leadership of Raymond of Toulouse, from Italy - under the leadership of the Norman prince Bohemond of Tarentum, from Normandy - under the leadership of Duke Robert of Normandy, from Lorraine - led by Godefroy of Bouillon, better known as Godfrey of Bouillon.

Having united in Constantinople, the crusader troops crossed into Asia Minor and captured the cities of Nicaea, Edessa and Antioch. On July 15, 1099, after a bloody siege, Jerusalem was captured. Thus, as a result of the First Crusade, which lasted three years, several Christian states were formed in the Middle East: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, the Principality of Antioch, the counties of Tripoli and Edessa. The Roman Catholic Church promised the participants of the holy campaign absolution of all sins. However, the army of the crusaders resembled more a rabble of bandits than the noble liberators of the Holy Sepulcher. The passage of the Crusader army was accompanied by unprecedented robbery and looting. The invasion of the Crusaders could only be compared to a plague epidemic. There was never unity in the ranks of the crusader knights, which Hassan ibn Sabbah was sure to take advantage of. Poor European barons, adventurers and robbers of various kinds, attracted by the countless treasures of the rich East, created temporary alliances and coalitions that were never particularly durable. Crusader knights, trying to resolve internal problems, quite often used the services of assassins. Among the “customers” of the assassins were also such knightly orders as the Hospitallers and the Templars. It was during this period that the word “assassin” entered many European languages, which acquired the meaning “killer.” Many leaders of the crusaders died from the daggers of the assassins.

Hasan ibn Sabbah died in 1124 at the age of 74. He left behind a rich legacy, a tightly knit network of beautifully fortified mountain fortresses ruled by fanatical adepts. His state was destined to exist for another hundred and thirty-two years... The finest hour of the Assassins fell on the end of the 11th century. This is due to the rise of the Mamluk Turk state led by Sultan Yusuf ibn Ayub, nicknamed Salah ad-din, or Saladin, as the Europeans called him. Having easily captured the rotten Fatimitic Caliphate, with which the crusaders had concluded a long peace treaty, Salah ad-din declared himself the only true defender of Islam. From now on, the Middle Eastern Christian states of the Crusaders were threatened from the south. Lengthy negotiations with Salah ad-din, who saw his highest destiny in throwing Christians out of the East, did not lead to significant results. In 1171, the most difficult period of wars with Salah ad-din began for the crusaders. This time, an imminent threat looms over Jerusalem, the stronghold of Christianity in the Middle East...

Small in number, virtually cut off from the rest of the Christian world, weakened by internecine strife, the crusaders did not even think about further expansion into the Muslim east. The Kingdom of Jerusalem withstood one attack after another. It is quite natural that in such a hopeless situation they had no choice but to enter into an alliance with the assassins. It was somewhat strange and unusual to see a Muslim-Crusader squad acting as a joint militia. By and large, the assassins didn’t care who they fought with or which side they were on. For them, everyone was an enemy - both Christians and Muslims. The rich Crusader princes, as always, generously paid for the services of hired assassins. Many Arab princes and military leaders fell from the daggers of the Assassins. Even Saladin himself had to survive several unsuccessful assassination attempts, after which he only survived by luck. However, the alliance of crusaders and assassins did not last long. Having robbed Ismaili merchants, the king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Conrad of Montferrat, signed his own death warrant. From now on, the assassins sent assassins to both camps.

It is known for certain that the following died at the hands of the assassins: six viziers, three caliphs, dozens of city rulers and clergy, several European rulers, such as Raymond the First, Conrad of Montferrat, Duke of Bavaria, as well as a prominent public figure, the Persian scholar of antiquity Abul-Mahasin, causing the wrath of the Elder of the Mountain by sharply criticizing the Assassins. When the Ismaili state reached its greatest power, it was already very different from what Hasan ibn Sabbah laid down. From a medieval commune, the state of Alamut actually turned into a hereditary monarchy with legalized patrimonial transfer of power. From among the highest ranks of the order of assassins, their own feudal nobility emerged, which gravitated more towards Sunni liberties than Shiite asceticism. The new nobility preferred a social order in which luxury and wealth were not considered a vice. The gap between the common strata of the population of Alamut and the feudal nobility increasingly widened. It was for this reason that there were fewer and fewer people willing to sacrifice themselves. After the death of Hassan I ibn Sabbah, his successors were unable to expand the state's possessions. The slogans proclaimed by Hassan remained unfulfilled. The state of the assassins was torn apart by acute internal crises. The former power of the assassins was fading. Although the Assassins survived the Seljuk state, the rise and fall of the great Khorezmian power, and the founding and collapse of the Middle Eastern crusader states, the Ismaili state of Alamut was inevitably approaching its decline.

The fall of the Fatimitic Caliphate had a sharp impact on the stability of Alamut. Salah ad-din, having transformed the Fatimitic Caliphate into a state of faithful Muslim Mamluks, began to deal crushing blows not only to the crusaders. At the end of the 12th century, the Mamluk Turks, led by the famous Salah ad-din, began to invade the Syrian possessions of the Assassins, and countless hordes of Tatar-Mongols were already reaching from the Far East. The Assassins continued to act, despite the pressure exerted on them by the powerful Salah ad-Din. Sheikh Rashid ad-Din Sinan, who occupied the post of Elder of the Mountain at that time, was a fairly smart and strong politician who, through deft maneuvering between Catholics and Sunnis, managed to maintain the sovereignty of the Ismaili state of the Assassins. In the 50s of the 13th century, after the destruction of Khorezm, The troops of Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded the regions of Western Persia. The weakened Ismaili state fell almost without a fight. The only ones who tried to provide fierce resistance to the invader were the defenders of the mountain fortress of Alamut.

The Tatar-Mongols continuously attacked the Alamut mountain peak for days, until they were able to climb up the stacks of their corpses to the walls of the mountain fortress. By order of Hulagu Khan, the Tatar-Mongols razed to the ground the mountain fortress of Alamut, the headquarters of the “mountain sheikhs”, the rulers of the Assassins, which once brought terror to the entire civilized world. In 1256, the mountain fortress of Alamut disappeared from the face of the earth forever. Later, in 1273, the Egyptian Sultan Baybars destroyed the last refuge of the Assassins in the mountainous regions of Syria. With the fall of the main fortress of the Assassins, the secret knowledge of the Assassins, which they had accumulated for almost three centuries, went into oblivion and was lost forever.

Seven centuries have passed since the fall of the Assassins. Much that is connected with their activities is covered in legends and rumors. Was this the so-called “secret teaching of the assassins”? It’s difficult to answer now, but other questions arise along the way. How, for example, were suicide assassins trained? The promise of paradise alone is clearly not enough for a person to lose fear, interest in the world around him and cease to be aware of the actions he commits. The terrorist organization "Islamic Jihad" also promises martyrs a direct path to heaven, but I witnessed how a suicide bomber was afraid at the last moment to detonate an explosive device hidden on his body. No, mere brainwashing is not enough to prepare a trouble-free fidayeen. What was “initiation”? Surely there was something very terrible, the possession of which was too dangerous to be preserved to this day. Probably, we are talking about some kind of synthesis of medieval research of Jewish Kabbalism and Islamic mysticism, the possession of which gives unlimited power over other people. Officially, the bloody sect of assassins ceased to exist in 1256, after the fortresses of Alamut and Memmudiz fell. The Assassins, as before, at the origins of their origins, were forced to scatter across the mountains and go underground. Five years later, the Egyptian Sultan Baybars was able to stop and expel the Tatar-Mongols, but the Assassins never regained their former power.

Under the blows of the Tatar-Mongols, the history of the formidable sect of assassins ceased, but the existence of the Ismaili movement continued. The Ismailis lost their state, but retained their faith. In the 18th century, the Shah of Iran officially recognized Ismailism as a movement of Shiism. The current, direct descendant of the last Old Man of the Mountain - Prince Aga Khan IV, in 1957, took over the leadership of the Ismailis. However, today's Ismailis bear little resemblance to the formidable assassins who have disappeared into oblivion.