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21:46
Transcript
0:04
Many men and women of violence have been romanticised
by people of later eras. Driven by pieces
0:12
of popular culture such as the Assassin’s
Creed games, the popular conception of an
0:17
assassin has turned from that of a ruthless
murderer to that of a renegade antihero, killing
0:23
only because it is for the greater good. The
foundations of this viewpoint lay within the
0:27
historical Islamic realm which would come
to be known as the Nizari Ismaili State. Welcome
0:33
to our video on how the Nizari became the
most feared assassins of their era, and how
0:38
they eventually met their end.
0:40
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1:38
Almost simultaneously with Islam’s meteoric
rise to superpower status in the seventh-century,
1:44
internal division permanently split the new
faith into two opposing parties. These were
1:49
the Sunni - Muslims who believed that Abu
Bakr’s succession of Mohammed in 632 was
1:55
correct - and the Shia - who considered the
prophet’s cousin and son-in-law Ali the
2:00
legitimate heir - or ‘Imam’.
After a series of civil wars, Umayyad leader
2:05
Muawiyah took the caliphate from the heirs
of Ali, and this subsequent struggle against
2:10
central power defined the Shia and prompted
the breakaway of many subgroups with diverging
2:16
viewpoints. In time, the Umayyads were defeated
by the Abbasids in another civil war.
2:22
The age of Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur was the
catalyst for one of these new sects - the
2:27
Ismaili. At some point in his reign, the sixth
Shia Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq declared his radical
2:34
eldest son Ismail to be his divinely inspired
successor - a doctrine known as nass. However,
2:42
his plans were derailed in 762 when Ismail
unexpectedly died at the age of 40, raising
2:49
hard questions on who the next imam should
be. When Ja’far also passed away a few years
2:55
later, six groups disputed who the next Imam
ought to be. Two of these groups became the
3:00
first Ismaili Shia by asserting the legitimacy
of Ismail despite his death, and supporting
3:06
his descendants. In contrast, those who accepted
Ismail’s younger brother Musa’s imamate
3:12
eventually became known as ‘Twelvers’,
the Shia denomination championed by the Iranian
3:18
states, from the Safavids to the modern Islamic
Republic of Iran.
3:22
The Ismailiyah disappear from history until
around the mid ninth-century, when their leaders
3:28
burst onto the historical stage and spread
the movement to regions across the faltering
3:32
Abbasid caliphate, from the Maghreb to Khurasan.
The movement managed to tear away vital pieces
3:39
of the once unified Caliphate. An Ismaili
revolt in Arabia led to the creation of a
3:45
‘religious-utopian republic’ in modern
Bahrain under the Qarmatian dynasty, whose
3:49
slaveholding society was otherwise unusually
egalitarian and communal for the age. However,
3:56
the crowning achievement of this sectarian
revolution was the establishment of al-Mahdi
4:01
Billah’s Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa.
Although the Fatimids only occupied a relatively
4:07
small and peripheral area at first, they managed
to hugely increase their power in 969 by conquering
4:14
Egypt. Bolstered by that, the Fatimids entered
what historian Farhad Daftary dubbed the ‘Ismaili
4:21
century’. In the hundred years following
Egypt’s fall to the Shia, rich and diverse
4:27
Ismaili literature flourished in the many
new libraries, blended with other traditions,
4:32
and resulted in incredibly complex systems
of thought. The Fatimids developed complex
4:37
administrative and financial structures, in
addition to re-establishing far-flung trade
4:42
routes to India. Along with the accompanying
riches and exotic goods, this exchange also
4:48
spread Ismaili teachings to Gujurat. However,
beginning in the second half of the eleventh
4:54
century, the Fatimid star began to fade, as
the Shia caliphate was faced with internal
4:59
and external problems.
A dynastic crisis shattered Ismaili unity
5:04
forever in December 1094, when Fatimid Caliph
al-Mustansir passed away. After a 58-year-long
5:12
reign, it was widely expected that his well-prepared
fifty-year-old son - Abu Mansur Nizar - would
5:18
inherit the throne in Cairo. But the powerful
vizier - al-Afdal - effectively controlled
5:24
the government, and wanted to retain personal
power. Upon al-Mustansir’s death, al-Afdal
5:30
organized a palace coup, placing Nizar’s
inexperienced 20-year-old brother Al-Musta'li
5:36
on the throne, knowing that he could control
the latter.
5:40
This usurpation succeeded due to the support
of the caliphate’s armies, as well as religious
5:45
and court notables who were in thrall to al-Afdal,
but Nizar wasn’t going to take it. He fled
5:51
to Alexandria, where he was proclaimed Caliph
by a Turkic governor. The population also
5:57
supported him, and it seemed as though Nizar’s
revolt would be a success. A Nizarist army
6:02
repelled an attack by the vizier’s troops
and even advanced close to Cairo, however
6:08
al-Afdal marshaled his superior resources
and besieged Alexandria, leading to Nizar’s
6:14
surrender in 1095. Soon the rightful Fatimid
ruler had been imprisoned and executed by
6:20
immurement.
Most of the Ismaili religious communities
6:24
in Egypt and Syria eventually came to terms
with the succession. Persian and other adherents
6:30
in the Muslim east, refused, continuing to
support the martyred prince’s house and
6:35
becoming the independent Nizari. One prominent
figure of the Nizari Ismaili would spearhead
6:41
their movement and found what would become
known as the Assassins' Order - Hasan-i Sabbah.
6:48
Although he was born in a Twelver family in
Qom, Iran, at some point around 1050, Hasan
6:53
had been educated in nearby Rey. After initially
believing the Ismaili doctrine to be heretical,
7:00
he came into contact with a prominent local
Ismaili missionary at 17 and was convinced
7:05
of the sect’s legitimacy. To prove his newfound
devotion genuine, Hasan swore allegiance to
7:12
al-Mustansir in faraway Cairo. He then travelled
to Egypt in 1078 and stayed there for three
7:18
years.
During his time in Fatimid lands, Hasan always
7:23
favoured Nizar’s faction and acted against
the vizier - at the time al-Afdal’s father
7:28
- a fact which eventually saw him banished
in early 1081. Having been thus expelled,
7:34
he returned to Isfahan. By this time, the
once majestic Abbasid Caliphate had been all
7:40
but subsumed by the all-conquering Seljuk
Turks. These new invaders established a Sunni
7:47
military empire which stretched from Khurasan
to Anatolia, ruthlessly persecuting Ismaili
7:52
‘heretics’ as they did so. In opposition
to his new Seljuk overlords, Hasan traveled
7:58
their empire as a missionary for 9 years,
gauging their military strength and formulating
8:03
a strategy of resistance.
In 1087, the Ismaili firebrand started dispatching
8:09
other missionaries into the vicinity of a
remote and nigh-invulnerable mountain fortress
8:14
known as Alamut, located in the area just
south of the Caspian Sea, to ‘Ismailize’
8:20
its population. He withstood numerous Seljuk
attempts to stop his underground activity
8:26
and managed to remain in hiding. In late 1090,
Hasan moved via mountainous routes, finally
8:33
slipping into Alamut unnoticed. He lived under
the radar as a religious tutor known as Dihkuhda
8:39
for several months, instructing the children
of Alamut’s garrison and slowly turning
8:44
prominent figures to his side. Eventually,
the castle’s governor realised the infiltration,
8:50
but it was too late. He had been slowly surrounded
by a garrison and population who supported
8:56
Hasan. Incapable of defending himself, the
governor left the castle.
9:01
Alamut’s capture was the beginning of what
would become known as the Nizari Ismaili State,
9:06
and the beginning of a new phase in the Ismailis’
relations with the Turkic sultans whom they
9:12
vehemently opposed. What had previously been
a clandestine, secret society-like movement
9:17
became an open revolt aimed at the very heart
of the Seljuk state, driven by a mix of sectarian
9:23
and Iranian ethnic motivation. Sultan Malik-Shah
I and vizier Nizam al-Mulk were keen to extinguish
9:31
this budding heresy, and launched several
attacks against Alamut, but the castle held
9:37
out against overwhelming military strength.
On the contrary, the Nizaris acquired a second
9:42
enclave of territory in Quhistan after dispatching
missionaries to that area.
9:47
They got a break from the attacks in late
1092, when both the sultan and his anti-Ismaili
9:54
vizier died. It is possible that Nizam al-Mulk
was the very first victim of the Nizari assassins,
10:01
though the evidence is tenuous. Regardless,
the loss of these two plunged the Seljuk empire
10:07
into civil war, essentially fragmenting it
into a mosaic of squabbling fiefs ruled by
10:13
religious and military leaders.
Hasan consolidated his position and expanded
10:19
Ismaili influence, acquiring other formidable
strongholds in the Elburz mountains, among
10:24
them Girdkuh and Lamasar. Rather than being
one contiguous state, the various citadels
10:31
of Hasan’s fortress network were almost
always surrounded by potentially hostile territory.
10:37
Therefore, the disunited Ismaili mountain
castles acted both as an impenetrable defensive
10:42
bastion and a base of operations for religious
and military activity. These eastern Ismaili
10:50
supposedly received congratulations and a
message of goodwill from Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir,
10:55
but after his death and the great Ismaili
schism, Hasan cut all ties with Egypt.
11:01
Although the Seljuk Empire’s post-Malik
Shah weakness removed the immediate threat
11:06
to Hasan’s Ismaili realm, the decentralisation
also made his ultimate goal - the total overthrow
11:13
of the Seljuks - almost impossible. There
was no longer a single figure who could be
11:18
defeated in battle and cast from the throne.
In effect, there was now no central target,
11:25
but a whole gallery of petty kings. Surrounded
by more powerful adversaries and seeking a
11:30
new method of achieving their aims in lieu
of an army, Hasan’s Nizari began to utilize
11:36
another strategy that had been used by Shia
groups for centuries - assassination.
11:41
Though political murder was and is a universal
method of warfare, the Nizari granted it an
11:47
increasingly central role in their political
strategy, knowing how effective it could be.
11:53
This part of Nizari history has been distorted
by groups who were hostile to or unfamiliar
11:59
with them and their practices. For example,
rumours circulated by later Latin sources
12:05
threw the term ‘Hashashin’ around to designate
them, due to the probable fiction of Hashish
12:10
use as inspiration for the assassins. That
being said, there does seem to have been what
12:16
might be called a ‘cult of assassination’
in Alamut and the other fortresses. Nizari
12:21
assassins were known as fi’dai - literally
‘those willing to sacrifice’ - and were
12:26
revered for their bravery and courage. This
was largely because such missions were considered
12:32
suicidal. Nizari leaders dispatched their
fi’dai, who became increasingly professional,
12:38
primarily to dispatch targets who were a known
threat to the Nizari State. This included
12:44
Seljuk viziers, local emirs, and prominent
rulers.
12:48
The Nizaris also managed to expand their influence
into Syria around the time of the First Crusade,
12:54
capturing a few fortresses and intermingling
politically with Seljuk principalities and
12:58
the Christian crusader states. In Persia,
Muhammad Tapar took command of the Turkic
13:04
empire in 1105 and immediately launched a
series of campaigns against all of the Nizari
13:10
territories south of the Caspian Sea. His
main stroke fell on Shahdiz in 1107, which
13:16
fell relatively quickly after a fi’dai failed
to slay one of the sultan’s viziers. For
13:22
over a decade, Seljuk campaigns against the
Nizari continued unabated, resulting in constant
13:28
massacres and persecution of those Ismaili
who could not escape to the castles.
13:33
Many Nizari fortresses fell under the assault,
but finally, when the Seljuks were on the
13:38
verge of taking Alamut in April 1118, Muhammad
Tapar died and the pressure waned. This was
13:45
the beginning of a new phase in Nizari-Seljuk
relations - one of a stalemate due to exhaustion.
13:52
Scores of Ismailis had been slain in the cities,
damaging their support base. Hasan’s three-decade-long
13:59
anti-Seljuk revolt, in which a ‘state’
with no real army had survived, inflicting
14:04
damage on a giant military empire, had failed,
but the Nizari state was still a cohesive
14:10
one. From that point, the focus would turn
to defence and consolidation - the transformation
14:16
of the Nizari state into a permanent one.
Hasan’s attention turned to scholarly pursuits
14:23
and peaceful relations, though the latter
was often achieved by illicit means. For example,
14:30
Hasan received reports that a Seljuk ruler
named Ahmad Sanjar was planning a campaign
14:35
against him. Allegedly, that man woke up one
day to find a dagger thrust into the bed next
14:41
to him, accompanied by a note stating that
Hasan-i Sabbah would like peace. Shocked and
14:47
no doubt slightly terrified, he gave the Nizaris
no further trouble, even promoting a relatively
14:53
tolerant attitude and granting them 4,000
dinars per year as a pension.
14:58
The threat of assassination clearly worked
as well as the deed itself, at least for as
15:04
long as Hasan was alive. However, the Nizari
leader fell ill in 1124 and designated his
15:11
successor, appointing a council of advisors
to guide him in the role. In the same year,
15:17
he passed away inside Alamut at the age of
70, having never left the citadel for thirty-four
15:22
years. An effective stalemate continued for
decades following his death. Often the Nizari
15:29
in Persia or Syria would take a fortress,
only to have another one taken from them.
15:35
There were periods of peace as well as those
of intermittent warfare. Throughout all of
15:40
it, the strongholds of Hasan’s movement
remained cohesive and organised.
15:45
In 1162, a man named Rashid al-Din Sinan was
sent from Persia to lead the Syrian branch
15:52
of Nizari, who had grown in influence in the
half-century since first penetrating into
15:57
the region. Despite being far removed from
one another territorially, the various Nizari
16:03
enclaves all took their orders from the central
leadership in Alamut. This appointee would
16:09
later become known as the Old Man of the Mountain
in the tales of European explorer Marco Polo.
16:15
Sinan immediately delved into the ever-shifting,
interfaith web of political alliances in Syria,
16:21
eventually sending fi’dais to assassinate
an up-and-coming Muslim leader who sought
16:26
to unify the region - Saladin. The Nizari
killers failed twice, once after invading
16:33
the Ayyubid ruler’s military encampment
and once during his siege of Azaz. Sinan’s
16:38
headquarters at Masyaf was besieged in response,
but it did not fall, and a compromise was
16:44
eventually reached between the two great men.
One of most notorious assassinations of Sinan’s
16:51
rule occurred during the closing stages of
the Third Crusade. A rivalry had existed between
16:57
Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart
since the venture’s early stages, which
17:02
prompted both men to support different candidates
for the crown of Jerusalem. Much to King Richard’s
17:08
anger, the highly competent Conrad of Montferrat
was unanimously elected to the throne of Jerusalem.
17:14
However, the prospective monarch would never
be crowned. At noon on April 28th 1192, the
17:22
Frankish crusader lord was returning from
having lunch with his friend - the Bishop
17:26
of Beauvais - accompanied by a few guards.
On his walk, Conrad was approached by two
17:32
Christian monks whom he had become familiar
with recently. A conversation began between
17:38
the two groups, putting Conrad’s guards
at ease with the seemingly innocuous men.
17:43
At that moment of greatest vulnerability,
they suddenly sprang forward with daggers,
17:48
brutally stabbing the king-elect with at least
two blows to the side and back.
17:53
Although the assassins - who were fi’dai
dispatched by Rashid al-Din Sinan - were either
17:58
killed or captured, Conrad either died instantly
from his wounds or soon after being taken
18:04
to a nearby church. Various motivations and
culprits have been designated for the murder.
18:10
Richard the Lionheart was accused because
of his enmity towards Conrad, while a letter
18:15
to Austria’s Leopold V detailed Conrad’s
murder of a shipwrecked Nizari crew in Tyre
18:21
as the cause of his death. Whatever the case,
this killing only furthered the mythical European
18:27
vision of mysterious assassins who did not
fear death. These later decades of the twelfth-century
18:34
marked a high point of the Syrian Nizaris
in particular, a period that came to an end
18:39
when Rashid al-Din Sinan died at Masyaf in
1193. The thirteenth-century was dawning,
18:46
and it would be the equivalent of an apocalypse
for the Ismailis.
18:50
At the beginning of the 13th century, the
Mongol juggernaut rolled through the Islamic
18:55
world, crushing all in its path. The khans
became famous for their utilization of talented
19:01
native peoples from the lands they conquered,
and this apparently included a number of Sunni
19:07
courtiers, who despised the Ismaili. They
must have known of the Nizari’s reputation
19:12
for defiance, in addition to their penchant
for assassination. Perhaps after adding a
19:17
few more fanciful details, these tales must
have greatly concerned the khan, who viewed
19:23
them as a risk.
After initial lukewarm relations, Muhammad
19:27
III of Alamut received a dreadful shock in
1246. Upon the ascension of Ogedei’s successor
19:34
Guyuk, many Muslim leaders sent embassies
of congratulations and gifts to the great
19:39
khan. Out of them, only the Nizari ambassadors
were harshly dismissed. To back up this hostile
19:46
stance, the khan proclaimed that of every
ten reinforcements he would send to Persia,
19:52
two must be used to reduce rebellious lands,
prominently those of the Ismaili. This was
19:58
a policy that Guyuk’s successor Mongke,
who desired complete and total domination
20:04
of western Asia, mimicked.
Despite offering ferocious resistance, the
20:09
Mongol pressure was simply too great. On November
19th 1256 the final Nizari imam - Khurshah
20:16
- surrendered Alamut to Hulagu and was initially
shown mercy. After being escorted from his
20:23
lands, however, he was unceremoniously killed
in the Khangai mountains. Back in Persia,
20:29
the walls of captured Nizari fortresses were
torn down, vast libraries of knowledge were
20:34
torched and thousands of civilians slaughtered.
One by one the mountain strongholds fell,
20:40
with their fi’dais putting up a desperate
fight. The final Ismaili castle of Girdkuh
20:46
fell on December 15th 1270.
The violent destruction of Hasan-i Sabbah’s
20:52
Alamut-based state put an end to Nizari statehood
forever. Against all the odds, the Nizari
20:58
did survive into the modern-day and are currently
led by their 49th imam - Aga Khan IV - from
21:05
the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, with an
estimated 15 million followers in more than
21:10
25 countries. Although these Nizaris are far
less militant, the story of self-sacrificing
21:17
predecessors continues to shine brightly in
their memories.
21:22
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21:41
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