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