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Order of Assassins
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==Overview== The Assassins were founded by [[Hassan-i Sabbah]]. The state was formed in 1090 after the capture of [[Alamut Castle]] in the [[Alborz]] mountain range of Persia, which served as the Assassins' headquarters. The Alamut and [[Lambsar Castle|Lambsar]] castles became the foundation of a network of [[List of Ismaili castles|Isma'ili fortresses]] throughout Persia and Syria that formed the backbone of Assassin power, and included Syrian strongholds at [[Masyaf Castle|Masyaf]], [[Abu Qubays, Syria|Abu Qubays]], [[al-Qadmus]] and [[Al-Kahf Castle|al-Kahf]]. The Western world was introduced to the Assassins by the works of [[Marco Polo]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDh8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT53|title=The Travels of Marco Polo|last=Komroff|first=Manuel|date=2013|publisher=Read Books Ltd|isbn=978-1446545997|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15|archive-date=2023-12-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204025330/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDh8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT53#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> who understood the name as deriving from the word [[hashish]].<ref name="Lewis30" /><ref name="Daftary12" /><ref name="Daftary13" /> While Assassins typically refers to the entire group, only a group of disciples known as the ''[[Fedayeen|fida'i]]'' actually engaged in conflict. The preferred method of killing was by dagger, nerve poison or arrows.{{cn|date=April 2025}} The Assassins posed a substantial strategic threat to [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]], [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]], and [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk]] authority. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds – including three caliphs, a ruler of Jerusalem and several Muslim and Christian leaders.<ref name="Acosta-21">{{cite book|last1=Acosta|first1=Benjamin|editor1-last=Stanton|editor1-first=Andrea L.|editor2-last=Ramsamy|editor2-first=Edward|title=Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia|date=2012|publisher=Sage|page=21|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC&q=history+Hashishin+killed+caliphs&pg=PA21|access-date=October 13, 2015|chapter=Assassins|isbn=978-1412981767|archive-date=December 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204025309/https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC&q=history+Hashishin+killed+caliphs&pg=PA21#v=snippet&q=history%20Hashishin%20killed%20caliphs&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Notable [[List of assassinations by the Assassins|victims of the Assassins]] include [[Janah ad-Dawla]], emir of [[Homs]], (1103), [[Mawdud|Mawdud ibn Altuntash]], [[atabeg]] of [[Mosul]] (1113), Fatimid vizier [[Al-Afdal Shahanshah]] (1121), Seljuk atabeg [[Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi]] (1126), Fatimid caliph [[Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah|al-Amir bi-Ahkami’l-Lah]] (1130), [[Taj al-Muluk Buri|Taj al-Mulk Buri]], atabeg of [[Damascus]] (1132), and Abbasid caliphs [[al-Mustarshid]] (1135) and [[Ar-Rashid (1109–1138)|ar-Rashid]] (1138). [[Saladin]], a major foe of the Assassins, escaped assassination twice (1175–1176). The first [[Franks|Frank]] known to have been killed by the Assassins was [[Raymond II, Count of Tripoli]], in 1152. The Assassins were acknowledged and feared by the [[Crusaders]], losing the ''[[de facto]]'' [[King of Jerusalem]], [[Conrad of Montferrat]], to an Assassin's blade in 1192 and [[Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre|Lord Philip of Montfort]] of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] in 1270. The [[Ismaili]] Assassins were created to revive the Shi'a Ismaili [[Fatimid Caliphate]] in Egypt, which had been destroyed by the [[Sunni]] [[Seljuks]]. Their primary tactic was to kill the Sunni leaders in as public a place as possible - usually at [[Friday prayers]]. Accounts of the Assassins were preserved within Western, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian sources where they are depicted as trained killers, responsible for the systematic elimination of opposing figures. European [[Oriental studies|orientalists]] in the 19th and 20th centuries also referred to the Isma'ili Assassins in their works, writing about them based on accounts in seminal works by medieval Arab and Persian authors, particularly [[ibn al-Qalanisi]]'s ''Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq'' (''Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus''), ibn al-Athir's ''[[Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh|al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh]]'' (''The Complete History''), and Juvayni's ''[[Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini|Tarīkh-i Jahān-gushā]]'' (''History of the World Conqueror'')''.'' The Order would finally come to an end during the rule of [[Imam]] [[Rukn-ud-Din Khurshah|Rukn al-Din Khurshah]] when the Isma'ili State was eventually destroyed as Khurshah surrendered the castles after the [[Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia|Mongol invasion of Persia]]. Khurshah died in 1256 and, by 1275, the [[Mongols]] had destroyed and eliminated the order of Assassins.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wasserman|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c10oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115|title=The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven|date=2001|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-59477-873-5|pages=115|language=en|access-date=2021-10-10|archive-date=2023-12-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204025331/https://books.google.com/books?id=c10oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>
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