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List of assassinations by the Order of the Assassins

An obituary listing eight victims of the Nizari Ismaʿili assassins. Folio from a manuscript assembled at the court of Shah Rukh (r. 1405–1447), Iran, Herat (now Afghanistan), early 15th century

List of assassinations and assassination attempts attributed to the Assassins (the Nizaris of Alamut), active in Western Asia, Central Asia, and Egypt, in the 11th through 13th centuries.

Background

The Assassins were a group of Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslims that, by capturing or building impregnable forts, established a "state" of their own inside the hostile territories of the Seljuk Empire, a Sunni Muslim government, first in Persia and later in Iraq and the Levant. Lacking a conventional army, in order to survive, they started using unconventional tactics such as assassination of prominent enemy figures and psychological warfare.

Assassination

The precise ideology that motivated the assassins are unclear.[1][2] Most of the assassinations by the Nizaris took place during the first decades of their struggle, which helped them to create a local political power. Their first and boldest assassination was that of Nizam al-Mulk, the vizier and de facto ruler of the Seljuk Empire.[3][2]

Assassination of the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk

[The assassination of Nizam al-Mulk] was the first of a long series of such attacks which, in a calculated war of terror, brought sudden death to sovereigns, princes, generals, governors, and even divines who had condemned Ismaili doctrines and authorized the suppression of those who professed them.

— Bernard Lewis.[4]
Edward I of England thwarts an assassination attempt. The assassination attempt contributed to the termination of the Ninth Crusade.

Those assassinated were usually the enemies of the Nizari Ismaili sect, but also sometimes people of political importance who were killed in exchange for money paid by some local ruler.[5] This tactic caused resentment against them, and there is a correlation between the assassinations and subsequent massacres of the Nizaris. This tactic gradually declined and the later attributed assassinations are probably of local origination.[3][2] It should be taken into account that medieval Arabic sources generally tend to attribute most of the assassinations of this period to the Ismailis.[6]

The assassins gained access to the victims through betrayal of confidence and carried out the attack in a ritual manner.[1][2] Some of the assassins were sleeper cells, notably by befriending or being employed by the victim, sometimes remaining unrecognized for years.[7]

The names of the assassin and their victims were written in a roll of honor kept in Alamut Castle, recorded by later Muslim authors.[1][2]

List

References

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  2. ^ a b c d e Bressler, Richard (2018). The Thirteenth Century: A World History. McFarland. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4766-7185-7.
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  5. ^ Hastings, James; Selbie, John Alexander; Gray, Louis Herbert (1910). Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Scribner. p. 140b.
  6. ^ Mirza, Nasseh Ahmad (1997). Syrian Ismailism: The Ever Living Line of the Imamate, AD 1100-1260. Psychology Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780700705054.
  7. ^ Gonzalez, Nathan (13 December 2013). The Sunni-Shia Conflict: Understanding Sectarian Violence in the Middle East. Nortia Media Ltd. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-9842252-1-7.
  8. ^ Waterson, James, The Ismaili Assassins. A history of medieval murder (Yorkshire, 2008) 79
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao رشیدالدین فضل‌الله همدانی 1381.
  10. ^ واحددرآبادی, رقیه; برومند, صفورا. "اتهام به الحاد و مصادیق آن در دوران سلجوقیان" (PDF). پژوهش نامه تاریخ اجتماعی و اقتصادی (in Persian). 4 (1): 83–102. ISSN 2383-1278.
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  21. ^ Ḵallikān, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b Muḥammad Ibn (1842). Biographical Dictionary. Oriental Translation Fund. p. 506.
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  26. ^ a b c d روشن 1387, p. 157
  27. ^ a b c روشن 1387, p. 156
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