The Assassins

by Bernard Lewis

Paperback, 2002

Status

Available

Call number

297.822

Genres

History

General Nonfiction

Religion & Spirituality

All Topics

Nonfiction

Collection

Gifts

Publication

Basic Books (2002), Edition: Reissue, 191 pages

Description

The word 'Assassin' was brought back from Syria by the Crusaders, and in time acquired the meaning of murderer. Originally it was applied to the members of a Muslim religious sect - a branch of the Ismailis, and the followers of a leader known as the Old Man of the Mountain. Their beliefs and their methods made them a by-word for both fanaticism and terrorism in Syria and Persia in the 11th and 12th centuries, and the subject of a luxuriant growth of myth and legend. In this book, Bernard Lewis begins by tracing the development of these legends in medieval and modern Europe and the gradual percolation of accurate knowledge concerning the Ismailis. He then examines the origins and activities of the sect, on the basis of contemporary Persian and Arabic sources, and against the background of Middle Eastern and Islamic history. In a final chapter he discusses some of the political, social and economic implications of the Ismailis, and examines the significance of the Assassins in the history of revolutionary and terrorist movements.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bruce_krafft

Perhaps if I had read something other then Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cooks book A Writer's Tale just prior to this I may have found it less dry and dare I say boring. I have always been intrigued by this group and what their history might be, but unfortunately I don’t think that this book added

anything significant to what I already knew, perhaps I was sleeping when I read most of it.. Yes, they used assassination as a political tool, but where are the details? How did they train, what percentage of their population were actual assassins? What did they believe? How did their beliefs change? Near the end he writes “More and more, their religion acquires the magical and emotional qualities, the redemptionist and millenarian hopes, associated with the cults of the dispossessed, the disprivilaged and the unstable. Ismaili theology had ceased to be, and did not again become, a serious alternative to the new orthodoxy that was dominating the intellectual life of the cities . . .” If the author has enough information to make such a statement then he should have enough information to tell us what their theology was and how it evolved or perhaps devolved in some more detail then was provided in this book. Details, details, I want relevant details. For example I don’t care that Virgo was in ascendancy and the sun was in Cancer when Hasan ala dhikrihi’l-salam-Hasan freed his followers from the burden of Holy law, I want to know why. I mean on page 72 we are told about his speech telling his followers that they are the Chosen and no longer have to follow the Holy Law (1164) and on the top of page 75 we are told that he was stabbed in 1166. Call me crazy but I think that there might have been a bit more information. Really that’s about the equivalent of Billy Graham telling Christians that Jesus is really the son of the Devil and by following the 10 Commandments you are going to burn in Hell. How did the different groups of Isamilis react? What was the reaction of the Sunni’s? How about the little snippet that Jalal al-Din Hasan was ‘strongly attached to his devoutly Sunni mother’? How do we know he was strongly attached and how did he, the son of an Ismaili leader come to have a devoutly Sunni mother? On the other hand, as it is written it didn’t take up too much of my time to read. . . now I only have 79 books left on my 999 list.

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LibraryThing member RandyStafford

My reactions to reading this book in 1990.

This book would have been more useful if I knew more of Islam and Arabic history, but I still found it interesting. I was disappointed that much of what I've heard about the Assassins is more legend (the Garden of Delights, the assassinations in Europe)

then fact.

Still, there was plenty of interest including the heretical aspects of the Assassins, that the word assassin meant a very faithful person or lover before it meant murderer in Europe, and that the Assassins can be considered the world's first true terrorists. There are stories of them terrorizing their fellow Arabs -- uusally by revealing a ruler's intimates as Assassins -- and extorting favors and money from them. Their relations with the Crusaders are covered including the famous killing of the King of Jerusalem -- possibly at the behest of Richard the Lion Hearted. And, yes, the relationship between the Templars and Assassins is covered. The latter paid tribute to the Templar's hierarchy's immunity to intimidation), and their fanatical character which scorned escape.

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