SPECULUM

A JOURNAL OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES

VOL. XXII OCTOBER, 1947 No. 4

THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

BY CHARLES E. NOWELL

THE ASSASSINS were probably in their heyday, the fiercest of the fanatical sects
that have terrorized the Islamic world. They were founded in the eleventh cen-
tury by Hassan Sabbah the Persian, who became their first grand master. After
his time, the Assassins were divided into two branches—one Persian and the other
Syrian—though a connection still existed between them. The grand masters of both
divisions had a title which European crusaders translated as 'The Old Man of the
Mountain.' Under this name their memory has lasted both in history and in leg-
end. They still symbolize the idea of vendetta and murder to many people who
know nothing of the original Assassins and the idea behind their gruesome exis-
tence.
The Assassins and their 'Old Men' are important in history for several reasons.
For one thing, they played a destructive, revolutionary role during a critical time
in the development of Islam. For another, they had important dealings with the
European Christians during the Crusades. Finally, the odd reports that reached
the outside world about their life and conduct gave them a curious place in legend
and fanciful literature.
The Assassins were one of the outgrowths of the great Moslem schism dating
from the time of Mohammed.1 The prophet died in 632, leaving no sons and
appointing no successor. Many of the faithful thought that Ali, cousin of Moham-
med and husband of his daughter, Fatima, was the rightful successor (Arabic
'Caliph').2 But Ali was passed over successively in favor of the pious Abu-Bekr,
the warlike Omar, and the weak Othman. Only on the latter's death in 656 did the
now aging Ali gain the Caliphate, to die in a revolution five years later.
This rough-and-ready handling of the succession problem split Islam into its
two original sects. The Sunnites, who consider themselves the orthodox, have
maintained ever since that Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman were legitimate succes-
sors to the Prophet. The rival Shiites say that all three were usurpers and that the
true succession to Mohammed began only with Ali, in whose family the Caliphate
still rightly belongs.
The schism steadily sapped the strength and unity of Islam. When Ali died, his
1
C. Huart, Histoire des Arabes, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912-1913), especially I, 211-810.
2
Ibid., i, 330.

497
498 The Old Man of the Mountain
children lost the Caliphate to the Ommeyads, who ruled from Damascus for
nearly a century and succeeded in preserving at least a superficial unity among
Moslems. But in 750 they fell before the black banner of the House of Abbas. The
Abbassids moved the capital to Bagdad and the Caliphate began to disintegrate.
Spain and North Africa first fell away, and before long the hold on the eastern
provinces weakened.
The descendents of Ali, meanwhile, were highly venerated by all Shiites, who
were especially strong in Persia. But even the partisans of this family split into
wings, as the progeny of Ali grew more numerous and disputes arose as to just
which branch inherited the ancestral claims. We are concerned here mostly with
the faction called the Ismailites. They believed that the dignity of Imam, which
means interpreter of religious doctrines, had passed in an unbroken line from Ali
to one of his descendents named Ismail. When Ismail died, the Imamate contin-
ued, but now, to use modern terms, it went underground and was transmitted to a
succession of persons unknown to the world. Some day the Iman would emerge
from retirement to announce himself, but no man could tell exactly when that day
would come. WThen he appeared, the House of Ali would be restored to power and
Moslems would begin living under a new dispensation, in which many of Moham-
med's laws would be changed. Here then, was a Messianic hope, and the Ismai-
lites confidently awaited its fulfillment. The fact that the Imam had no date set
for his coming, but would appear in his own good time, naturally caused theories
about him to multiply and furnished a standing invitation to pretenders.
In the tenth century, the Fatimites, a dynasty holding the Ismailite doctrines,
seized the throne of Egypt and established a dynasty there that lasted until the
time of Saladin. Their missionaries later spread Ismailite propaganda in eastern
Islamic countries, which already had many Shiite partisans. By the eleventh cen-
tury, Persia had been overrun by the Seljuk Turks, who ruled it with no more
than lip-service to the expiring Abbassid Calpihate. The Turks, in so far as they
had any interest in the old Arabic feuds, tended to be Sunnites. No doubt this
preference shown by the conquerors strengthened the Shiite element among the
vassal Persians.
One of the converts to the Egyptian Ismailite belief was Hassan Sabbah. To
pave the way for the rule of Ali's family, Hassan set out to overthrow both the
Abbassid Caliphs and the Seljuk rulers. To do this, he employed organized mur-
der for removing and intimidating his enemies. He partly succeeded in his main
ambitions and when he died in 1124, well stricken in years, no man on earth was
more feared.
Hassan was a native of Ray in Persia. Authentic details about his life are
scarce, because most of the Moslem historians detested his memory and garbled
the facts. The widest known story is the one, made popular by Edward Fitzgerald,
that he attended school with the poet Omar Khayyam and with the Nizam ul Mulk,
later wazir of the Seljuk empire. This has been shown to be mere fable.3 Fabulous,
3
H. Bowen, 'The sar-gudhasht-i sayyidna, the "Tale of the Three Schoolfellows" and the wasaya
of the Nizam al-Mulk,' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1931, pp. 771-782.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 499
too, are most of the Moslem stories about the organization and beliefs of the
Assassins.4
But a few facts can still be accepted. One is that Hassan, in 1090, seized by
stratagem the rock fortress of Alamut in the Rudbar district of northwestern
Iran.6 He made this the headquarters of the Persian Ismailites, and it remained
their leading stronghold until the Mongol khan, Hulagu, captured the place in
1256 and broke their power. Hassan attracted many followers and his religious
hold was strong enough to make fanatics of some of them. From Alamut, he ex-
tended his power by terrorism or sincere conversion over surrounding Persian
castles and districts. In the meantime, he adopted an extensive program of public
works to improve the position of his citadel. He had a canal dug to bring water
from a distance to the foot of the castle and saw to it that fruit trees were planted
around his fortress. All this was undertaken with a utilitarian purpose easy to
understand. Alamut was now the capital of a state, so it must maintain a large
population and be ready at any time to stand a siege. Moslem writers who used
contemporary or almost contemporary sources, knew the purpose behind these im-
provements and described them in matter-of-fact terms.6 But later generations
missed the point entirely and built fantastic legends about the function and pur-
pose of Alamut. Two European writers, Marco Polo and Odoric of Pordenone,
helped propagate these stories in the West.7 Both Marco and Odoric were convinced
that something akin to the delights of Moslem paradise flourished within the rock
citadels of the Assassins. Whether they referred in their travel accounts to Ala-
mut or to some nearby Assassin stronghold does not matter greatly, because later
tradition ignored the other places and concentrated on Hassan's original con-
quest. But ideas of oriental luxury simply will not fit with the castles of north-
western Persia or with the rigid austerity of Hassan, which was forced on all his
disciples.
Everybody now knows that the word 'Assassin' comes from Hashshashin,
meaning users of the drug hashish (cannabis indica). Presumably the dagger-men
of Hassan's sect were given this as a stimulant to their murderous work. But the
connection between hashish and 'Assassin' was slow to penetrate the European
mind. Writers during the crusades had much to say about the sect, whose branch
establishment the Christians encountered in Syria, but they did not know why
the Old Man's followers were called Assassins. William of Tyre, one of the best of
* W. Ivanow, 'An Ismailitic work by Nasiru'd-din Tusi,' ibid., p. 535. European books which follow
the traditional notions about the Assassins are Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, The History of the
Assassins, transl. Oswald Charles Wood (London, 1835), and B. Bouthoul, Le Grand Maitre des Assas-
sins (Paris, 1936). Von Hammer used oriental sources, but as these were violently hostile to the
Assassins, his book is mostly a diatribe against them and does not fairly present their beliefs. Bou-
thoul's work, though written a century later, is much the same.
6
Mirkhond [a Persian historian], 'Le jardin de la purete, contenant l'histoire des prophetes, des
rois, et des khalifs,' transl. and ed. A. Jourdain, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque
Imperiole, ix (1813), 154-155; M. C. Defremery, 'Documents sur l'histoire des Ismaeliens ou Batin-
iens de la Perse,' Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., xv (1860), 164-166.
6
Mirkhond, Notices et extraits, ix (1813), 155.
7
See footnotes 88-92.
500 The Old Man of the Mountain

these historians, admitted his ignorance in so many words,8 and the others gave no
reason to believe that they knew. In the eighteenth century, the French scholar,
Falconet, made an elaborate study of the Assassins, but the explanation he offered
of their name was wide of the mark.9 Gibbon, in the Decline and Fall, gave them
some attention, and of course understood that they were responsible for the
English word 'assassinate.'10 But he did not know what lay back of the name. Not
until the first part of the nineteenth century did the orientalist, Silvestre de Sacy,
work out the etymology of 'Assassin' so thoroughly that no doubt has remained.11
The hashish drug, known also as Indian hemp or bhang,12 is in wide use through-
out the Moslem world at present. But in the time of Hassan and his immediate
successors it was rare, at least in Persia.13 Apparently the secret of its properties
was confined to the Ismailite leaders, who knew how to dole it out to their fol-
lowers so as to get the best results.
The effect hashish has on the brain and the nervous system depends on the
amount that is taken. A small dose will act as a refresher and will increase the
staying powers of the user.14 A larger portion acts as an intoxicant and gives
courage, so that reckless acts seem easy to perform.16 Still more of the drug will
raise the taker to a pitch of emotion that drives him insane and makes him a hom-
icidal maniac.16.
We cannot say for certain how much hashish was given to the servants of
Hassan, but external evidence points to a limited consumption. The factual
accounts we have of the Assassins on their murder missions are not stories of mad-
men but of patient, resourceful schemers, whose cunning at times could be diabol-
ical. The hashish taker, we must remember, was a fanatic to begin with, and he
needed no stimulant to murderous deeds. But a preliminary period of tranquil
bliss induced by the drug would have made it easy for him to believe the Old
Man's promise that if he died in line of duty the delights of paradise would be his.
8
'Notre peuple, aussi bien que les Sarrasins, les appelle Assissins, sans qu'il me soit possible de
savoir d'ou leur est venu ce nom. . . . " Guillaume de Tyr, Ilistoire des croisades, in Collection des
mhnoires relatifs a Vhistoire de France, ed. M. Guizot, 31 vols. (Paris, 1823-1835), xvm, 297.
9
M. Falconet, 'Dissertation sur les Assassins, peuple d'Asie, premiere partie,' and 'Dissertation sur
les Assassins, peuple d'Asie, seconde partie,' MSmoires de litUrature tire's des registres de V Academie
Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, x v n (1751), 127-170. Worth noting, too, is the anonymous
'Eclaircissemens sur quelques circoiistances de l'histoire du Vieux de la Montaigne, Prince des Assas-
sins,' ibid., xvi (1751), 155-165.
10
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. lxiv.
11
Silvestre de Sacy, 'Memoire sur la dynastie des Assassins,' Histoire et mSmoires de Vlnstitul Royale
de la France, 2d ser., iv (1818), 1-84, especially 46-66.
12
E. G. Browne, in A literary history of Persia from Firdawsi to Sa'adi (London, 1906), p. 205, gives
three other Persian expressions, 'The green parrot,' 'the mysteries,' and 'Master Sayyid,' all meaning
hashish. Browne explains the Persian tendency to avoid the real name of the drug by the evil repute
it has, probably due to its original association with the dreaded murder sect.
" Ibid.
14
E . N. Chopra and G. S. Chopra, The Present Position of Hemp Drug Addiction in India (Calcutta,
1933), p. 25.
16
Ibid., pp. 25-26.
" Ibid.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 501
The drug was a sweetener, to give a foretaste of that beautiful place where the
taker might soon expect to be.
Prolonged indulgence in hashish brings mental and physical lethargy. An Assas-
sin who took too much would soon be unfit for the kind of work he had to do.
This increases our belief that drug consumption by Hassan's people was not only
limited but occasional, and confined to the ones selected for dangerous work.
These Hashshdshin, or Assassins, eventually had their name given popularly to
the entire sect, to most of whose members it did not correctly apply..
Rank within the order was according to degree of initiation. Among the lowest
in the scale were the Hashshdshln, whose correct title was Fidd'is (self-sacrificing
agents).17 They were young men who existed only to be the blind instruments of
the grand master. Their careers would reach a climax and termination on the day
when, drugged with hashish or in a state of religious exaltation, they plunged
daggers into the Old Man's elected victims and paid immediately with their own
lives. But we must not suppose that the Fidd'is were mere ignorant youths, fit
only for knife-play. Often their missions required cunning and patience. Since
they had usually to sail under false colors to get within reach of their prey, they
needed a considerable education, sometimes having to speak foreign languages
fluently and to assume the manners and habits of alien cultures. In the thirteenth
century, a group of Assassins hung about Karakorum in Mongolia, waiting for a
chance, which in this case never came, to kill the Grand Khan, Mangu.18 At an
earlier time, another group waited in Tyre to knife Conrad of Montferrat. They
slew Conrad, after having passed for months as Christians and having won the
confidence of the crusaders.19
Hassan built up the Assassin power from the time he seized Alamut until, in the
words of a bitter Moslem historian, 'he departed to hell.'20 In the meantime, he
had several narrow escapes from disaster. The Nizam ul-Mulk, wazir of the still-
powerful Seljuk empire, saw the menace of the sect and resolved to suppress it.
Once Hassan had to stand a siege and just missed being captured. Another time
he lost Alamut, though he soon regained possession. Evidently the Nizam was
preparing to exert the full Seljuk power, in the face of which the Assassins could
not last long. So Hassan struck, using his own method. One of his Fidd'is, dis-
guised as a Sufi, or ascetic, went to Nihavand, where the wazir was staying, won
admittance to his presence, and stabbed him to death.21 This murder was only the
first of many spectacular killings. From that time on, no powerful man in eastern
Islam could feel safe if he got in the bad graces of the masters of Alamut. A
sultan, a whole host of provincial governors, and finally a caliph, fell before the
indomitable Fidd'is. These cared nothing for their own lives, and seemed to enjoy
17
Browne writes ' . . . the Fida'is or "Self-devoted ones," the "Destroying Angels," and ministers
of vengeance of the Order, . . .' op. (At., p. 206.
18
The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, transl. and ed. William W.
Rockhill (London, Hakluyt Society, 1900), p. 222.
'»Infra.
20
Defremery, Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., xv (1860), 188.
21
Ibid., p. 177; Mirkhond, Notices et extraits, ix (1813), 156.
502 The Old Man of the Mountain
killing their victims in the most conspicuous places and under the most dramatic
circumstances.
The Assassins contributed to the success of the first crusade, though that was
no part of Hassan's intention. By the reign of Melik Shah, the Seljuk empire,
which extended from Antioch to Khorasan, was tottering and showing signs of
breaking up. This sultan's death, a few months after that of the Nizam ul-Mulk,
was the signal for disintegration. Melik Shah's two sons fought over what was
left of the empire, and the Assassins' blows, which were struck repeatedly, pro-
duced a demoralization that ruined any chance of resurrecting the Turkish power.
If the crusading Europeans had faced a united Seljuk empire instead of a number
of weak succession states, it is doubtful whether all the valor of Godfrey, Tancred,
and the rest, would have been equal to the capture of Jerusalem.
Hassan spent his last years as a recluse in Alamut and seldom showed himself
in public. But, for all his aloofness, he kept power firmly in hand, and his death
sentences fell on those about him as readily as on distant enemies. He killed one
of his two sons because of a false charge of misconduct, and though Hassan re-
gretted his hastiness on learning the truth, he later put the other son to death for
drinking wine.22 A man who frivolously disturbed the puritan austerity of Alamut
with flute-playing was expelled from the fortress forever.23 These cases, which
seem to be well authenticated, dispel the legend that Hassan made his castle an
imitation paradise for the indoctrination of the Fidd'is.
When this first 'Old Man of the Mountain' died, his successors carried on in the
same style for several generations. But the fourth grand master, another Hassan,
who ruled from 1162 to 1166, took a revolutionary step. He claimed divine honors
for himself, saying that he was the Imam for whom all Ismailites had been wait-
ing. He actually seceded from the religion of Islam and declared that with him a
new dispensation had begun. Moreover, he made public to all his followers the
secret doctrines of the Ismailites, known only to the leaders of the order up to
then.24
Hassan had taken a false step. It so weakened the Persian Assassins that they
never recovered their former prestige. They lasted for almost another century and
the later _grand masters nominally adhered to Islam or not as they individually
chose. But the Syrian branch of the order, which had been started in the lifetime
of Hassan Sabbah, now became the more active and was in fact, if not in theory,
the leading one. Assassins are reported operating in Syria as early as 1100, under
the protection of a Seljuk prince named Ridhouan, who ruled in Aleppo.26 They
committed their first Syrian murder two years later, when they struck down
Djenah Eddaulah Hosein, prince of Emessa, as he was departing to make war on
the Christian crusaders.26 Soon afterward, the Assassins began to acquire fortres-
22
Defremery, op. eit., p. 18S.
s
' Ibid.
24
Ibid., pp. 194-210; Mirkhond, op. tit., pp. 164-167.
26
Defremery, 'Nouvelles recherches sur les Ismaeliens on Bathiniens de Syrie,' Journal Asialique,
5th ser., m (1854), 376; R. D. Osborn, 'The Sect of the Assassins,' Calcutta Review, LVI (1878), 44.
26
Defremery, Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., in, 878.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 503
ses in Syria, following their practice in Persia. Their two strongest castles were
Kadmous and Masyad, both located well to the north.27 During the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, they had frequent relations with the crusaders. Their grand
master was also an 'Old Man of the Mountain'; in fact the Europeans got the
name from him and not the Persian Assassin leader. Through the whole history of
the order the Persian 'Old Man' outranked the Syrian and was theoretically the
head of all Assassins. But this suzereignty, which was definite and acknowledged
at the beginning, became a vague and uncertain thing after the apostasy from
Islam and the other foolish acts of the second Hassan.
During the first crusade there was still no Syrian Old Man of the Mountain.
But the Chanson de VAntioche, as revised during the twelfth century by Graindor
de Douay, interpolates 'Li Vius de la Montaigne' into the story of the capture of
Antioch. The Old Man sends to offer the hand of his daughter in marriage to
Baldwin, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon. Baldwin accepts and goes to -Rohais
(Edessa) to claim his bride, where he also receives from 'Li Vius' a shirt, which is
to insure the crusader's everlasting fidelity.28
Although the appearance of the Old Man during the first crusade is anachro-
nistic, Graindor had a factual basis for his story. The man who invited Baldwin to
Edessa was really Theodore, the elderly Armenian ruler of that city, who had no
sons of his own and who wished, by adopting the Christian leader, to gain a prop
for his old age.29 The story of the shirt is not all invention either, because
Theodore accepted Baldwin as a son and a linen garment played some part in the
adoption ceremony. Guibert de Nogent, who describes the formula they went
through, says that a shirt always figured in adoptions in that country.30 Baldwin
also married an Armenian wife, Arda, but she was the daughter not of Theodore
but of a nobleman named Taphnuz.31
In the early years of the twelfth century, as the Christians spread their con-
quests in the Holy Land and Syria, they made the acquaintance of the Assassins.
Many of their historians had something to say about the sect, and what they
gave was usually a mixture of information and misinformation.
One point which the Christian authors usually missed was the secret of the Old
Man's authority over his followers.S2 They knew how absolute it was, and their
stories to illustrate his control usually gained in the telling. Some of them seemed
to think that the Old Man kept Fidd'is33 on hand principally to entertain his
" Ibid., pp. 380, 419.
28
Le chanson £ Antioche, ed. Paulin Paris, 2 vols. (Paris, 1868), I, 181-185.
19
Anouar Hatem, Les poemes Spiques des croisades (Paris, 1982), pp. 181-182.
30
'Adoptationis autem talis pro gentis consuetudine dicitur fuisse modus. Intra lineam interulam,
quam nos vocamus camisiam, nudum intrare eum faciens, sibi adstrinxit; et haec omnis osculo libato
firmavit; idem et mulier post modum fecit.' Cited by Anouar Hatem, p. 183.
31
Ibid., p. 182.
a
Leonardo Olschki, in his Storia letteraria delle scoperte geografiche (Florence, 1937), pp. 217-218,
brings out this point strongly. Nevertheless, I think it is wrong to state the point without some qualifi-
cation. A few of the Christian writers came somewhere near the correct interpretation.
** Needless to say, Christian authors did not usually pay much attention to the grades of initiation
within the Assassin order. A few passages show, however, that they understood some of the younger
members to be a special class, marked for sacrifice.
504 The Old Man of the Mountain
guests by leaping to death from cliffs or castles. From first to last the Christian
writers did not understand that here they were dealing with religious fanaticism.
Some had an inkling of the truth, but generally they had other explanations for
this phenonenal devotion and obedience. They laid the Old Man's hold variously
to magic, to the drugs he gave, and to the promises he held out of granting admis-
sion to some terrestrial paradise. A few came nearer the truth by explaining the
care he took to indoctrinate his young men, but they had no clear ideas about the
kind of indoctrination. Just as they never made much effort to learn the finer
points of Islam, which they despised, so also they did not bother to find out what
lay behind the Assassin practices. If they had cared, they could have learned, at
least in part.34 The general dogma of the Ismailites was known all through the
Near East, and the most ignorant Moslem could have told their views in broad
outline.
This common European ignorance of the real Assassin purpose is obvious to
anyone who reads the historians of the Crusades. But there is some evidence that
at least one crusading organization, the Templars, understood the situation some-
what better.
Over a century ago, Von Hammer Purgstall pointed out the strong resemblance
between the Assassins and the Christian order of the Templars.36 Although Von
Hammer's general conclusions about the Assassins seem to be unreliable or out-
moded, his judgment on this point is still worth considering. Several facts bear
him out, and although nothing can be proved positively from them, they point to
an Assassin influence on the Templars.
The Order of the Temple was founded about 1119 by Hugh de Payen, in part-
nership with eight other knights. They called themselves 'the poor fellow soldiers
of Christ' and undertook to protect pilgrims going to the Holy Land. They took
the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but at first they were only
a private society, without a rule of conduct or a distinctive garb. All this was
changed when Hugh de Payen made a visit to France in 1127. He gained the in-
terest of the Pope and of the mighty St Bernard of Clairvaux, then almost a
dictator in the Roman church.36 Bernard drew up the code of rules for the new
order and Pope Honorius II confirmed it.
The parallels between the organizations of the Assassins and the Templars are
striking, especially as we know that the two bodies had made each others' ac-
quaintance in Syria before the Templar rule was written. The Christian order, in
its lower branches, consisted of lay-brothers, esquires, and knights, which were
duplicated in the Lasiqs (laymen), Fidd'is (agents),and Rafiqs (companions) of the
Assassins. Templar knights were required to wear white mantles, on which was
the familiar mark of the red cross. Assassin Rafiqs, the group corresponding to the
knights, also wore white and completed the parallel with red finishings; not
84
John Phocas, a Byzantine visitor to Palestine in 1185, understood instantly what the Assassins
were, in marked contrast to the confused ideas of the western Christians. Falconet, M&moires de lit-
tirature, XVII (1751), 137.
86
The History of the Assassins, pp. 56, 69.
86
La rigle du temple, ed. Henri de Ctirzon (Paris, 1886), pp. iii, 15,20.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 505
crosses but caps with girdles. In the higher brackets of both orders, the similarity
was maintained. The Templars had priors, grand priors, and a grand master; the
latter being independent of any authority save possibly that of the Pope. The
Assassins had Dd'is (propagandists), Dd'is Kabirs(superior propagandists), and
their own grand-master, whose title was Sheik-el-Jebel, or mountain sheik. Since
the word 'sheik' can mean either a chief or a venerable man, the crusaders, when
they encountered the title, translated it as 'Le Vieux' or 'The Old Man.' 37
The history of Syria in the twelfth century shows that Christian Templars and
Ismailite Assassins had close and frequent relations. In 1152, the Templars com-
pelled the Assassins to pay them a yearly tribute of two thousand byzants. 38
Later in the century, the Knights Hospitalers won a similar advantage over the
Assassins, which they also exploited by collecting tribute. William, Archbishop of
Tyre, tells a remarkable story of how the Old Man of the Mountain tried to gain
release from his obligation to the Templars and of how the Christian order fore-
stalled him. William begins his tale with a description of the Assassins, as he
understands them:
In the province of Tyre, formerly called Phoenicia, and in the neighborhood of the Diocese
of Antarados, there is a people possessing ten strong castles with the villages and environs
pertaining to them. I have often heard their number estimated as higher than sixty thou-
sand. These people have the custom of choosing the ruler who governs them, not by virtue
of hereditary right but only on the basis of merit. He is called the Old Man, to the exclusion
of all other titles of dignity. They are so submissive and obedient to him that there is noth-
ing too difficult or dangerous for them to undertake eagerly at his command. K there is any
ruler, for example, who is hated or feared by this race, the leader gives a dagger to one or
more of his people. The ones who receive the order go at once to carry it out, not stopping
to inquire what the consequences will be or whether they will be able to escape.39
William of Tyre goes on to say that they are called Assassins but that neither
Christians nor Saracens know the derivation of the word; which must be an over-
statement as far as some of the Saracens were concerned. He next says that for
centuries these people had followed the law and customs of the Moslems in the
strictest possible way. But recently their Old Man had experienced a change of
heart. Somehow there had come into his possession the Christian books of the
evangels and the apostolic law. He read these with the greatest devotion and as he
began to understand the Christian doctrine he came to despise that of Moham-
med.
He instructed his people in the same way, ordered the practices of the superstitious cult
to be stopped, tore down the places of prayer which they had used until then, abolished
the fasts they had been accustomed to observe, and allowed the use of wine and pork.40
Finally the Old Man sent a messenger to Amaury I, King of Jerusalem, pro-
posing that the Templars give up the tribute which the Assassins were bound to
pay them, in return for which all the Assassins would become Christians. King
87
The organization of the Templars is given in ibid., passim. That of the Assassins is sketched by
Browne, op. cit., p. 206.
38
Defremery, Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., in, 421.
19 40
Guillaume de Tyr, op. cit., in, 296. Ibid., p. 298.
506 The Old Man of the Mountain
Amaury was delighted with this offer, and even resolved that if necessary he would
recompense the Templars from his own treasury. He sent Abdallah, the Old
Man's envoy, home to say that the proposal was accepted. But on his way,
Abdallah was attacked and killed by a party of Templars, presumably because
the order was afraid of losing the yearly two thousand pieces of gold. The King
of Jerusalem was naturally furious, both over the affront to his own honor and the
loss of the Assassins as converts, since this treacherous murder ended all such nego-
tiations. The actual killer appeared to be the Templar, Gautier du Mesnil, an evil
man but a stupid one, who would hardly have committed the crime without the con-
sent of his brethren.41 The grand master of the order, Eudes de Saint-Amand, tried
to shield the guilty parties by claiming to have inflicted heavy penances, and talked
about sending them to the Pope for judgment. But Amaury arrested Gautier du
Mesnil and imprisoned him in Tyre. In the meantime the king protested his own
innocence to the Old Man and apparently his apologies were accepted. But he
died before he could reach a decision regarding the guilty Templars.42
Jacques de Vitry, who was also contemporary with these events, tells the same
story as William of Tyre's except in one particular. Though he speaks of the mur-
derer of the Old Man's envoy as a 'son of Belial,' he does not specifically say that
he was a Templar.43
To many western writers, the thought of the Old Man and his Assassins as pos-
sible Christians has seemed utter nonsense, imagined either by William of Tyre or
by someone whom William copied. On the face of it, any crusading author to
bring up such a far-fetched proposition might be suspected of himself indulging
in a little hashish. But there may be something behind the story, because it tallies
with several known facts.
William says that the Old Man abolished the Moslem worship and tore down
the places of prayer; also that he eliminated fasts and permitted the use of pork
and wine. Probably no such thing had ever taken place among the Syrian Assas-
sins, but it had happened at Alamut, very much as William describes it. More-
over, the time juxtaposition is close, for Hassan II of the Persian Assassins had
put through his religious revolution a very short time before. Hassan called his
reign the beginning of a new dispensation, in which Mohammed's disagreeable
restrictions on personal habits were removed. He announced his own deityship at
a banquet, at which the wine flowed freely.44 So, although William of Tyre was
mistaken about the exact scene of the apostasy, the fact remains that a head of
the Assassins had renounced the religion of Islam. As for the proposal to accept
Christianity, a possibility may be that the Syrian Old Man, feeling abandoned by
his Persian superior, and being at outs with most of the Moslem states, entered a
negotiation with the Christians in hope of bettering his own position, without
seriously expecting such a course to end in baptism.

41
Ibid., p. 299. "Ibid., p. 300.
43
Jacques de Vitry, Histoire des croisades, in Collection des memoires relatifa a I'histoire de France,
XXII, 50.
44
Defremery, Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., xv, 199; Mirkhond, Notices et extraits, rx, 166.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 507
The Syrian Assassins followed the example of Hassan Sabbah and reserved
their daggers for the rich and powerful, not stooping to attack the humble and
poor. Their first noble victim among the crusaders was Raymond I, Count of
Tripoli, whom they killed, probably in 1152.45 This murder seems to have been
the by-product of a frontier war of no great importance, but the reaction was a
violent one. The Christians not only retaliated with a promiscuous massacre of
all strangers in Tripoli but they waged relentless war against the Assassins. It was
as a result of this that the Templars were able to levy their annual tribute of two
thousand byzants. This ended the main hostilities, but a spasmodic war dragged
on with other crusading states, and the traveller Benjamin of Tudela mentions it
as still in progress a few years later.46
Evidently the Christians pursued a blood vendetta more furiously than Mos-
lem states were apt to do. At any rate, the Assassins left Christian princes alone
for the next forty years. In the meantime, their own power grew. By far their
greatest leader was Rashid-uddin, also called Sinan, who took over the Syrian
grand mastership in 1162 and held it until his death in 1192.47 Sinan came origi-
nally from the Alamut establishment, but in Syria he grew so powerful that several
times the Persian Old Man sent Fidd'is to murder him. These attempts all failed;
some of the dagger-men being killed and others won over.48
In Sinan's day a visible change occurred in the policy of the Assassin order. The
Fidd'is were as devoted as ever but the attitude of the leaders was different. No
longer so devoted to Ismailite purposes, they were willing now to let out the serv-
ices of their killers for cash. Several cases of this are on record. Sinan became the
enemy of Nur-uddin, Sultan of Aleppo, who had in his service the soldier Saladin,
later the enemy of the Christians in the third crusade. When Nur-uddin died,
Saladin tried to make himself master of the sultanate. But he had a competitor in
the late ruler's wazir, who wished to seize power himself and sent, valuable pres-
ents to Sinan to bribe him to murder Saladin. The latter was besieging Aleppo
when several Assassins entered his camp. An officer challenged them, but they
cut him down and made a rush for Saladin's tent. They were too late, because the
alarm had been given, and they were surrounded and killed.49 But a short time
later Sinan tried again. Saladin was now besieging Azaz, some distance from
Aleppo. Several Assassins joined his army and behaved well in the military oper-
ations. One day Saladin was inspecting his mangonels and rewarding the soldiers
who had distinguished themselves for bravery. Suddenly one of the Assassins
sprang from the crowd and struck at him with a dagger. The blow glanced from
his steel helmet, and Saladin threw the man to the ground, where others instantly

45
Defremery, Journal Asiatique, 5th ser., m, 421; Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, ed. Sir Fred-
eric Madden, 3 vols. (Rolls Series, London, 1866), I, 288.
*• 'The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela,' transl. and ed. Marcus N. Adler, The Jewish Quarterly
Review, xvi (1904), 783.
47
M. van Berchem, 'fipigraphie des Assassins de Syrie,' Journal Asiatique, 9th ser., ix (1897),
464-465.
48
Osborn, Calcutta Review, LVII, 47.
49
Ibid., pp. 47-48; Falconet, Mimoires de Utterature, xvn, 145.
508 The Old Man of the Mountain
cut him to pieces. A second and a third killer rushed forward with upraised dag-
gers. But they could not get near the leader, being run through by many swords. A
fourth Assassin tried to make his escape, but was caught and killed.60
For this, Saladin made war on the Old Man, invading his territory and laying
it waste. He could not capture the main Assassin strongholds, however, and had
to retire without having settled scores with Sinan.
During the third crusade, relations between several of the Christian princes
involved were almost as bad as those between the crusaders and the Moslems.
Richard of England was at outs with both Philip Augustus of France and Conrad,
Marquis of Montferrat. The latter was also prince of Tyre and titular king of
Jerusalem, although the holy city had recently passed back into Saracen hands.
The climax of this feud came with the murder of the Marquis of Montferrat by
two Assassins. From Moslem sources it appears that Saladin was the one who in-
spired this crime and that he sent Sinan an offer of ten thousand gold pieces for
the slaying of both Richard and Conrad.61 Sinan had his own reasons for leaving
Richard alone, but sent two Fidd'is to Tyre to do away with the marquis. Accord-
ing to the best authenticated story, these two masqueraded for six months as
Christian monks and played their part so well that they won everybody's confi-
dence, including the Marquis of Montferrat's.62 Here we have another proof that
hashish alone cannot explain Fidd'i devotion, because this pair could not have
been drugged during the whole period of waiting.
On 29 April 1192,63 Conrad, having dined with the Bishop of Beauvais, walked
forth through the streets of Tyre, when:
. . . two youths lightly clad, who wore
No cloaks, and each a dagger bore,
Made straight for him, and with one bound,
Smote him and bore him to the ground,
And each one stabbed him with his blade,
The wretches, who thus wise betrayed
Him, were of the Assassin's men. . . .u
The story varies a little at this point. One version is that the first Assassin was
killed on the spot and the other escaped momentarily and hid in a church. Pres-
ently the -bleeding marquis was carried, still breathing, into the same church.
The lurking Assassin, who had not been perceived by the Christian attendants,
darted out from concealment and finished his victim before they could strike him
down.66 Another account says that the Assassins, or at least one of them, lived

60 6l
Osborn, Calcutta Review, LVII, 48. Ibid., p. 50.
62
Roger of Hoveden, Chronica Magestri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, Lon-
don, 1870), in, 181.
68
The date, which was once uncertain, is verified by Fedele Savio, Studi storici sul marchese Gugli-
elmo III di Monferrato e i suoifigli (Turin, 1883), p. 105; and in Archivio Storico Italiano, 4th ser. vm
(1881), 374.
64
The ^rusade of Richard Lion-heart by AmbroUe, transl. and ed. Merton Jerome Hubert and
John L. La Monte (New York, 1941), p. 884.
M
Osborn, Calcutta Review, LVH, 50. .
 The Old Man of the Mountain 509

long enough to confess that the Old Man of the Mountain had sent them on their
errand.56 There was no doubt of this, however; the. real question was who had
been the instigator. It has never been answered with certainty.
A charge of having caused Conrad's death was brought against Richard Coeur
de Lkm.i7 This came a little later, during his imprisonment in Austria, and both
Philip Augustus and Richard's brother, John Lackland, had an interest in push-
ing the case. The English king answered all the accusations brought against him
and finally was released on payment of ransom. It has been generally thought
that the charge of murdering Marquis Conrad was trumped-up, but Richard's
well wishers took it seriously enough to concoct in his interest two letters sup-
posed to have been written by the Old Man of the Mountain. In the first one,
addressed to Duke Leopold of Austria, the Old Man acknowledges his own hand
in Conrad's death and completely absolves Richard. According to this letter, the
cause of the murder was the marquis's refusal to make proper restitution for a
member of the Assassins who had been killed and his property confiscated by
order of Conrad.68 The second letter, also clearing Richard, was directed to 'the
princes and all the people of the Christian religion.' Again the Old Man took full
responsibility for the death of the marquis, 'because he had offended us.' Toward
the end of this letter, which (like the other) is entirely fictitious, a new theme was
added, when the venerable sheik was made to say:
We have learnt likewise that it is said of the same king [Richard] that he had engaged us,
as less incorruptible than others, to send some one of our people to lay an ambush for the
king of France. This is false, and the effect of a vain suspicion. God is our witness, that he
never proposed anything of the kind to us, and that our honesty would not 69permit us to al-
low anything evil to be attempted against a person who had not merited it.
Here we have the attempt to refute another charge; namely that Richard was
plotting, either by Assassins or by Assassins' methods, to do away with his enemy,
Philip Augustus of France. Either Philip believed himself in danger or he wanted
to spread the impression that Richard sought his life. One French historian of the
time says that in 1192 word came to the king from friends overseas that the Old
Man had sent Assassins to kill him at the request of Richard of England. Because,
adds this writer, 'he [whether 'he' refers to the Old Man or to Richard is not quite
clear] had recently killed the marquis beyond the sea. . .'60 Philip Augustus took
safety measures and sent a courier to ask the Old Man point blank whether the
report was true or not. According to this same authority, the sheik replied that

66
Roger of Hoveden, op. cit., in, 181.
67
Matthew Paris, Historia Anghrum, 11, 42-48.
68
T h o m a R y m e r , Foedera, convenliones, literae, et cujuscunque generis acta publica, inter reges Angliae
et alias, 20 vols. (London, 1704-1735), i, 7 1 .
59
Original i n W i l l i a m of N e w b u r g h , Historia Anglicarum, i n Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen,
Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Richard Howlett (Rolls Series, London, 1885), n, 458. Translation in
Joseph Francois Michaud, The History of the Crusades, transl. W. Robson, 8 vols. (New York, 1891),
III, 484^35.
80
'Les gestes de Philippe Auguste — Extraits des grandes chroniques de France, dites de Saint-
Denis,' Receuil des historiens des gavles et de la France, XVII (Paris, 1818), 877.
510 The Old Man of the Mountain
the whole thing was without foundation; whereupon the king breathed easily and
relaxed his vigilance.61
Several other French sources accuse Richard of plotting against his suzereign,
Philip of France.62 Apparently the belief that the lion-hearted king was deeply in-
volved with the Assassins became firmly rooted and died hard. Over a century
later, in 1306, one Guillaume Guiart wrote an historical poem in which he described
Richard as taking over and using the methods of the Old Man of the Mountain.
Not oriental Fida'is but English boys were trained by this demoniac sovereign to
be the agents of his malevolence. The versifier had learned something about the
indoctrination practiced by the Assassins. He seemed to know, as most Christians
did not, that the dagger-men were promised compensations in another life for the
terrestrial existence that was sure to end when they carried out their missions. At
least, Guiart has Old Man of the Mountain Richard Plantagenet promising his
faithful that all will be well in case they die.
Que le roi Richart d'Angleterre
Faisoit enfans endoctriner
Pour lui ocire & afiner* *metter a fin
Qui ja ierunt tous embarnis* *pleins, remplis
Et de telle aprisson* garnis ""instruction
Que chacun d'eux homme oceist
Tel con son mestre li deist
Et puis qu'il l'eust mor true
Ne li chausist* d'estre tue *ne se souciat
Car il devoit tantot s. s* estre *sains, sanctus
Selon la promesse du mestre.63
Nonsense though this was, some Frenchmen seem to have taken it seriously. It
shows at least that the fame of the Old Man and his methods was widespread.
Richard was not the only ruler accused of using Assassins or of copying their tech-
nique. For a time such charges were hurled about freely by European monarchs.
As early as 1158, while Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was besieging Milan, a
man reported to be an Assassin was caught lurking in his camp.64 When Richard
of England was at Chinon, early in 1195, fifteen people came to his court for the
purpose of killing him. A few of these approached the king too closely and were
arrested. They confessed that they were Assassins and had been sent with murder-
ous intent by Philip Augustus of France.66 Richard postponed judgment until he
had the whole band rounded up, and what sentence he then passed is not known.
He seems to have paid no attention to their assertion that they came from Philip
and we have nothing to show whether they were really the Old Man's Assassins or
not. Presumably Richard, with his recent experience in the Near East, would
have known how to tell. If these were Fida'is, it is the only known case where a
group as large as fifteen was used on one mission.
M
' . . . demora sanz soupecon,' ibid., 378.
82
The best summary of the conflicting evidence is still that made by Falconet nearly two hundred
years ago in MSmoires de litt&rature, xvn.
68
Guillaume Guiart, Branche des royauls lingnages, quoted in Falconet, op. tit., p. 161.
64
Von Hammer-Purgstall, History of the Assassins, p. 184.
66
Chronica Magestri Rogeri, m , 283; Kate Norgate, Richard the Lion-heart (London), 1924) p. 301.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 511
At a later time, Emperor Frederick II was accused of having Assassin connec-
tions. Killers employed by Frederick were credited by some with the death of
Duke Ludwig of Bavaria in 1231. The emperor's arch-enemy, Pope Innocent IV,
presiding over the Council of Lyon in 1245, used this flimsy charge as one of the
pretexts for excommunicating Frederick and declaring him deposed.66 The fre-
quency with which the Old Man of the Mountain was brought into European
political intrigues in which he could not have had the remotest interest, shows
how he was regarded in the West. He had such a reputation for conducting a
mediaeval 'murder incorporated' that a favorite method of throwing discredit on
anyone was to accuse that person of being connected with the Old Man.
As his fame grew, the stories about him became wilder. Marin Sanudo says
that, soon after the death of Conrad of Montferrat, Count Henry of Champagne
passed near the home of the Old Man, the successor to Sinan. The sheik invited
the European nobleman to be his guest and entertained him well. The climax of
the entertainment came when, after showing Henry around his territory, he
brought him to a castle with very high turrets, on each of which stood two white-
clad guards. The Old Man told the count that no European vassals could match
his own people in obedience. He then made a signal; whereupon two of the sen-
tinels threw themselves from their turret and were dashed to pieces on the rocks
below. 'If you desire it,' said the Old Man, 'all my whites shall throw themselves
from the battlements in the same way.' Henry of Champagne, amazed by the
spectacle he had seen, did not ask for any further proofs of loyalty.67
Such mistaken ideas of the sheik's attitude to his valuable Fidd'is took posses-
sion of the European mind, giving the impression that Assassins were trained
chiefly for this species of 'stunting.' The impression died very hard, and less than
two hundred years ago as excellent a scholar as De Guignes could write, '. . .il
n'etoit pas rare de voir de ces jeunes gens se precipiter du haut des tours au
moindre signal de leur mattre, lorsqu'en presence des Ambassadeurs etrangers il
vouloit donner des preuves de la puissance & de la fidelite de ses sujets.68 Thus,
from one fabulous instance recorded by Sanudo, De Guignes builds up a standing
Assassin custom. From his words we might suppose that a leap to destruction by
a few Fidd'is was an item on any major program of entertainment offered by the
Old Man.
M
Von Hammer-Purgstall, op. cit., p. 184.
67
Ibid., p. 185. Von Hammer, who swallows Sanudo's story whole, adds, 'By this horrible example
of blind submission, the prior showed that he trod exactly in the footsteps of the founder of the order,
who had given the ambassador of Melekshah a similar proof of the devotion of his faithful followers
(Elmacin, Hist. Saracenia, 1. HI, p. 286). Jelaleddin Melekshah, Sultan of the Seljuks, having sent an
ambassador to him, to require his obedience and fealty, the son of Sabah called into his presence sev-
eral of his initiated. Beckoning to one of them,he said, "Kill thyself!" — and he instantly stabbed
himself; to another, "Throw thyself down from the rampart!" — the next instant he lay a mutilated
corpse in the moat. On this, the grand-master turning to the envoy, who was unnerved by terror,
said, "In this way am I obeyed by seventy thousand faithful servants. Be that my answer to thy
master'!" A similar legend exists concerning an imaginary exhibition which Emperor Frederick II
witnessed on an imaginary visit to the Old Man. Olschki, Storia letteraria, pp. 215-216.
18
M. de Guignes, Histoire q&n&rak des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols et des Tartares occidentaux, 4
vols. (Paris, 1756), I, 341.
512 The Old Man of the Mountain
Of all the crusaders, St Louis of France had the most dealings with the Old
Man of the Mountain. Several accounts say that in 1237, while the king was still
but a boy, the Assassin master sent two Fidd'is to France to take his life.69 Most
of the historians assign no cause to this mission, but Philip Mousket, the rhyming
chronicler, thinks the Old Man had heard that Louis was about to undertake a
crusade.70 Later, the sheik changed his mind about the matter: perhaps the Tem-
plars argued him out of the idea. He sent two other envoys, who were among his
men of distinction, to warn the king to beware of the first two.71 Luckily, the
second mission arrived before the first had gone into action. A search was made
for the Fidd'is, who were found hiding in Marseilles. Everything ended happily,
with the Old Man's envoys being sent home with gifts. This is the most convinc-
ing evidence we have that the Assassins sometimes operated in western Europe.
Several historians give the story independently and agree in the main particulars.
They appear to be relating facts perfectly well known in their time.
King Louis later did go crusading. Following his defeat and capture by the
Egyptian Mameluks, he was released and went to Acre. There, according to his
biographer, Jean, Sire de Joinville, he was visited by agents of the Old Man.
Joinville, who took the trouble to learn the bare outlines of the Assassin belief,
was able to say, and somewhat correctly, that these people believed in Ali, whom
he called the uncle of Mohammed. He also knew that in some manner they had
broken away from the law of the prophet, though the complexities of that matter
were far too much for him.72
Joinville mentions three members of the Old Man's embassy to Saint Louis. It
is clear that one was the spokesman and a man of some rank; the other two were
Fidd'is, primed to act in their usual manner, if so ordered. But they had come to
kill the king only if he refused to give them tribute, such as they claimed was paid
by the Emperor of Germany, the King of Hungary, the Sultan of Babylon, and
other princes. 'Because,' said the head envoy, 'all these realize that they can live
no longer than it shall please my lord.'73 According to Joinville, as this ultimatum
was delivered, the three Assassins had arranged themselves strategically around
Louis so that he was in their power. He instantly realized the danger he was in
but remained very calm. He pretended to give their proposal the deepest consid-
eration and told them to return in a short time for their answer. The three went
away and thus lost their only chance to assassinate the king. For when they re-
turned, Louis was well guarded; being flanked by the Grand Master of the Tem-
plars on one side and by the Master of the Hospitalers on the other. Louis told
69
Chronique de Guillaume de Nangis et de ses continuateurs, ed. H. Giraud, 2 vols. (Paris, 1843), I,
188: 'Extraits de la chronique attribue a Baudouin d'Avesnes,' Receuil des historiens, xxi (Paris,
1855), 164; and 'Fragments de la chronique rimee de Plilippe Mousket,' ibid., xxn (Paris, 1865), 60.
70
Li vious de la Montagne ol
Dire que li rois ert croises . . . ibid.
71
'Sed dum abirent, Deus cor ejus inmutavit, eique cogitationis pacis et non occisionis inmisit.
Unde post primos quantocius alios nuntios misit, mandans regi Ludovico ut se a primis custodi-
ret. . . . " Chronique de Guillaume de Nangis, i, 188.
72
Jean, Sire de Joinville, Histoire de Saint Lovis, ed. Natalis de Wailly (Paris, 1868), p. 88.
n
Ibid., p. 162.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 513
them to repeat what they had previously told him. They did not want to do this
and pretended that their instructions were to speak only in the presence of certain
specified persons. But the two Masters broke in and ordered the Assassin spokes-
man to say his say. Reluctantly the man delivered his speech again. When he had
finished, the Templar and Hospitaler spoke to him in Arabic, which Louis did not
understand, commanding him to come for a private interview with them the next
morning.
When the rather cowed Assassin envoy appeared the following day, the Masters
spoke roughly to him. They made it clear that in bringing such a message to the
King of France he had offended beyond all forgiveness. That only his status as an
ambassador and the honor of King Louis prevented their throwing the whole
mission in the waters of Acre harbor.74 He must return to his master at once and
come back bringing tribute for Louis from the Old Man. According to Joinville,
the Assassins went home and soon reappeared bearing the richest presents. The
sheik, among other things, sent a crystal elephant and various beasts and orna-
ments of crystal and amber. But the most important gifts were the Old Man's
symbols of friendship, consisting of a ring and a shirt. The ring had the owner's
name engraved, and the Assassin leader asked Louis to send one of his own in
return, which, he said, would bind the two as one. The shirt had a similar mean-
ing, because the Old Man emphasized the fact that this is the garment worn
closest to the body. Hence, the presentation of his own shirt to Louis meant that
he would hold the King of France closer in love than any other sovereign.76 This
is the second appearance of the shirt motif in the history of the crusaders in the
Near East. The first garment, given to Baldwin by the elderly Armenian ruler of
Edessa, meant adoption as a son. If the Old Man of the Mountain had any such
idea concerning Louis, the situation has its interesting side. Paternal relationship
by the Grand Master of the Assassins to a saint of the Catholic church would have
been one of the strangest connections on record.
Louis sent an envoy of his own to the Old Man's castle bearing gifts. The mes-
senger, Brother Yves the Breton, found out something about the Assassins'
beliefs during his stay. He learned that they shared the ordinary Moslem fatalism
and believed that death comes when God wills, regardless of the individual's be-
havior.
. . . que il croient que nulz ne puet mourir que jeusques au jour que il li est jugie; et ce ne
doit nulz croire, car Diex a pooir d'alonger nos vies et d'acourcir. Et en cesti point croient
li Beduin [Assassins], et pour ce ne se weulent armer quant il vont es batailles; car il cui-
deront faire contre le commandement de leur loy. Et quant il maudient lour enfans, si lour
dient: 'Ainsi maudis soies-tu comme li frans, qui s'arme pour paour de mort !'76
Brother Yves found a book in the Old Man's castle which was evidently a
Christian treatise; at least it made reference to some sayings by Jesus to St Peter.
Delighted at this sign of interest in Christianity, the good Breton urged the sheik
to read the book often and was told that he did so. The Old Man is quoted as
saying
u
Ibid. * Ibid., pp. 162-168. " Ibid., p. 164.
514 The Old Man of the Mountain
I hold St Peter in the highest esteem, because at the beginning of the world, when Abel
was killed, his soul went to the body of Noah, and when Noah died it went to the body of
Abraham, and from77Abraham's body, when he died, it passed to the body of St Peter when
God came to earth.
Of course Brother Yves was shocked at this and tried to put the Assassin chief
in the right belief, but by his own admission the attempt did not bear much fruit.
The friar took these details back to Louis, presumably to show their absurdity.
But this apparently insane farrago is our best proof that he did visit and talk with
the Old Man of the Mountain. For what he has given us is a garbled and inaccu-
ate, but still recognizable; summary of a cardinal point in the Ismailite doctrine.
The real belief was not in the transmigration of souls but in the spiritual conti-
nuity between the seven 'speaking prophets of God.' The seven included the Old
Testament patriarchs, Noah and Abraham, who are mentioned by brother Yves.
Presumably the Old Man told him about the rest of the prophets, who were
Adam, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and a son of Ismail named Mohammed,78 but
since the Breton friar got only a confused and fragmentary idea of the whole be-
lief, he forgot to include them in his report.79
After the return of St Louis to France, there are few records of dealings between
Europeans and the Old Man of the Mountain. The fall of both the Persian and
the Syrian Assassins was now close at hand. Hulagu the Mongol captured Alamut
in 1256 and ended the original Assassin commonwealth. A few years later, the
Sultan of Egypt reduced the Syrian Old Men to helpless vassalage,80 though some
use continued to be made of their Fidd'is. Ibn Batutah, the traveller, passed
through Syria in the fourteenth century and described the Fidd'is as an organi-
zation still existing.81 But from his description it is clear that they had become
little if anything more than a band of professional cutthroats. Batutah does not
mention the Old Man, who had vanished from the scene by his time, and he
speaks of the killers as being salaried by the Sultan of Egypt. Apparently the
thing now was on a purely mercenary basis, because he says that if the Fidd'is
died in line of business the pay due them went to their children.82
It is well known that in 1271, during the last crusade, Prince Edward of Eng-
land, later Edward I, was attacked and wounded at Acre by a Syrian who was
called an 'Assassin.'83 One writer even says that the future Hammer of the Scots
was killed here \u This might have represented a belated attempt by the Assassins
77
Ibid., p. 165.
78
Baron Carra de Vaux, Les pensews de I'Islam, 5 vols. (Paris, 1926), v, 84; Huart, Histoire des
Arabes, i, 830; Reuben Levy, 'The Account of the Isma'ili Doctrines in the Jami' al-Tawarikh of
Rashid al-Din Fadlallah,' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1930, p. 529.
79
Another piece of information brought back by the friar concerned the custom of the Old Man
when he appeared in public. A crier went before him, bearing an axe and shouting, 'bow all of you
before the one who carries the death of kings in his hands,' Joinville, op. cit., p. 165.
80
Van Berchem, Journal Asiatique, 9th ser., ix (1897), 465.
81
Voyages d'lbn Batoutah, texte Arabe accompagnS d'une traduction par C. Defr6mery et le Dr. B. R.
Sanguinetti, 4 vols. (Paris, 1898), I, 166. «2 Ibid.
83
'Extraits de la chronique attribue a Baudouin d'Avesnes,' Receuil des historiens, xxi, 178.
84
Falconet (M&moires de littSrature, Xvn, 148-144) cites Thomas Walsingham (Hypodigma Neus-
 The Old Man of the Mountain 515
to get back into business as an order. Or the attacker was possibly a Fidd'i en-
gaged by some outsider to do away with Edward. But a general consideration of
the evidence shows that this could have been almost any hired killer. For, though
the Fidd'is gave assassination a name, they never monopolized it as a practice. By
Edward's time the word 'assassin' had come to have almost its modern general
meaning. In the next century we have Dante using it in the Divine Comedy in a
way that shows it had become common occidental property. 85
Europeans had been acquainted with the Syrian Assassins throughout most of
their history. They knew next to nothing about the Persian headquarters of the
sect until the Assassin power had vanished. Jacques de Vitry was able to say that
the order had started in Persia, but knew nothing beyond that. 86 Friar William of
Rubruck passed through Asia, on his way to the Grand Khan in Mongolia, about
the time Hulagu was sacking Alamut and the neighboring Assassin castles. In his
narrative, Friar William makes brief mention of the 'Mulihet mountains, that is
the Assassin mountains to the east, which touch the Caspian mountains.' 87 This
is the limit of his information, since he did not come very close to the Assassin
country on his travels.
But Marco Polo went through Persia on his way to China. He was in the Assas-
sin vicinity in 1273, less than twenty years after the Mongol capture of Alamut
and its kindred places. Marco was told an interesting tale about the Old Man and
his servants, which he recorded for posterity in his book. I t has been repeated by
writer after writer, and more than one scholar has swallowed the fantastic yarn.
Polo was always careful and conscientious, and there is no need to question his
sincerity here. He heard and believed the oriental legend that had already
gathered about one of the old citadels of Hassan Sabbah; perhaps Alamut, per-
haps some other place. He proceeded to repeat the story as follows:
The Old Man was called Alaoddin in their language. In a valley between two mountains
he had constructed the largest and most beautiful garden that ever was seen. Every good
fruit in the world grows there. And in that place he caused to be built the most beautiful
house and palace ever seen, because they were gilded and adorned with all the beautiful
things in the world. And furthermore he had conduits built. Through one of these flowed
wine, through another milk, through another honey, and through another water. And the
most beautiful women and girls were there, who knew how to play all instruments and
who sang and danced better than other women. And the Old Man made his people believe
that his garden was paradise. And the reason why he had built it in such a way was that

triae, edition of 157A) at the place where Walsingham says, 'Lassatinus quidam eum ex improviso cul-
tello occidet,' I do not have this edition of Walsingham at hand. But in the one edited by Henry
Thomas Riley (Rolls Series, London, 1876, p. 165) 'Occident' is changed to 'vulnerat.' Marcus N.
Adler (The Jewish Quarterly Review, xvi, 783) says, 'Prince Edward of England was slain at Acre in
1172.' He is either following the older Walsingham version or committing a slip of his own. The date
1172 is probably a typographical error.
88
Io stava come'l frate che confessa
Lo perfido assassin, che, poi ch'e fitto
Richiama lui, perche la morte cessa. Inferno, xix.
*• Collection des mfonoires relatifs & I'histoire de France, xxii, 47.
87
The texts and versions of John de Piano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, ed. C. Raymond
Beazley (Hakluyt Society, London, 1908), p. 170.
 516 The Old Man of the Mountain
Mohammed had told the Saracens that those who go to paradise will have as many beauti- !
ful women as they want and that there will flow rivers of wine, milk, honey, and water. {
And so he had ordered that garden to be made according to the way Mohammed had de- I
scribed paradise to the Saracens, and the Saracens of that country truly believed the gar- 1
den to be paradise.88 \
The garden, says Marco, was guarded at its only entrance by a strong castle \
which no one could get past without permission. The Old Man kept at his court j
all the promising youths of those parts from the ages of twelve to twenty. If they |
showed ability in handling arms and he decided to make Assassins of them, he ]
administered a 'beverage' that put them to sleep. He selected any number he ;
pleased at a time; sometimes four, sometimes ten, or even twenty. The sleeping i
youths were carried inside the Old Man's garden and there they were brought ;
back to consciousness. On looking about they remembered descriptions they had ;
heard of the prophet's paradise and decided that this was the place. So they
spent days' feasting, carousing, and amusing themselves With the ladies, who
spared no pains to make life agreeable for their visitors.89 Soon the young men had
adjusted their standards of living to the scale of paradise, and nothing could have
made them leave the garden of their own free will.
But the day of reckoning for all this came soon.
When the Old Man wished to send someone to a given place to kill a man, he gave the bev-
erage to anyone [among these youths] whom he selected, and when he had gone to sleep
he had him taken up and carried to his castle. And when the young men had awakened
and found themselves in that castle they were much surprised and displeased, for they
would never have come out of that paradise of their own wills. They would go immediately
to the Old Man and bow before him, believing him to be a great prophet. The Old Man
would ask them whence they came and they would say they came from paradise. And
they would say that truly it was the paradise that Mohammed had described to their
ancestors. Then they would describe all the things that had happened to them. And the
others who were present and who had not yet been to the paradise would have a great
desire to get there and would even wish for death in order to do so. And they lived in hopes
of the day when they might go.
And when the Old Man wished to have a great lord killed, he tested those of his Assas-
sins who were best. He sent several of them to places no great distance away, and com-
manded them to kill certain men. They went at once and did their master's bidding. Then,
after killing.their man, they returned to court. At least the survivors did, because many
were captured and killed.90
In the meantime the Old Man was having their performances watched by
clever spies, in order to learn which ones were bravest and the best killers. When
the time came for the assassination of some great personage, he would have sifted
out his best dagger-men. By telling the chosen ones that he meant to send them
to paradise, he was able to dispatch them on their murderous errands, and prob-
ably to their own deaths, in the eagerest possible frame of mind.
88
This is translated from Marco Polo, II milione, prima edizione integrate a cura de Luigi Foscolo
Benedetto (Florence, 1928), p. 83. The Benedetto text is considered to surpass all others in fidelity
to the original. It will be remembered that Polo's amanuensis, Rustichello da Pisa, wrote in French.
89
'Et les dames et les dameseles demoroient tout jor com elz et cantant et faisant grant soulis; et
9
en fasoient a lor voluntes,' ibid. -° Ibid., pp. 83-34.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 517
And thus no man escaped being killed when the Old Man of the Mountain wished his death.
And I tell you truly that several kings and barons made agreements with him and ap-
peased him with tribute in order not to be killed.91
After saying that the Old Man had two branch establishments, one in Damas-
cus and the other in Kurdistan, Marco concludes with a description of Hulagu's
destruction of the Assassins.
Friar Odoric of Pordenone traveled through Assassin country about fifty years
later than Polo. He gives a story of the Old Man of the Mountain, which, though
shorter and containing less detail, is essentially the same story.92 No one who
compares the two can doubt that Marco was one of the friar's sources of informa-
tion. But there is enough difference to show that Odoric did not merely copy
Polo. For one thing, he gives a different name to the place where he learned the
story and may have been describing the Assassins of Kurdistan rather than those
of Persia.93 Moreover, Odoric was an independent writer, who generally got his
facts at first hand and not from booljs. Probably the story he and Marco used was
then a common one in the Orient and could have been picked up by any traveller.
The same tale had spread eastward to China, which had its own version. As
given by Abel Remusat, this described the Assassins as soldiers who had deteri-
orated into brigands; a typically Chinese touch reflecting a phenomenon common
enough in the celestial empire. When these villains saw a likely young man they
corrupted him with promises of plunder until he was ready for any murderous
act. Next, they intoxicated him and in this condition took him to a secret place,
where music and women abounded. They allowed him to enjoy life there for a few
days; then put him to sleep and removed him from this pleasure. The young man
must commit crimes at their bidding, if he hoped to return. But even in the
Chinese version, which seems to make the paradise a fairly ordinary house of
prostitution, there is mention of texts and prayers that had to be learned by the
Assassins.94
De Guignes, apparently using oriental sources, gives a hint of the same tale
that Marco and Odoric tell so much more elaborately. He writes:
U fit elever plusieurs de ses sujets dans des endroits secrets & delicieux ou il leur faisoit
apprendre plusieurs langues, dans le dessein de les envoyer ensuit en differens endroits
pour assassiner les Princes qu'il n'aimoit pas, sans faire aucune distinction de Chretien
ni du Mahometan. II promettoit a ces jeunes gens, que s'ils executoient ses ordres, ils
jouriroient apres leur mort de plaisirs eternels et plus delicieux que ceux dont ils avoient
joui dans les endroits ou ils avoient ete eleves.95
It is easy to understand how some parts of the Marco-Odoric legend were
91
Ibid., p. 34.
92
Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, transl. and ed.
Sir Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier, 4 vols. (Hakluyt Society, London, 1911-1914), n, 257-
258.
93
Polo calls the Assassin home 'Muleete,' which comes from 'Mulhid,' meaning 'Heretic' Odoric
calls it 'Millestorte.'
94
The story is given in The Book of Ser Marco Polo, transl. and ed. Sir Henry Yule, revised by
Henri Cordier, 2 vols. (London, 1903), I, 143, n.
96
Histoire gSnSrale des Huns, i, 341.
 518 The Old Man of the Mountain \

started. Various eastern historians say that the original Old Man, Hassan Sabbah, ;
for purely economic and strategic reasons, had conduits built and encouraged ;
planting around Alamut. This gave rise to the stories of the garden and the foun- :
tains of wine, milk, and honey. Both Marco and Odoric mention some kind of
drug that was given to the young Assassin, first when he was taken into the garden
and later when he was removed from it. If we could trace the stories back to their
origins and inspirations, we would probably find that, instead of literally existing,
the paradise represented the imaginings of the drugged Assassin. However, the 5
stories of feasting and drinking that went on at Alamut in the time of the second ]
Hassan could account partly for the luxury reports that the two European travel- |
lers heard and repeated. Finally, it is worth remarking that a recent visitor to \
Rudbar and Alamut notes traces of fertility in the country and says that orchards ]
and flowers are still seen here and there.96
By the fourteenth century, the Old Man and his methods had become so estab-
lished in European lore that they could be introduced into a work of fiction with
no introduction or explanation. Thus, when Boccaccio in the Decameron tells how
an abbot wishes to get the peasant Ferondo out of the way for a while in order to
enjoy the company of his wife, he has the abbot give Ferondo a sleeping powder,
acquired from an eastern prince who in turn had obtained it from the store of the
Old Man of the Mountain.97 The story then follows without further reference to
the Old Man, who was clearly familiar to Boccaccio's readers.
An oriental equivalent of this story is found in The Forty Wazirs, a collection of
tales bound together by a framework like that of the Decameron.** The nineteenth
wazir tells his story to prove that in matters of love women are capable of any
trick or design." In this case, a princess, having fallen in love with one of her
father's pages, engaged a serving woman to give him a sleeping draught without
his knowledge. The princess had him brought, unconscious, to her apartment,
which she had furnished with every luxury. The young man, when awakened,
thought himself in paradise. When the princess had had enough of his company,
the same sleeping drug was used to make him again unconscious before sending
him back to his own place. This story is similar to that of Kamar al-Zaman and
Budur in The Thousand Nights and a Night, where there is no drug used but
where magic spells put the pair to sleep in order that one may be brought great
distances to join the other without knowing what is taking place.100 Similar in
general structure but reversed in procedure is the tale of the two lives of Sultan
Mahmoud, also from the Nights. Mahmoud, Sultan of Egypt, has everything that
should make a man happy, but he is discontented. An old sorcerer comes and
casts a spell over the sultan, who suddenly finds himself outside his palace, very
86
Freya Stark, The Valleys of the Assassins (New York, 1984), p. 205.
87
The Decameron, third day, eighth story.
98
The History of the Forty Vezirs or the Story of the Forty Morns and Eves, transl. E. J. W. Gibb (Lon-
don, 1886). This work, was not available for the present study.
99
Summarized by Silvestre de Sacy, Histoire et mbmoires, 2d ser., iv (1818), 58-59.
100
The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, transl. and ed. Richard F. Burton, 6 vols. (New
York, 1934), n, 1062-1155.
 The Old Man of the Mountain 519
poorly clothed. Since no one will recognize him as sultan, he is compelled to earn
his living by hard labor and passes many miserable years. Just as life seems no
longer worth living, he is transported back to his palace and to the side of the
conjurer, from whom he learns that it has all transpired in a few seconds.101
Eastern literature has more than one garden of paradise, which mortals may
inhabit for a time and from which they are later expelled. The oldest of all may be
the Garden of Eden. In Arabian mythology, however, there is an ancient story,
far older than the religion of Islam, about King Shedad, the man who aspired to
be the peer of God.102 He built a paradise of his own and tried to make it the equal
of Allah's. For his presumption he was punished and the paradise disappeared, to
be seen only once again by human eyes. Early in the history of Islam, a man seek-
ing a lost camel in the desert wandered to the Eden of Shedad. He took valuable
objects away to his home and returned with a large band of men. This time no
paradise was found; only the tomb of Shedad on which were written words warn-
ing mankind from following his evil example.103 The myth of Shedad must surely
be an ancestor of the Old Man of the Mountain story as learned by Marco Polo
and Friar Odoric. For, according to these versions, the Old Man like Shedad was
trying to imitate God.
In such ways legends are built. A religious thinker, who founded a fanatical
sect with headquarters in a rock-castle, became the proprietor of a mock-para-
dise. Hassan Sabbah was an ascetic, but the Old Man of the Mountain known to
literature became a debaucher of youth. The Assassins had originally killed in
what they thought was a holy cause, but popular tradition finally gave them no
motive other than murder for murder's sake. At last, as a result of many distor-
tions, the story was woven into the fabric of vital mythology, as old as civilization
itself.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.
101
Le livre des mille nuits et une nuit, transl. 3. C. Mardrus, 16 vols. (Paris, 1924-1926), vin, 41-53.
102
'Hast thou not considered how thy Lord dealt with Ad, the people of Irem, adorned with lofty
buildings the like whereof hath not been erected in the land?' Koran, LXXXIX, 6. This passage is a ref-
erence to the rashness of Shedad.
103
Chronique de Abou-Djafar-Mo'kammed-Ben Djarif-Ben-Yezid Tabari, transl. Hermann Zoten-
berg, 5 vols. (Paris, 1867), I, 50-58; The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, HI, 1848-1354;
Tausend und Eine Nacht, transl. Dr Gustav Weil, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1889), n, 330-331.