Order of Assassins

Order of Assassins
Formation1090 AD
FounderHasan-i Sabbah
Dissolved1275 AD
Headquarters
Official language
Arabic, Persian, other languages
AffiliationsNizari Ismaili state
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Masyaf Castle in Hama. It was the headquarters of the Assassins in the Levant. Picture taken in 2017
Edward I, King of England thwarts an attempt on his life by an Assassin and kills the attacker. The assassin likely was sent by the Mamluk Sultan Baibars, in order to remove his opposition to a 10-year truce with the Christian states at Jerusalem. 19th-century depiction by Gustave Doré

The Order of Assassins or simply the Assassins (Arabic: حَشّاشِین, romanized: Ḥashshāshīyīn; Persian: حشاشين, romanized: Ḥaššāšīn) were a Nizari Isma'ili order that existed between 1090 and 1275 AD, founded by Hasan-i Sabbah.

During that time, they lived in the mountains of Persia and the Levant, and held a strict subterfuge policy throughout the Middle East, posing a substantial strategic threat to Fatimid, Abbasid, and Seljuk authority, and killing several Christian leaders. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds who were considered enemies of the Nizari Isma'ili state. The modern term assassination is believed to stem from the tactics used by the Assassins.[1]

Contemporaneous historians include ibn al-Qalanisi, Ali ibn al-Athir, and Ata-Malik Juvayni. The former two referred to the Assassins as batiniyya, an epithet widely accepted by Isma'ilis themselves.[2][3]

  1. ^ Lewis 1969.
  2. ^ Edwards, D. S., ed. (2010). The Chronicle of ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh. Part 1, 1097–1146.
  3. ^ Gibb, N. A. R., ed. (1932). The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades. Extracted and translated from the Chronicle of ibn al-Qalānisi.