"linking of the early assassins with modern Islamic terrorism. The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam is a book, first published in 1967, written by Middle-East historian Bernard Lewis, and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. An updated edition was published by Oxford University Press in 1987, and another in 2002 by Basic Books. Lewis, a British-American professor of history at Princeton University, traces the history of the secret Islamic sect known as the Assassins, an order of the Nizari Ismailis that used assassinations throughout the Middle Ages to achieve political, military, and religious"
"Assassins Order of Assassins or simply Assassins is the common name used to refer to an Islamic sect formally known as the Nizari Ismailis. Based on texts from Alamut, their grand master Hassan-i Sabbah tended to call his disciples Asāsiyyūn (أساسيون, meaning ""people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]""), but some foreign travellers like Marco Polo misunderstood the name as deriving from the term hashish. Often described as a secret order led by a mysterious ""Old Man of the Mountain"", the Nizari Ismailis formed in the late 11th century after a split within Ismailism – a branch"
"Ad-Darazi Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazi () was an 11th-century Ismaili preacher and early leader of the Druze faith who was labeled a heretic in 1016 and subsequently executed in 1018 by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Little information is known about the early life of Ad-Darazi. According to most sources, he was born in Bukhara. He is believed to have been of Persian origins and his title ""ad-Darazi"" is Persian - meaning 'the tailor'. He arrived in Cairo in 1015, or 1017, after which he joined the newly emerged Druze movement. He was the leader of an army"
"Ismailis made a critical mistake in the assassination of Genghis Khan's son, Jagati, who ruled part of Iran. Jagati had offended the Nizari Ismaili's by forbidding certain rituals involved in prayer and the slaughter of animals. In 1256, the Mongols took their revenge. Most of the Nizari Ismailis were killed and their mountaintop fortresses destroyed. The Crusaders, already weakened by Mongol incursions and civil war, did not send assistance. The last leader of the Nizari Ismaili state, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, surrendered it as part of a deal with Hulagu. However, the Mongols slaughtered the inhabitants, burnt the libraries, and brought"
"any murder of political significance in the Islamic lands became attributed to the Ismailis. So inflated had this association grown, that in the work of Orientalist scholars such as Bernard Lewis the Ismailis were virtually equated to the politically active ""fida’is"". Thus the Nizari Ismaili community was regarded as a radical and heretical sect known as the Assassins. Originally, a ""local and popular term"" first applied to the Ismailis of Syria, the label was orally transmitted to Western historians and thus found itself in their histories of the Nizaris. The tales of the ""fida’is""’ training collected from anti-Ismaili historians and"
"Other nizamiyyah schools were located in Nishapur, Amol, Balkh, Herat and Isfahan. Nizam ul-Mulk was finally assassinated en route from Isfahan to Baghdad in 1092 CE. According to several books, he was assassinated by a member of Hashshashin, a group of the Ismaili sect of Shi'a Islam. According to Mughatil ibn Bakri, a staff member of the Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, he alleges that Nizam al-Mulk converted to Shia Islam after a Sunni-Shia debate held on the orders of Sultan Malik Shah I, who also converted to Shia'ism. But it is thereafter that they were both assassinated. This narration is disputed,"
"women as well, and they died"". A Nizari assassin is identified as ""fedāʾī"" or devotee, ""who offers his life for others or in the service of a particular cause"". Historians and scholars identify Hassan-i Sabbah as the founder of the Nizari Assassins and their doctrine. It developed during the struggle for succession of Nizar to the Fatimid throne in Cairo that eventually laid the foundation of the Nizāri Ismā‘ilī Shia Islam. Since then, as a basic element of conservative nature, the Ismaili Imamate includes a ""hidden"" imam, in addition to the visible (or ""hazar"", meaning apparent) ""imam of the time"","
"lands was attributed to the Ismailis. Knives and daggers were used to kill, and sometimes as a warning, a knife would be placed onto the pillow of a Sunni, who understood the message that he was marked for death. Nizari Ismaili state The Nizari Ismaili state, also called the Alamut State, was a Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hasan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD. The ""state"" consisted of a nexus of strategic fortresses throughout Persia and Syria, with each stronghold being surrounded by huge swathes of hostile territory, in particular, the Seljuk"
"""first heretic""), rival Muslim groups purposely attached the name of the controversial preacher to the new sect and it has stuck with them ever since. Druze refer to themselves as “unitarians” (""al-Muwahhidūn)"". Ad-Darazi Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazi () was an 11th-century Ismaili preacher and early leader of the Druze faith who was labeled a heretic in 1016 and subsequently executed in 1018 by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Little information is known about the early life of Ad-Darazi. According to most sources, he was born in Bukhara. He is believed to have been of Persian origins and his"
"and received the typical Assassin training. In 1162, the sect's leader Ḥassan ʿAlā Dhikrihi's Salām sent him to Syria, where he proclaimed Qiyamah, which in Nizari terminology meant the time of the Qa'im and the removal of Islamic law. Based on the Nizari stronghold Masyaf, he controlled the northern Syrian districts of Jabal as-Summaq, Maarrat Misrin and Sarmin. Rashid enjoyed considerable independence from the Nizari centre in Alamut and some writings attribute him with a semi-divine status usually given to the Nizari Ismaili Imam. His chief enemy, the Sultan Saladin (1137/1138–1193), ruled over Egypt and Syria from 1174 to 1193."
"(devotees) of the Ismaili mission. They were unique in that civilians were never targeted. The assassinations were against those whose elimination would most greatly reduce aggression against the Ismailis and, in particular, against those who had perpetrated massacres against the community. A single assassination was usually employed in favour of widespread bloodshed resultant from factional combat. The first instance of assassination in the effort to establish an Nizari Ismaili state in Persia is widely considered to be the murder of Seljuq vizier, Nizam al-Mulk. Carried out by a man dressed as a Sufi whose identity remains unclear, the vizier's murder"
"to attack other Ismaili strongholds in Sindh to suppress any resurgence of the community in the region. In 1032, Mahmud’s very own vizier, Hasanak was executed for having accepted a cloak from the Imam-caliph on suspicions that he had become an adherent of the Ismaili fiqh. Mahmud’s purges of the region led several scholars including Stern to believe that the Ghaznawid purges of the region drove out Ismailism from the area, however, recently discovered letters dating to 1083 and 1088 demonstrate continued Ismaili activity in the region, as the Imam-caliph Mustansir dispatched new da’is to replace those who were killed"
"Muslims from Qazvin denounced the menace of the Nizari Ismailis, a well-known sect of Shiites. The Mongol Naiman commander Kitbuqa began to assault several Ismaili fortresses in 1253, before Hulagu advanced in 1256. Ismaili Grand Master Rukn al-Din Khurshah surrendered in 1257 and was executed. All of the Ismaili strongholds in Persia were destroyed by Hulagu's army in 1257, except for Girdkuh which held out until 1271. The center of the Islamic Empire at the time was Baghdad, which had held power for 500 years but was suffering internal divisions. When its caliph al-Mustasim refused to submit to the Mongols,"
"Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi (April 10, 1018 – October 14, 1092), better known by his honorific title of Nizam al-Mulk (, ""Order of the Realm"" ) was a Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuq Empire. Rising from a lowly position, he was the ""de facto"" ruler of the empire for 20 years after the assassination of Alp Arslan in 1072, with a apotheosis as the Islamic history's archetypal good vizier. One of his most important legacies was founding schools in cities throughout the Seljuk Empire. These were called ""nezamiyehs"" after him. He wrote ""Siyasatnama"" (""""Book"
"also Jabal Shuf starting in the 9th century. The group soon became widely vilified in the Islamic world for its armed campaigns across throughout the following decades, which included slaughtering Muslim pilgrims and sacking Mecca and Medina—and Salamiyah. Other Muslim rulers soon acted to crush this powerful heretical movement. In the Levant, the Qarmatians were ordered to be stamped out by the ruling Fatimid, themselves Ismailis and from whom the lineage of the modern Nizari Aga Khan is claimed to descend. The Qarmatian movement in the Levant was largely extinguished by the turn of the millennium. The semi-divine personality of"
"the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia remained. A serious internal threat to the Seljuqs during their reign came from the Nizari Ismailis, a secret sect with headquarters at Alamut Castle between Rasht and Tehran. They controlled the immediate area for more than 150 years and sporadically sent out adherents to strengthen their rule by murdering important officials. Several of the various theories on the etymology of the word ""assassin"" derive from these killers. Parts of northwestern Iran were conquered in the early 13th century AD by the Kingdom of Georgia, led by Tamar the Great. The Khwarezmid Empire only lasted"
"the Islamic lands was attributed to the Ismailis. So inflated had this association grown that, in the work of orientalist scholars such as Bernard Lewis, the Ismailis were equated with the politically active ""fida'is"" and thus were regarded as a radical and heretical sect known as the Assassins. The military approach of the Nizari Ismaili state was largely a defensive one, with strategically chosen sites that appeared to avoid confrontation wherever possible without the loss of life. But the defining characteristic of the Nizari Ismaili state was that it was scattered geographically throughout Persia and Syria. The Alamut castle therefore"
"Hassan-i Sabbah Hassan-e Sabbāh (mistakenly Hassan-i Sabbāh Persian: حسن صباح ""Hasan-e Sabbāh"") or Hassan as-Sabbāh (Arabic: حسن الصباح ""Ḥasan aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ"") (circa 1050–1124) was the leader of the Nizārī Ismā‘īlītes and the founder of the order known as Assassins. Assassins, who are often referred to as the ""Hashshashin"", was a group of fedayeen. Hassan-e Sabbāh was a missionary who converted the Nizari in the late 11th century in the heart of the Alborz Mountains of northern Persia. He later seized a mountain fortress called Alamut. Hassan is thought to have written an autobiography, which did not survive but seems to underlie"
"be working with Khazali after their return. Qais Khazali Qais al-Khazali (in Arabic قيس الخزعلي) (born 1974) is best known as the founder and leader of the Special Groups in Iraq from June 2006 until his capture by British forces in March 2007. As head of the Special Groups, Khazali directed arms smuggling, formation of death squads to participate in sectarian violence, kidnappings, and assassinations, most notably the January 20, 2007 attack on American forces in Karbala. A former follower of Moqtada al-Sadr, he was expelled from the Mahdi Army in 2004 for giving ""unauthorized orders"" and founded his own"
"the suicide of the perpetrators and towards their use as weapons by their commanders. The 1st Century AD Jewish Sicarii sect are thought to have carried out suicidal attacks against Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators. The Islamic Hashishiyeen (Assassins) sect of Ismaili Shi'a Muslims assassinated two caliphs, and many viziers, sultans and Crusader leaders over the course of 300 years, before being annihilated by Mongol invaders. Hashishiyeen were known for their targeting of the powerful, their use of the dagger as a weapon (rather than something safer for the assassin such as a crossbow), and for making no attempt"
"Nizari Ismaili state The Nizari Ismaili state, also called the Alamut State, was a Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hasan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD. The ""state"" consisted of a nexus of strategic fortresses throughout Persia and Syria, with each stronghold being surrounded by huge swathes of hostile territory, in particular, the Seljuk Empire. It was formed as a result of a religious and political movement of the minority Nizari Ismaili sect supported by the anti-Seljuk population. Being heavily outnumbered, they resisted adversaries by employing strategic strongholds and the use of tactics"
"""death toll was as high as 83."" This attack was the work of ""Tali'a muqatila"", or Fighting Vanguard, a Sunni Islamist guerrilla group and spinoff of the Muslim Brotherhood. `Adnan `Uqla, who later became the group's leader, helped plan the massacre. The cadet massacre ""marked the start of full-scale urban warfare"" against Alawis, a cadre of the ruling Ba'ath party, party offices, ""police posts, military vehicles, barracks, factories and any other target the guerrillas could attack."" In the city of Aleppo between 1979 and 1981 terrorists killed over 300 people, mainly Ba'thists and Alawis, but also a dozen Islamic clergy"
"via their underground terror cells. Subsequently, the antigovernment groups were organized into several groups including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the East Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), the Uyghur Liberation Organization, etc. On 24 August 1993, two men from the East Turkestan movement stabbed and killed imam Abliz Damolla of the Great Mosque in Yecheng County. In 1996, Uyghur separatists shot assistant imam Hakimsidiq Haji of Aksu Prefecture on 22 March and attacked senior imam Aronghan Haji of the Id Kah Mosque with cleavers, who survived with cuts on his head, hands, back and legs. Mullah Aronghan Haji's attacker, Nurmamat,"
"Qais Khazali Qais al-Khazali (in Arabic قيس الخزعلي) (born 1974) is best known as the founder and leader of the Special Groups in Iraq from June 2006 until his capture by British forces in March 2007. As head of the Special Groups, Khazali directed arms smuggling, formation of death squads to participate in sectarian violence, kidnappings, and assassinations, most notably the January 20, 2007 attack on American forces in Karbala. A former follower of Moqtada al-Sadr, he was expelled from the Mahdi Army in 2004 for giving ""unauthorized orders"" and founded his own group: Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) also known"
"Nizari The Nizaris ( ""al-Nizāriyyūn"") are the largest branch of the Ismaili Shi'i Muslims, the second-largest branch of Shia Islam (the largest being the Twelver). Nizari teachings emphasise human reasoning (ijtihad, the individual use of one's reason when using both the Quran and Hadith as resources), pluralism (the acceptance of racial, ethnic, cultural and intra-religious differences) and social justice. Aga Khan IV is their religious Imam and leader. Nizari Isma'ili history is often traced through the unbroken hereditary chain of Guardianship or (waliya), beginning with as Shia believe Ali Ibn Abi Talib being declared his successor as Imam by Muhammad"
"tales of ""fida'is"" being fed with hashish as part of their training. Whether ""fida'is"" were actually trained or dispatched by Nizari leaders is unconfirmed, but scholars including Vladimir Ivanov purport that the assassinations of key figures including Saljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk likely provided encouraging impetus to others in the community who sought to secure the Nizaris protection from political aggression. Originally, a ""local and popular term"" first applied to the Ismailis of Syria, the label was orally transmitted to Western historians and thus found itself in their histories of the Nizaris. The tales of the ""fida'is"" training collected from anti-Ismaili"
"refuting the beliefs of the '. In 1016 ad-Darazi and his followers openly proclaimed their beliefs and called people to join them, causing riots in Cairo against the Unitarian movement including Hamza bin Ali and his followers. This led to the suspension of the movement for one year and the expulsion of ad-Darazi and his supporters. Although the Druze religious books describe ad-Darazi as the ""insolent one"" and as the ""calf"" who is narrow-minded and hasty, the name ""Druze"" is still used for identification and for historical reasons. In 1018 ad-Darazi was assassinated for his teachings; some sources claim that"
"was reformed at the Isfahan observatory. In 1089, Malik-Shah captured Samarkand with the support of the local clergy, and imprisoned its Karakhanid ruler Ahmad Khan ibn Khizr, who was the nephew of Terken Khatun. He then marched to Semirechye, and made the Karakhanid Harun Khan ibn Sulayman, who was the ruler of Kashgar and Khotan, acknowledge him as his suzerain. In 1092 Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated near Sihna, on the road to Baghdad, by a man disguised as a Sufi. As the assassin was immediately cut down by Nizam's bodyguard, it became impossible to establish with certainty who had sent"
"which denotes any action involving murder of a high-profile target for political reasons. The Nizari were acknowledged and feared by the Crusaders. The stories of the Assassins were further embellished by Marco Polo. European orientalist historians in the 19th century – such as Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall – also referred to the Nizari in their works and tended to write about the Nizari based on accounts by medieval Sunni Arab and Persian authors. The origins of the Assassins can be traced back to just before the First Crusade, around 1094 in Alamut, north of modern Iran, during a crisis of succession"
"and HSBC bank headquarters that killed 58. Hizbullah's leader, Hüseyin Velioğlu, was killed in action by Turkish police in Beykoz on 17 January 2000. Besides Hizbullah, other Islamic groups listed as a terrorist organization by Turkish police counter-terrorism include Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, al-Qaeda in Turkey, Tevhid-Selam (also known as ""al-Quds Army"") and Caliphate State. Islamic Party of Kurdistan and Hereketa İslamiya Kurdistan are also Islamist groups active against Turkey, however unlike Hizbullah they're yet to be listed as active terrorist organizations in Turkey by Turkish police counter-terrorism. The area that has seen some of the worst terror attacks"
"Jihadia cell Al-Sirat Al-Musqatim (""The Correct Path"") were responsible for four coordinated bombing attacks targeting Westerners and Jews in Casablanca, which killed 33 people (plus all twelve suicide bombers) and injured over 100. In the aftermath of the bombings, up to more than 2,000 individuals were prosecuted in Morocco in a wide-scale crackdown on Islamists and criminals. The Moroccan Justice Ministry subsequently claimed that Salafia Jihadia had 699 activists in the country. Some of the suicide bombers who failed to detonate their vests were captured by police. Three of the failed bombers and another person, all members of Salafia Jihadia,"
"key opponent when they deemed it necessary. Known today as Assassins, these Isma'ilis were referred to as ""Hasshashin"" by their enemies, as many of their political enemies believed them to consume the intoxicant hashish before being dispatched as agents although modern scholarship tends to dispute this theory as polemic fabricated to discredit the Isma'ili. Other theories suggest the term originates from them being followers of ""Hassan"". The term entered Western vocabulary through the returning Crusaders as ""assassin"". The fortress was destroyed on December 15, 1256, by Hulagu Khan as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic Southwest Asia. The Nizari"
"class is a common feature of many such games, usually specializing in single combat and stealth skills, often combined in order to defeat an opponent without exposing the assassin to counter-attack. Assassins Order of Assassins or simply Assassins is the common name used to refer to an Islamic sect formally known as the Nizari Ismailis. Based on texts from Alamut, their grand master Hassan-i Sabbah tended to call his disciples Asāsiyyūn (أساسيون, meaning ""people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]""), but some foreign travellers like Marco Polo misunderstood the name as deriving from the term hashish. Often"