Iran
36° 27’ N, 50° 35’ E
Archaeological site of Alamut
Alamut is the name of a valley in the Elbrus massif south of the Caspian Sea, near the city of Qazvin, 100 kilometers from present-day Tehran, in present-day northwestern Iran. The "fortress of Alamut", often simply called Alamut, reputed to be impregnable, once stood at an altitude of 2100 meters above the village currently named Gâzor Khân (Persian:gāzor ḫān, گازرخان, verbatim:The inn ( caravanserai) of the washer).
This fortress was built around 840. The archaeological site is completely in ruins especially since the earthquake of 2004. There are 23 other fortresses from the same period in ruins in the region.
The word Alamut (Persian:alamōt, would mean "Eagle's Nest" or "Lesson of the Eagle" in the local dialect. In Persian we say the "fortress of Alamut" (Persian:qalʿéh-é alamōt, , or dèj-é alamōt, , castle of Alamût), to name the archaeological site.
The fortress was taken in 1090 by Hassan ibn al-Sabbah, nicknamed the "Old Man of the Mountain", (Chayr al-Jabal [3] ) to serve as a base for the Shiite Ismaili sect of the Nizârites, also called Assassins (Hachichin [4 ] ). Distrustful of the latter given their heterodox beliefs, their contemporaries called them Batiniyya, or Batini.
In 1256, the fortress of Alamut surrendered without a fight to the Mongol army of Hulagu Khan which was sweeping Iran. She was completely shaved.
List of Nizari leaders in Alamut
This list concerns only the imams who reigned in the fortress. For the complete list, read the Nizari Imams from the 11th to the 12th century.
* Al-Hassan I (1097-1124
* Buzurg-Ummid (1124-1138)
* Muhammad I (1138-1162)
* Al-Hassan II (1162-1166)
* Mohammed II (1166-1210)
* Al-Hassan III (1210-1221)
* Mohammed III (1221-1255)
* Rukh ad-Din Khurshah (1255-1256)
The legend of the Fortress of Alamut
Inconsistency
* This map shows an area, between Antioch and Tripoli, which would be the land of operations of the so terrible Hasshîshîn, according to legend. However, the site described in this legend, one hundred kilometers from Tehran, is considerably distant from this area. The Assassins are supposed to come out of the mountain, after the brainwashing described below, to slay the disbelievers. Apart from the embassy described in the text of the legendary tale, it is therefore unlikely that the base of operations was so distant from where the Crusaders had settled. It is therefore a legend.
* This apparent inconsistency could be explained by the fact that during the twelfth century, the sect extended its grip on Syria by seizing a series of castles and strongholds in the mountains of An-Nusayriyah, including the fortress of Masyaf. From this reputedly impregnable position, Rashid ad-Din Asinan established a practically independent Assassin State, separate from the general staff of Alamut. According to Simon Cox ("The Illuminati Deciphered"), it is the legends born of the life of Rashid ad-Din that would be at the origin of the stories of the Old Man of the Mountain, even if this name seems to have been incorrectly translated from the Arabic expression meaning "head of the mountain".
Origins
Marco Polo reported the legend by having claimed to have visited Alamut, which is unlikely given the fact that in the year of his arrival there the stronghold had already ceased to be used for several decades after the year 1256 , which saw its dismantling.
According to his description, the fortress capped on the mountain had a magnificent secret garden imitating the appearance of the gardens of Paradise. The goal was to convince the future assassins of the sect - drugged in particular with hashish - that they had just made a brief trip to Heaven in order to fanaticize them before they leave to accomplish their deadly mission.
The rest is obviously watered down by the imagination of the people who ensured the later transmissions of this travelogue. Here is one such story.
Legendary tale
The veracity of this legend has not been proven, but what made Alamut a place that succeeded in making many leaders and personalities of the time tremble was the degree of manipulation used by Hassan ibn al-Sabbah to fanaticize his assassins.
First of all Hassan (or rather his slaves) took care of a secret garden, a place forbidden to all the occupants, the initiates of the citadel. It was a lush, beautiful garden. There were also very beautiful women in the garden, mostly virgins.
The initiates took courses during the day. They learned to fight with several types of weapons but also learned languages, sciences and mathematics. In addition to this, they took religious courses, so that they strongly adhered to their religion.
In addition, Hassan ibn al-Sabbah posed as a prophet and therefore the sole earthly holder of the keys to paradise.
As the holder of this privileged access route to eternal bliss, he could therefore send whoever he wanted to paradise, a place described by legend as magnificent, beautiful, and full of Houris, these famous virgins of the Muslim paradise. The two best of the young initiates of each class were therefore chosen and summoned by the master (Hassan). The latter, after having spoken to them, told them that, to reward them for their good results, he was going to send them to paradise and then bring them back to this lower world.
Hassan therefore promised to give them a foretaste of what eternal life had in store for believers. He consequently drugged them with hashish, perhaps in the form of dragees (hence their nickname of hashischins, the assassins), which altered their sensations, then made them take a powerful sleeping pill. Once unconscious, they were transported to the secret garden of the fortress and woke up surrounded by cooked meals, lush plants, and many houris. They would then have a great time, legitimately believing themselves to be in heaven, then they would be drugged again and taken back to their room.
So they got up in the morning in disbelief and returned only to their dull daily life. Hassan then told them that if they died for the good cause, he would immediately send them back to paradise. The two fedais were intimately convinced that they had already been to paradise and all this helped to eliminate the fear of death in them; knowing the latter was expected by the promise of a second life in an idyllic place, the promised back world.
The followers of Hassan were therefore no longer afraid of anything during their lifetime and were subject body and soul to the master. They thus made perfect killers acting like suicide squads.
Indeed, they left (alone or in small groups) armed with a dagger and when the target left his house or walked quietly in the street, the assassin emerged from the crowd and struck the target. They usually killed her in broad daylight and in front of witnesses, to shake people's spirits.
The effectiveness of this method came from the fact that, having no fear of death, the assassin struck then waited for the blows and accepted to die because he thus believed to join the houris of paradise. These assassins also knew how to handle several weapons perfectly and were physically trained. Defending against such opponents required tough commitments as they were tough.
It is said that a Crusader embassy was sent to Alamut, the den of the Nizari at the time. When the ambassador arrived, he wanted to know what made these assassins such terrible characters that they terrorized politicians and local elites. The master therefore called two fedais. He asked one to run to one of the fortified walls overlooking a ravine and jump into the void. As the latter ran, he asked the second to pull out his dagger and stab himself. The first reached the top and jumped, without a cry. The second plunged the knife into his stomach with a blissful smile on his face. The ambassador was frankly impressed by the degree of manipulation that the master exercised over his henchmen, compared to which the most horrible threats of the Christian clergy would have remained without effect.
Hassan would then have enjoyed great influence in the region; hence probably the spread of this legend.
It was therefore in the valley of Alamut that a great sect was born, and Hassan accomplished his goal:to shake the very foundations of the secular power that surrounded him.