Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Kamran Scot Aghaie, ed., The Women 

of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses 

in Modern Shii Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press, 

2005); Peter Chelkowski, ed., Taziyeh: Ritual and 

Drama in Iran (New York: New York University Press, 

Ashura

  

67  J

---

1979); Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, Guests of the Sheik

(New York: Anchor Books, 1995); David Pinault, The 

Shiites: Ritual and Popular Piety in a Muslim Community

(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992).

Assassins

In the 12th century, Europeans gave the name 

Assassins to a group of ruthless killers they had 

heard about during their 

crUsades

 and travels in 

the Middle East. One of the most famous accounts 

about them is found in the writings of world trav-

eler Marco Polo (1254–1324). He described the 

Assassins as agents recruited by a leader called 

Old Man of the Mountain, who kept them drugged 

and entertained in hidden 

gardens

 patterned after 

those of the Islamic 

paradise

 as described in the 

q

Uran

. When the leader wanted them to do his 

bidding, which included the assassination of rul-

ers and officials, he would send them out with the 

promise that when they accomplished their tasks 

angels

 would carry them back to paradise as a 

reward. By the 14th century, Europeans were using 

the term assassin more generally for anyone who 

murdered a ruler or high-ranking official, which is 

the meaning it still has today. The name is origi-

nally from the Arabic hashishi, someone addicted 

to hashish (a narcotic made from Indian hemp).

The actual Assassins, as distinguished from the 

ones imaginatively described by Europeans, were 

Nizari Isamaili Shia—devoted followers of Hasan-i 

Sabbah (d. 1124), a charismatic Shii leader who 

announced the coming of a new religious era and 

led an upraising against Sunni Muslim rulers in the 

Middle East. His trained fighters, who were willing 

to sacrifice their lives for him, operated out of for-

tresses in the remote mountains of s

yria

 and Persia 

(i

ran

), the most famous of which was Alamut, 

located in the Elburz Mountains near the Caspian 

Sea. These fighters would infiltrate towns and pal-

aces to carry out their assignments, which included 

political assassinations as well as other disruptive 

actions. They inspired fear and hatred in the hearts 

of Sunni authorities, who were also contending 

with European crusader armies in Syria and Pales-

tine at that time. Sunnis usually called the Nizaris 

“apostates,” but they also tried to insult them by 

calling them hashishis. Legends about the Assas-

sins began to circulate among European crusaders 

and travelers in the Middle East at this time. The 

Mongols from the steppes of Central Asia finally 

put an end to Nizari rule in Persia in 1256, and the 

m

amlUk

 rulers of e

gypt

 did the same in Syria by 

1273. The violent activities of the Assassins ceased, 

and the history of the Nizari branch of Islam took a 

different turn as its members retreated from politics 

and killing to live more peacefully in widely scat-

tered communities where some followed the path 

of s

UFism

 and engaged in new missionary activities, 

especially in Persia and i

ndia

.

See also a

ga

 k

han

; 

apostasy

; F

atimid

 

dynasty

; 

fidai

; i

smaili

 s

hiism

.