Artistic Rendering of Hassan-Sabbah

Hassan-i-Sabbah (in Persian: بن صباح or حسن صباح) (circa 1034 - 1124), or The Old Man of the Mountain (Arabic شيخ الجبل), was an Iranian Ismaili missionary who converted a community in the late 11th century in the heart of the Elburz Mountains of northern Iran. The place was called Alamut and was attributed to an ancient king of Daylam. File links The following pages link to this file: Hassan-i-Sabah ... Persian (فارسی = Fârsi . ... Events April 11 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium marries her chamberlain and elevates him to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael IV. Franche-Comté becomes subject to the Holy Roman Empire. ... Events March 26 - Henry I of Englands forces defeat Norman rebels at Bourgtheroulde. ... The Ismaili (Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmâiliyân) branch of Islam is the second largest Shia community, after the Twelvers who are dominant in Iran. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ... Alborz Mountains underneath clouds seen from Tehran Alborz (in Persian البرز), also written as Alburz or Elburz, is a mountain range in northern Iran, stretching from the borders of Armenia in the north-west to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, where also Tehran and Irans highest peak... The remains of the fabled Alamut castle. ...

Life and work

When Hassan discovered Alamut in the late 11th Century, it was in the hands of a Seljuk subject. Hassan prepared the takeover of the castle by secretly converting its staff. With the household on his side, he was smuggled into the castle and began to establish his rule at Alamut. When the castle's residents realized they were no longer in control it was too late. Hassan graciously allowed the former tenant leave of his castle in addition to a draft of 3,000 silver dinars in payment for the castle. From this point on his community and its branches spread throughout Iran and Syria and came to be called Hashshashin or Hashshishin or Assassins, an Islamic mystery cult. The Hashshashin (also Hashishin), or Assassins were a religious sect (often refered to as a cult) of Ismaili Muslims from the Nizari sub-sect with a militant basis, thought to be active in the 8th to 14th centuries as a mystic secret society specializing in terrorising the Abbasid elite with... Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ... Islam ▶(?) (Arabic: الإسلام al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second largest religion. ... A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. ... In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and new religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. ...

Hassan was extremely strict and disciplined. The abrogation of Islamic law (sharia) occurred under a later Grand Master, Hassan II, in 1174. If hashish was used by the community (and this is uncertain) it probably also occurred later. There is dispute as to whether the term 'Assassin' means 'user of hashish' or 'follower of Hassan'. Sharia (Arabic: ; also Sharīah, Sharia, Shariah or Syariah) is the Arabic word for Islamic law, also known as the Law of Allah. ...

Not much is known about Hassan, but legends abound as to the tactics used to induct members into his quasi-religious political organization. A future assassin was subjected to rites very similar to those of other mystery cults in which the subject was made to believe that he was in imminent danger of death. But the twist of the assassins was that they drugged the person to simulate a "dying" to later have them awaken in a garden flowing with wine and served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that Sabbah was a representative of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even to death. This legend derives from Marco Polo, who visited Alamut just after it fell to the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Other accounts of the indoctrination attest that the future assassins were brought to Alamut at a young age and, while they matured, inhabited the aforementioned paradisial gardens and were kept drugged with hashish; as in the previous version, Hassan occupied this garden as a divine emissary. At a certain point (when their initiation could be said to have begun) the drug was withdrawn from them, and they were removed from the gardens and flung into a dungeon. There they were informed that, if they wished to return to the paradise they had so recently enjoyed it would be at Sabbah's discretion, and that they must therefore follow his directions exactly, up to and including murder and self-sacrifice. A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ... Michelangelos interpretation of Heaven Heaven is an afterlife concept found in many religions or spiritual philosophies. ... Marco Polo (September 15, 1254, Venice, Italy; or Curzola, Venetian Dalmatia - now Korčula, Croatia — January 8, 1324, Venice) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which he... Honorary guard of Mongolia. ...

Hasan i Sabbah was born Hassan Bin Ali Bin Muhammad Bin Ja'fr Bin Hussain Bin Muhammad al Sabbah al Hameeri in Re, Iran. He belonged to the tribe of al Hameer from Yemen. His ancestors were all Asna Asheri Shiites, but Hassan under the influence of Ismaili friends or probably a physician converted to Ismaili Shiism. The Paradise or "Firdous e Bareen" was the brainchild of Hassan Bin Sabbah, which was used to literally 'forge' Hashshishin, his most lethal weapon. He died on 26 Rabi utthani 518 Hijri in his abode, Alamut.

The famous novel Firdous e Bareen written by Indian Muslim novelist Abdul Halim Sherer gives the biographical account of Hussain, a youth lured and captured by Hassan's men and then forced into his assassination machinery. Firdous e Bareen (or فردوس برین in Persian and Urdu) was the name of the garden made by Hassan-i-Sabah and his band of Nizari Ismaili Shiite fugitives (the Hashshashin) in the Elburz mountains of Northern Iran, imitating paradise or heaven. ...

The cult was responsible for the assassination of a number of Sunni scholars and rulers. Non-lethal warnings could also be given, whereby a target would wake to find a dagger embedded in his pillow next to his head. They usually took the hint. Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ...

The Assassins often allied with the Crusaders against the Sunnis. The Aga Khan is said to be the spiritual successor to the order - in terms of leadership, not methods!

Hassan in music

A concept album called Hashisheen: The End of Law was released in 1998. The album consists of a series of ancient mystical Islamic poems and writings set to modern music and features various artists, poets and writers including William Burroughs, Iggy Pop, Hakim Bey and Genesis P. Orridge. The texts used are a mixture of hashish poems and mystical texts conerning the divine nature; also featured is the account of Alamut by Marco Polo. 1998(MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... William S. Burroughs. ... Iggy Pop Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg, Jr. ... Peter Lamborn Wilson is a political writer, poet, and self-described anarchist ontologist. He sometimes writes under the name Hakim Bey (which may mean Mr Judge in Turkish, and which may or may not have been a name-of-convenience used by other radical writers since the 1970s). ... Genesis P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson February 22, 1950, or May 22, 1949), is an English performer, musician, writer and artist. ...

There is also a now-defunct screamo band called Hassan I Sabbah. They were active around 2000-2001, and released a 7" on Robodog Records and a split 7" with Usurp Synapse. Their drummer is now in Unearth. Screamo is a musical genre that developed out of emo, more specifically hardcore emo, in the early 1990s. ... A band both loved and hated, Usurp Synapse was one of the most undeniably heavy and innovative bands in the Emo Violence scene. ...

The 1977 Recording "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" by Hawkwind features a song titled "Hassan I Sahba" Hawkwind is a British rock music group. ...

Hassan in popular culture

William S. Burroughs is one of a number of fiction writers who have incorporated Sabbah--himself or his ideas--in their work. William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, essayist, social critic and spoken word performer. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ...

Hassan i Sabbah X (the tenth in the line) appears as a Sufi mystic, alias Franklin Delano Roosevelt Stuart, in the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson.

The serpent king in the film Conan The Barbarian bears many similarities to the legendary Hassan, notably in the scene where acolytes commit suicide as a demonstration that 'flesh is stronger than steel'. Hassan reportedly demanded (and got) the same sacrifice as a demonstration of his power, when one follower slit his own throat and another leapt from the battlements of Alamut. – The Nemedian Chronicles, as quoted in The Phoenix on the Sword (1932), by Robert E. Howard. ...

See also

• Ismaili
• Asna Asheri
• Firdous e Bareen

The Ismaili (Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmâiliyân) branch of Islam is the second largest Shia community, after the Twelvers who are dominant in Iran. ... Firdous e Bareen (or فردوس برین in Persian and Urdu) was the name of the garden made by Hassan-i-Sabah and his band of Nizari Ismaili Shiite fugitives (the Hashshashin) in the Elburz mountains of Northern Iran, imitating paradise or heaven. ...

External links

• The life of Hassan-i-Sabah from an Ismaili point of view. Focuses on assassination as a tactic of asymmetrical warfare and has a small section on Hasan-i-Sabah's work as a scholar.
• The life of Hassan-i-Sabbah as part of a online book on the Assassins of Alamut.
• Arkon Daraul on Hassan-i-Sabbah.
• An illustrated article on the Order of Assassins.
• William S. Burrough's invocation of Hassan-i-Sabbah in Nova Express.