Order of Assassins

The Order of Assassins were a <a href="/facts/Nizari_Isma%27ilism/VlqLYnhg">Nizari Isma'ili</a> order that existed between 1090 and 1275 AD, founded by <a href="/facts/Hasan-i_Sabbah/EYWKHWW5">Hasan al-Sabbah</a>.
During that time, they lived in the mountains of <a href="/facts/Persia/24yukge8">Persia</a> and the <a href="/facts/Levant/uuJLt3Af">Levant</a>, and held a strict subterfuge policy throughout the <a href="/facts/Middle_East/8CD6pLWv">Middle East</a>, posing a substantial strategic threat to <a href="/facts/Fatimid_Caliphate/jgmF2I5C">Fatimid</a>, <a href="/facts/Abbasid/mPeLAbXt">Abbasid</a>, and <a href="/facts/Seljuk_Empire/PIdMSP62">Seljuk</a> authority, and killing several <a href="/facts/Christian/15hE11VR">Christian</a> leaders. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds who were considered enemies of the <a href="/facts/Nizari_Isma%27ili_state/04DlFyJU">Nizari Isma'ili state</a>. The modern term <a href="/facts/Assassination/hgoazwWn">assassination</a> is believed to stem from the tactics used by the Assassins.
Contemporaneous historians include <a href="/facts/Ibn_al-Qalanisi/6B7bDCkL">ibn al-Qalanisi</a>, <a href="/facts/Ali_ibn_al-Athir/FLWEdvtt">Ali ibn al-Athir</a>, and <a href="/facts/Ata-Malik_Juvayni/dEvEANd1">Ata-Malik Juvayni</a>. The former two referred to the Assassins as <a href="/facts/Batiniyya/sxJDozKr">batiniyya</a>, an epithet widely accepted by Isma'ilis themselves.

Order of Assassins open-in-new

Order of Assassins