First assassin leader

Hassan-i-Sabbah devoted his life to the Shia Ismaili sect and, after many years wandering around the Middle East studying and becoming a religious leader, was able to establish a series of strongholds across the region. One such stronghold was Alamut Castle in the Elburz Mountains in Iran. From there he set up a force of armed supporters known as “Hashishim” or “Assassins” to kill his Sunni opponents and crusader leaders with minimal loss. They specialised in lone missions to kill, sometimes under the influence of drugs, and favoured daggers and poison. Known by many as the “Mountain Chief” and by the crusaders as the “Old Man of the Mountains”, he is the first identifiable leader of the assassins and, under him, an assassin named Bu Tahir Arrani had their first notable success in killing the vizier named Nizam al-Mulk Tusi. According to Bernard Lewis' book "The Assassins" (page 48), Hassan was brought secretly to the castle of Alamut on 4 September 1090, his followers having infiltrated it beforehand. While the taking of life by treacherous violence, either by hired attackers or volunteers, has been a feature of life from time immemorial. the term assassination and the name assassin have more recent origins. The word may come form the word Hashshashin, which derives from the word hashish, or it may come from the word Asasiyun meaning those who follow the Asas. They were a group of religious believers who were part of the Nizari branch of the Isma’ili Shia and active in the fortress of Alamut in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who killed their enemies, usually with a dagger, by sending a single assassin selected for the mission. They were the first to be termed assassins and were the forerunners of today’s suicide bombers.