First this is NOT some review of some vid game. Second, it is my chance for yet another of my historical perspectives (is that a heavy sigh I hear?)
Assassins…..when the word is mentioned most people think about the Ninja of Japan……but the original Assassins came out of Persia……I have seen that some have compared the barbarity of ISIS with the assassins of old…..but who are the assassins?
In the modern world, the word “assassin” denotes a mysterious figure in the shadows, bent on murder for purely political reasons rather than for love or money. Amazingly enough, that usage hasn’t changed too much since the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the Assassins of Persia struck fear (and daggers) into the hearts of the region’s political and religious leaders.
However, we know that the Assassins were a branch of the Islamaili sect of Shia Islam. The founder of the Assassins was a Nizari Ismaili missionary called Hasan-i Sabbah, who infiltrated the castle at Alamut with his followers, and bloodlessly ousted the resident king of Daylam in 1090.
For the most part, the Assassins’ victims were Seljuk Turks or their allies. The first and one of the best-known was Nizam al-Mulk, a Persian who served as vizier to the Seljuk court. He was killed in October of 1092 by an Assassin disguised as a Sufi mystic.
A Sunni caliph, Mustarshid, fell to Assassin daggers in 1131 during a succession dispute.
In 1213, the sharif of the holy city of Mecca lost his cousin to an Assassin. He was particularly upset about the attack because this cousin closely resembled him. Convinced that he was the real target, he took all Persian and Syrian pilgrims hostage until a rich lady from Alamut paid their ransom.
Why did the Assassins attack the Seljuks? As Shi’ites, many Persians had long felt mistreated by the Arabic Sunni Muslims who controlled the Caliphate for centuries. When the power of the caliphs faltered in the 10th-11th centuries, and Christian Crusaders began to harry them in the eastern Mediterranean, the Shi’a thought their moment had come.
The Assassins started their decline after the Mongol invasion and conquest of most of the region in which the Assassins operated…..
There is the quick history of the Assassins…..today’s debate about them being the modern day assassin is sad……the Assassins were Shi’a….ISIS is Sunni….this alone makes the argument over…..but I have seen and read that some people want to compare the two…..
Since the latest attack in Paris I have seen so many comparisons to past events and the comparisons of the Assassins to ISIS were inevitable. A very good piece on this comparison…..
Source: ISIL fighters are not the new Assassins – Al Jazeera English
All I can say is thank you for letting me once again enlighten your life with some historical perspective……
Suuni or Shia … Shia or Suuni …Both Islamist … Both “The Religion of Peace” … Both Muslim to the core ….Must be something in the core belief system to have caused “Assassins” to rise …. Hmmmm. Is one of these branches of “The Faith” Apostate and the other not and if so which is which? (Maybe they have two versions of the Holy Texts like we have hundreds of “Versions” of the Babble! Whoops! Make that “Bah-Bull!” Today in Amerika we have two major divisions of Christiandom … We have the beer-bellied backward baseball-cap-wearing ignoramuses with guns and an urge to use them with their version (Bah-Bull) and we have Legitimate Christianity whose adherents have the Bible.”
It began as a land grab and they decided to fight and since they had no army to speak of they resorted to becoming assassins….could we argue a christian is a christian….I know it is not true but it would be same argument used against Muslims…..chuq
There are “Real Christians” and there are faux Christians.
Could not the same be said for Muslims?
I guess we will have to ask a Muslim. The Quaran seems to indicate otherwise. And both sects swear by the Quaran, don’t they? The beheaders and their cousins, the non-beheaders yet.
John, we could make the same argument for the Old Testament or the Torah whichever you prefer….there is a passage in the Qu’ran called the Hypocrites and it lambaste those like ISIS…..granted I am NO expert but there are other passages about the treatment of prisoners and it is not what ISIS is doing…..but as you say we need to ask a Muslim….chuq
You ask them please because I keep my distance … let me know what you find out.
Great analysis and background…. but, why leave out the origin of the word itself? They were known as
“hashishasine”, which, over time evolved into the word we now know, ‘assassin’. The name came from their habit of preparing for their work by smoking large quantities of hashish, to prepare their minds for the work, focusing their will and being upon the target….
Just my own little addition to what is often left out of the picture….
gigoid, the dubious
Yep I thought it might distract from the analysis you know how one dimensional most people think…..chuq
Yes, but, I refuse to cater to it; I figure it’s better to force them to think beyond the end of their nose….
Back when I still pretended to believe, my favorite saying about it all was, “Kill ’em all; let God sort it out…”
😉
Besides, if they stumble into what I’ve written, they get what they deserve….
As, I believe, Billy Bob Thornton once said, “Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.”
gigoid