Historical biography meaning of assassin

The next year, after taking Azaz , Assassins again struck, wounding Saladin. Failing to capture the stronghold, he settled for a truce. Saladin had his guards supplied with link lights and had chalk and cinders strewed around his tent outside Masyaf —which he was besieging—to detect any footsteps by the Assassins. Presently, Saladin awoke to find a figure leaving the tent.

He saw that the lamps were displaced and beside his bed laid hot scones of the shape peculiar to the Assassins with a note at the top pinned by a poisoned dagger. The note threatened that he would be killed if he did not withdraw from his assault. Saladin gave a loud cry, exclaiming that Sinan himself was the figure that had left the tent.

Another version claims that Saladin hastily withdrew his troops from Masyaf because they were urgently needed to fend off a Crusader force in the vicinity of Mount Lebanon. In reality, Saladin sought to form an alliance with Sinan and his Assassins, consequently depriving the Crusaders of a potent ally against him. The daughter of Amalric, she married her first husband Conrad of Montferrat , who became king by virtue of marriage, not yet crowned.

Conrad had been in charge of Tyre during the siege of Tyre in launched by Saladin, successfully defending the city. Guy of Lusignan , married to Isabella's half-sister Sybilla of Jerusalem , was king of Jerusalem by right of marriage and had been captured by Saladin during the battle of Hattin in that same year, When Guy was released in , he was denied entry to Tyre by Conrad and launched the siege of Acre in Queen Sybilla died of an epidemic sweeping her husband's military camp in , negating Guy's claim to the throne and resulting in Isabella becoming queen.

Assassins disguised as Christian monks had infiltrated the bishopric of Tyre, gaining the confidence of both the archbishop Joscius and Conrad of Montferrat. There in , they stabbed Conrad to death. The surviving Assassin is reputed to have named Richard I of England as the instigator, who had much to gain as demonstrated by the rapidity at which the widow married Henry II of Champagne.

Regardless, Richard I was released in after England paid his ransom and the murder remains unsolved. He died of natural causes at al-Kahf Castle and was buried at Salamiyah , which had been a secret hub of Isma'ili activity in the 9th and 10th centuries. Al-Aziz died soon thereafter, replaced by Saladin's brother al-Adil I. His first actions included the return to the Islamic orthodoxy by practising Taqiyyah to ensure safety of the Ismailis in the hostile environment.

He claimed allegiance to the Sunnis to protect himself and his followers from further persecution. He had a Sunni mother and four Sunni wives. The Alamuts had a previous history with al-Nasir, supplying Assassins to attack a Kwarezm representative of shah Ala ad-Din Tekish , but that was more of an action of convenience than formal alliance. Maintaining ties to western Christian influences, the Alamuts became tributaries to the Knights Hospitaller beginning at the Isma'ili stronghold Abu Qubays , near Margat.

That year his year-old son Raymond, namesake of his grandfather, was murdered by the Assassins under Nasr al-'Ajami while at church in Tartus. His forces were nearly destroyed at Jabal Bahra. Kayqubad I requested clarification from Hassan III who informed him that the monies had indeed been assigned to Syria. Hassan III died in , likely from poisoning.

Because of his age, Hassan's vizier served as regent to the young Imam, and put Hassan's wives and sister to death for the suspected poisoning. His attempts to accommodate the advancing Mongols failed. The next year, the once and future king sent envoys to Majd ad-Din with significant gifts for the imam to ensure his safe passage.

Khwarezm had collapsed under the Mongols, but many of the Kwarezmians still operated as mercenaries in northern Iraq. Under the pretense that the road to Alamut was unsafe due to these mercenaries, Majd ad-Din kept the gifts for himself, and provided the safe passage. In the end, Frederick did not complete that trip to the Holy Land due to illness, being excommunicated in The Knights Hospitaller were not as accommodating as Alamut, demanding their share of the tribute.

When Majd ad-Din refused, the Hospitallers attacked and carried off the majority of the booty. At this point, the Assassins were an integral part of Syrian politics. The Frankish Crusaders were soundly defeated by Abu Futuh Baibars , then a commander in the Egyptian army, at the battle of al-Mansurah in One of the captives with Louis was Jean de Joinville , [ 77 ] biographer of the king, who reported the interaction of the monarch with the Assassins.

Later the king's Arabic interpreter Yves the Breton met personally with Radi ad-Din and discussed the respective beliefs. Afterwards, the chief da'i went riding, with his valet proclaiming: "Make way before him who bears the death of kings in his hands! The Egyptian victory at al-Mansurah led to the establishment of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt.

Najm ad-Din later became chief da'i of the Assassins in Syria, the last to be associated with Alamut. The Assassins suffered a significant blow at the hands of the Mongol Empire during the well-documented invasion of Khwarazm. A decree was handed over to the Mongol commander Kitbuqa who began to assault several Assassin fortresses in before Hulagu's advance in The Imam ordered his subordinates to surrender and demolish their fortresses likewise.

The subsequent capitulation of the symbolic stronghold of Alamut marked the end of the Nizari state in Persia. Lambsar fell in , Masyaf in The Assassins recaptured and held Alamut for a few months in , but they were crushed and their political power was lost forever. Rukn al-Din Khurshah was put to death shortly thereafter. Though the Mongol massacre at Alamut was widely interpreted to be the end of Isma'ili influence in the region, various sources say that the Isma'ilis' political influence continued.

In , a son of Imam Rukn al-Din Khurshah managed to recapture Alamut, though only for a few years. Isma'ili political activity in the region also seems to have continued under the leadership of Sultan Muhammad b. Jahangir and his son, until the latter's execution in Baibars entered into a truce with the Hospitallers in and stipulated that the tribute paid by the Assassins be halted.

The tribute once paid to the Franks was to come instead to Cairo. As early as , Baibars' biographer ibn Abd al-Zahir reported that he was granting Assassin lands in iqta' to his generals, and in began to tax the "gifts" the Assassins received from various princes that apparently included Louis IX of France, Rudolph I of Germany , Alphonso X of Castile , and the Rasulid sultan of Yemen [ 83 ] al-Muzaffar Yusuf.

The Syrian branch of the Assassins was taken over by Baibars by , recognizing the threat of an independent force with his sultanate. Sarim was soon deposed and sent as a prisoner to Cairo, and Najm ad-Din was restored at chief da'i at Masyaf. His son Shams ad-Din joined him in service, but owing a tribute to the sultan. Shams ad-Din was arrested in the plot, but released when his father argued his case.

The Isma'ili leaders were eventually implicated and agreed to surrender their castles and live at Baibars' court. Najm ad-Din died in Cairo in In , Baibars' forces seized al-'Ullaiqah and ar-Rusafa , after taking Masyaf the year before. Later in the year, Shams ad-Din surrendered and was deported to Egypt. Qala'at al-Khawabi fell that year and within two years Gerdkuh and all of the Assassin fortresses were held by the sultan.

With the Assassins under his control, Baibars was able to use them to counter the forces arriving in the Ninth Crusade. The last known victim of the Assassins was Philip of Montfort , lord of Tyre, long an enemy of Baibars.

Historical biography meaning of assassin

Philip helped negotiate the truce following the capture of Damietta by Louis IX and had lost the castle at Toron to Baibars in Despite his advanced age, Philip was murdered by Baibars' Assassins in The last of the Assassin strongholds was al-Kahf in the Syrian coastal mountains in The Mamluks reportedly continued to use the services of the remaining Assassins, and the 14th-century scholar ibn Battuta reported their fixed rate of pay per murder, with his children getting the fee if the Assassin did not survive the attack.

There are, nevertheless, no recorded instances of Assassin activity after the later 13th century. They unremarkably settled near Salamiyah , with a still-large Isma'ili population that recognizes the Aga Khan as their Imam. The word asas in Arabic means "principle". Originally referring to the methods of political control exercised by the Assasiyuun, one can see how it became "assassin" in several languages to describe similar activities anywhere.

The Assassins were finally linked by the 19th-century orientalist Silvestre de Sacy to the Arabic word hashish using their variant names assassin and assissini in the 19th century. Citing the example of one of the first written applications of the Arabic term hashish to the Ismailis by 13th-century historian Abu Shama , de Sacy demonstrated its connection to the name given to the Ismailis throughout Western scholarship.

This label was quickly adopted by anti-Isma'ili historians and applied to the Isma'ilis of Syria and Persia. The spread of the term was further facilitated through military encounters, whose chroniclers adopted the term and disseminated it across Europe. To Crusaders, the Fedayeen concept of valuing a principle above your own life was alien to them, so they rationalized it using myths such as the 'paradise legend', the 'leap of faith' legend, and the 'hashish legend', sewn together in the writings of Marco Polo.

During the medieval period, Western scholarship on the Isma'ilis contributed to the popular view of the community as a radical sect of assassins, believed to be trained for the precise murder of their adversaries. By the 14th century, European scholarship on the topic had not advanced much beyond the work and tales from the Crusaders.

While he assembled the accounts of many Western travellers, the author failed to explain the etymology of the term Assassin. Many scholars have argued, and demonstrated convincingly, that the attribution of the epithet "hashish eaters" or "hashish takers" is a misnomer derived from enemies of the Isma'ilis and was never used by Muslim chroniclers or sources.

It was therefore used in a pejorative sense of "enemies" or "disreputable people". This sense of the term survived into modern times with the common Egyptian usage of the term Hashasheen in the s to mean simply "noisy or riotous". It is unlikely that the austere Hassan-i Sabbah indulged personally in drug taking The name "Assassin" is often said to derive from the Arabic word Hashishin or "users of hashish", [ 5 ] which was originally applied to the Assassins Isma'ilis by the rival Mustali Isma'ilis during the fall of the Isma'ili Fatimid Empire and the separation of the two Isma'ili streams.

Modern versions of this word include Mahashish used in the same derogatory sense, albeit less offensive nowadays, as the use of the substance is more widespread. The Sunni Muslims also used the term mulhid to refer to the Assassins, which is also recorded by the traveller and Franciscan William of Rubruck as mulidet. He is their Elder, and upon his command all of the men of the mountain come out or go in In pursuit of their religious and political goals, the Isma'ilis adopted various military strategies popular in the Middle Ages.

One such method was that of assassination, the selective elimination of prominent rival figures. The murders of political adversaries were usually carried out in public spaces, creating resounding intimidation for other possible enemies. The assassinations were committed against those whose elimination would most greatly reduce aggression against the Ismailis and, in particular, against those who had perpetrated massacres against the community.

A single assassination was usually employed in contrast with the widespread bloodshed which generally resulted from factional combat. Assassins are also said to have been adept in furusiyya , or the Islamic warrior code, where they were trained in combat, disguises, and equestrianism. For about two centuries, the Assassins specialized in assassinating their religious and political enemies.

While the Seljuks and Crusaders both employed murder as a military means of disposing of factional enemies, during the Alamut period almost any murder of political significance in the Islamic lands was attributed to the Isma'ilis. The military approach of the Assassins Isma'ili state was largely a defensive one, with strategically chosen sites that appeared to avoid confrontation wherever possible without the loss of life.

Alamut Castle therefore was only one of a nexus of strongholds throughout the regions where Isma'ilis could retreat to safety if necessary. West of Alamut in the Shahrud Valley, the major fortress of Lambsar served as just one example of such a retreat. The notion of the dar al-hijra originates from the time of Muhammad , who migrated with his followers from persecution to a safe haven in Yathrib Medina.

From to , attacks and sieges were made on the fortresses, conducted by combined forces of the Seljuks Barkiyaruq and Ahmad Sanjar. Daven Hiskey April 10, pm. Cyrus: please provide references to back up the claim. Harry McNicholas November 20, am. Mr Kenway October 19, am. Is this related with Islam. Samson January 8, pm. Harry McNicholas July 4, pm.

Yes and assassin came from it mean hash eater. Ary Pen October 26, pm. JoJo December 27, am. Best regards. G July 9, am. Giovanni October 2, pm. Behnam Rezaei December 6, am. NikZad March 2, pm. Omar October 4, am. Hope it helps. TypicalGamer June 22, pm. Jungle July 12, pm. Fariba September 6, pm. Howard Marriott January 14, am. Sam Mehrabian June 28, pm.

Domenico D'Angelo May 20, pm. Watch him where? Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Ancient history [ edit ]. Roman history [ edit ]. The Middle Ages [ edit ]. Modern history [ edit ]. Pre-World War I [ edit ]. Post-World War I [ edit ]. Cold War and beyond [ edit ]. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.

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United States [ edit ]. See also: War on Terrorism. Modern India [ edit ]. Russia post-communism [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Reaktion Books. ISBN The Journal of Military History. ISSN Cambridge Dictionary. Lake District, a Megalithic Journey. Megalithic Publishing. Retrieved The Guardian. New York Post. Archived from the original on August 22, The Fourth Geneva Convention goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas.

Those who are actually fighting the war are not considered "protected persons. That sentence makes up the entirety of Part 3, Article 1, Section It reads: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations. Note: The New York Post link to the article may be found here [1] , but it requires a subscription.

According to some historical accounts, it was believed that the hashshashin would consume hashish before carrying out their assassinations to induce a state of euphoria and fearlessness. They were active primarily in the mountainous regions of Persia and Syria and were known for their political assassinations. However, some historians argue that this association may be a later invention and that the name has different etymological roots.

The Nizari Ismaili Assassins gained notoriety for their targeted killings of political and military figures in the Islamic world. They employed clandestine tactics and often struck fear into the hearts of their enemies by committing daring and high-profile assassinations. These acts were part of a strategic campaign to challenge the established powers and advance the interests of their community.

European travelers and chroniclers encountered stories and rumors of the Nizari Ismaili Assassins and their reputed use of assassinations as a weapon. These sensationalized accounts contributed to a distorted perception of the assassins as fanatical and ruthless killers. However, it is important to note that the historical accuracy of many of these accounts is debated among scholars.

It is often used to refer to a person who carries out a political or high-profile murder for ideological reasons. However, it is essential to separate the historical context and usage of the term from its fictional or entertainment portrayals. Their use of political assassinations and tactics have shaped the perception and evolution of the term throughout history.