Hassan-e Sabbāh

A group of Qarmatians sack Basr in 1091, while …

…Ismailis under the leadership of Hassan-e Sabbah seize the fortress of Alamut.

Moreover, the succession to the sultanate has been complicated by the death of two of Malik Shah's eldest sons: Dawud (died 1082) and Ahmad (died 1088), whom both were sons of the Kara-Khanid Princess Turkan Khatun, she also has a named Mahmud (born 1087) who she wants to succeed his father, while Nizam and most of the Seljuq army is in favor of Barkiyaruq, the oldest of Malik Shah's living sons and one born to a Seljuq princess.

Turkan Khatun now allies with Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im to try to remove Nizam from his post.

Taj even accuses Nizam of corruption before the sultan.

Malik Shah I, however, does not dare to dismiss Nizam.

Nizam later besieges Alamut, but is forced to withdraw.

Nizam al-Mulk is assassinated en route from Isfahan to Baghdad on October 14, 1092, according to one version of the death of the Seljuq vizier.

Most histories says he was stabbed by the dagger of a member of the Assassins (Hashshashin) sent by the notorious Hassan-i-Sabbah near Nahavand, as he was being carried on his litter.

The killer had approached him disguised as a dervish.

The murder is probably committed by an Isma'ilite from Alamut, possibly with the complicity of Taj al-Mulk and Terkhen-Khatun, if not that of Malik-Shah himself.

Another report says he was killed in secret by Malik Shah I in an internal power struggle.

As a consequence, his murder will be avenged by the vizier's loyal academics of the Nizamiyyah, by assassinating the Sultan.

The account is disputed and remains controversial because of the long history of friendship between Malik Shah I and Nizam.

Another report says that he was assassinated with Malik Shah I in the same year, after a debate between Sunni and Shi'a scholars which was prepared by him by the orders of Malik Shah I and which resulted in converting him and the king to the Shi'a ideology.

The story is reported by the son-in-law of Nizam al-Mulk, Mughatil ibn Bakri, who attended the debate.

The sultan, too, is dead in a month.

According to some contemporary accounts he was poisoned by men loyal to the memory of Nizam al-Mulk.

The disintegration of the great Seljuq empire begins.

Hasasn-e Sabbah had studied theology in the Iranian city of Rayy and at about the age of seventeen had adopted the Isma'ilite faith.

An active believer, he had risen in the Isma'ilite organization.

In 1076, he had gone to Egypt, probably for further religious training, remaining there for about three years.

When he returned to Iran, he had traveled widely in an effort to further Isma'ilite interests.

He has made a number of converts, and, in 1090, with the aid of converts made within its garrison, had been able to seize the great Elburz Mountains fortress of Alamut near Kazvin in Daylam, a province of the Seljuq empire.

Hassan is the supposed founder of an anti-Sunnite Isma'ili Muslim sect, the so-called Assassins, a product of dynastic strife among the Fatimids, heads of the Shi'ite Isma'ilite movement and rival caliphs in Egypt in opposition to that of the 'Abbasids in Baghdad.

The Assassins—who, eventually, will lend their name to the later English word for a politically motivated murderer—in one of their first political killings, are supposedly behind the killing of Nizam al-Mulk, 1092.

Hassan Sabbah is the supposed founder of the so-called Assassins of Persia, an anti-Sunnite Ismaili Muslim sect.

The Assassins, in one of their first political killings, are supposedly behind the killing of Malik Shah’s Persian minister, the seventy-four-year-old Nizam al-Mulk, on October 14, 1092, thus (eventually) lending their name to the later English word for a politically motivated murderer.

The Seljuq sultan, Malik Shah, dies a few weeks later in November at age thirty-seven.

At the death, in 1094, of Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir, the caliphate in Egypt is divided between his two sons.

Sabbah, leading a group of fanatical Ismaili partisans of al-Mustansir’s deposed eldest son, Nizar, seizes a string of mountain fortresses in northern Persia—notably Alamut in Daylam in the Elburz Mountains—and Syria, waging from these strongholds a war of terror against orthodox Muslims in their effort to create a new Fatimid caliphate.

(This group, joining with Sabbah’s terrorists, is known in the West as Assassins, a designation that derives from the Arabic ”hashashin,” meaning "users of hashish," based on stories—unconfirmed in any Ismaili sources—related by Marco Polo and others that the group employs hallucinatory drugs to stimulate them to their murderous acts.)

Hasan-e Sabbah and other Isma'ilites in Iran have refused to recognize the new Fatimid caliph in Cairo and have transferred their allegiance to his deposed elder brother, Nizar, and the latter's descendants.

There thus will grow up the sect of the Nizari Isma'ilites, who are at odds with the Fatimid caliphs in Cairo and are also deeply hostile to the 'Abbasids.

The Nizaris will make many changes in Isma'ilite doctrine, the most significant, from the point of view of the outside world, being the adoption of terrorism as a sacred religious duty.

From Alamut, by the end of the eleventh century, Hasan, as grand master or leader of the sect, commands a chain of strongholds all over Iran and Iraq, a network of propagandists, a corps of devoted terrorists, and an unknown number of agents in enemy camps and cities.

The Seljuq sultanate's attempts to capture Alamut fail, and soon the Assassins are claiming many victims among the generals and statesmen of the 'Abbasid caliphate, including two caliphs.

(This group, joining with Sabbah's terrorists, becomes known in the West as Assassins, a designation that derives from the Arabic “hashashin”, meaning “users of hashish”, based on stories—unconfirmed in any Ismaili sources—related by Marco Polo and others that the group employs hallucinatory drugs to stimulate them to their murderous acts.)

Muhammad conquers the Ismaili fortress of Shahdiz in 1106, and orders the Bavandid ruler Shahriyar IV to participate in his campaign against the Ismailis.

Shahriyar, greatly angered and feeling offended by the message Muhammad had sent him, refuses to aid him against the Ismailis.

Shortly afterwards, Muhammad sends an army headed by Amir Chavli, who tries to capture Sari but is unexpectedly defeated by an army under Shahriyar and his son Qarin III.

Muhammad then sends a letter, requesting Shahriyar to send one of his sons’ children to the Seljuq court in Isfahan.

Shahriyar sends his son Ali I, who impresses Muhammad so much that he offers him his daughter in marriage, but Ali refuses and tells him to grant the honor to his brother and heir of the Bavand dynasty, Qarin III.

Qarin III then goes to Isfahan court and marries her.

After his return to Sari, however, he begins claiming the Bavand throne for himself, and starts abusing his father Shahriyar and his servants.

Shahriyar then moves to Amol and later Rudsar, where he builds a Khanqah (a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood), and devotes himself to religion.

However, when he becomes sick, Qarin III apologizes and restores him as the ruler of the Bavand dynasty.

The Hashshashin, or Assassins, a militant religious sect of Ismaili Shia Muslims from the Nizari sub-sect originating from post-Islamic Persia, extend their activities in the early twelfth century to Syria, where the expansion of Seljuq rule has created a favorable climate for terrorist activities by extremist elements among the local Shi'ite minority.

After a period of preparation, the Hashshashin seize a group of castles in the An-Nusayriyah Mountains, the most important of which is Masyaf.

The word "assassin" is derived from their name.

They call themselves fedayeen, from the Arabic fidā'ī, which means one who is ready to sacrifice their life for a cause.

Although apparently known as early as the eighth century, the foundation of the Hashshashin is usually marked as 1090 when Hasan-i Sabbah established his stronghold in the Daylam mountains south of the Caspian Sea at Alamut.

Hasan had set the aim of the Assassins to destroy the power of the Abbasid Caliphate by murdering its most powerful members.

Seljuq sultan Ahmad Sanjar, undertaking a campaign to eliminate the Assassins of Alamut, has successfully driven them from a number of their strongholds.

However, an anecdote indicates that en route to their stronghold at Alamut, Sanjar woke up one day to find a dagger beside him, pinning a note from Hassan-e Sabbah stating that he (Hassan) would like peace.

Sanjar, shocked by this event, sends envoys to Hassan and they both agree to stay out of each other's way.