DERIVED FROM ORIENTAL SOURCES, BY THE CHEVALIER JOSEPH VON HAMMER, AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, &c. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, BY OSWALD CHARLES WOOD, M. D. &c. &c. &c. LONDON: SMITH AND ELDER, CORNHILL. 1835. VIZETELLY, BRANSTON AND CO., PRINTERS, 76, FLEET STREET, LONDON. TO The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, WITH THE PROFOUNDEST RESPECT AND ADMIRATION FOR THEIR IMPORTANT SERVICES IN CHERISHING AND PROMOTING THE CULTIVATION OF ORIENTAL

The Translator has been induced to present “The History of the Assassins” to the British Public as much on account of the interest of the subject itself, as by a desire to introduce to them a portion, certainly but a small one, of the works of an author so highly gifted, and of such established reputation, as M. Von Hammer. Nor will the present volume be deemed supererogatory, if it be considered that, notwithstanding the attention which, of late years, has been in this country so meritoriously

Introduction—Mohammed, founder of Islamism—Exhibition of its doctrines and of its different sects, from one of which (the Ismailites) the Assassins sprung. A lthough the affairs of kingdoms and of nations, like the revolutions of day and night, are generally repeated in countless and continued successions, we, nevertheless, in our survey of the destinies of the human race, encounter single great and important events, which, fertilizing like springs, or devastating like volcanoes, interrupt the u

Establishment of the Order of the Assassins, and Reign of the first Grand Master, Hassan Sabah. E gypt , that extraordinary country, so distinguished from all others by the many wonderful phenomena of nature, has ever been in history the memorable theatre of extraordinary exhibitions of the art of governing mankind by wisdom or folly in the name of heaven or earth. In the remote ages of antiquity reigned a caste of priests, in whose hands the king was the servile tool of their power, the lituus

After a blood-stained reign of fourteen years and three days, Kia Busurgomid, feeling his end approaching, named his son, Mohammed, as successor in the grand-mastership of the order; either because he really found none other worthy of the office, or that the natural desire of making the sovereignty hereditary in his family caused him to depart from the spirit of the fundamental maxims of the order, as they had been sketched out by Hassan Sabah. Be that as it may, the office, which, without respe

Reign of Hassan II., Son of Mohammed, the Son of Busurgomid, known by the name of Ala-sikrihi-es-selam—that is, Hail to his memory—and his Son, Mohammed II. I n the preceding books, we traced the mysteries of irreligion and immorality up to their source, and stripped the secret doctrine of the Ismailites of the mask of pretended sanctity, under which it concealed itself from the eyes of the people. A doubt may, perhaps, have arisen in the minds of our readers, whether we have not scrutinized the

Reigns of Jelaleddin Hassan III., Son of Mohammed Hassan II.—and of his Son, Alaeddin Mohammed III. T he retributive and avenging Fury proceeds with steady step through the domain of history, but the traces of her silent progress are not always visible to the eye of man. Generations have passed away, and empires sunk in ruin, without its being possible, satisfactorily to point out the remote and proximate causes of their fall. The judgment of the conscientious historian stands, then, in the midd

Reign of Rokneddin Kharshah, the last Grand-master of the Assassins. T he crimes of the society of murderers, which had long ago exceeded the measure of humanity, had, at length, filled to overflowing that of retributive vengeance: after an existence of a hundred and seventy years, the tempest of destruction fell, with terrific fury, on the Assassins. The conquering power of Jengis Khan, thundering in the distance, had passed innocuously over their heads; but under the third of his successors, M

Conquest of Bagdad—Fall of the Assassins—Remnant of them. I n the fall of Alamut, the centre of the Assassins was gone; the props of their authority were broken, in the loss of the castles of Rudbar and Kuhistan. Still, the grand-prior of Syria refused submission to the grand-master’s orders to surrender,—the armies of the Mongols being, as yet, too distant to compel his obedience. A far greater object occupied the mind of Hulaku, than the destruction of a few Syrian mountain forts, in which the

Khitati-missr-lil Macrisi (Arabic). The Topography of Egypt, in 2 vols. folio, in the Imp. Library at Vienna, Nos. 97 and 98. Mokaddemei Ibn Khaledun (Arabic), and translated into Turkish. The Historical Prolegomena of Ibn Khaledun, in the collection of Count Rzewusky. Jehannuma (Turkish). The Mirror of the World, Hadji Khalfa’s large geographical work, printed at Constantinople. Takwimet-tevarikh (Turkish). Hadji Khalfa’s Chronological Tables, printed at Constantinople. Gulsheni Khulifa (Turkis

After giving a view of the dogmas of the Ismailites, Rousseau adds:— 299 “Such were, substantially, the dogmas of the first Ismailis; and such, nearly, are those which their descendants in Syria profess to this day. I say, nearly; for there can be no doubt that the latter, having fallen so tremendously from their ancient social organization, must also have lapsed from their original faith. This belief, now more than ever disfigured, is become, to the last degree, extravagant, from a mass of abus

The sovereign of the Assassins is called sheikh , by oriental authors. Vincent le Blanc names him, Ségucmir , a word compounded of sheikh and emir , and makes him reside in Arabia; but nothing that such an author says is astonishing. The Arabic word sheikh , which is equivalent to the Latin Senior , and which has its two significations in the lower Latinity, has been ridiculously rendered Vetus , Vetulus ; Senex , instead of Senior , when Dominus was not meant. We read Vetulus de Monte , in the

The following is the supposititious letter, from the Old Man of the Mountain, to Leopold Duke of Austria, as given in “Rymer’s Fœdera,” vol. i. p. 23:— “ Limpoldo, Duci Austriæ, Vetus de Monte, salutem: Cum plurimi reges et principes ultra mare Ricardum Regem Angliæ et Dominum de morte Marchisi inculpant, juro per Deum qui in æternum regnat, et per legem quam tenemus, quod in ejus morte culpam non habuit; est causa siquidem mortis Marchisi talis. “ Unus ex fratribus nostris, in unam navem de Sal

Memoir on the Dynasty of the Assassins, and on the Origin of their Name, by M. Sylvestre de Sacy, read at the public meeting of the Institute of France, July 7th, 1809. Among the writers who have transmitted to us the history of those memorable wars, which, for a space of nearly two centuries, unceasingly depopulated Europe, in order to carry destruction and desolation throughout the finest regions of Asia and Africa, there is scarcely one who does not make mention of that barbarous horde, which

To the Editor of the Moniteur. 303 Paris, December, 23, 1809. Sir,     You were kind enough to insert in your 210th number, of the 29th of July last, the memoir on the dynasty of the Assassins, and on the origin of their name; which I read at the public sitting of the Institute, on the 7th of the same month. That memoir has occasioned a letter, dated from Marseilles, the 16th of September, 1809, and signed “M. R., Old Residents in the Levant;” to be likewise inserted in your 269th number, of the