The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins

Medieval Academy of America

The Sources for the History of the Syrian AssassinsAuthor(s): Bernard LewisSource: Speculum, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 475-489Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2850476 .

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THE SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE SYRIAN ASSASSINS

BY BERNARD LEVIS

OF all the branches of the Isma'ilis the Syrian AssassiDs are certainly the best known in the western world. It was through them that the Crusaders first made the acquaintance of the dreaded sect and, giving the name a new significance derived from the political tactics of those who bore it, carried it into most of the languages of Europe. From William of Tyre onwards most of the western chroniclers of the Crusades have something to say about the Assassins, and a few striking events like the murder of the Marquis Conrad de Montferrat in Tyre in 11992 sprea(l the fame and terror of 'The Old Man of the Moulitain' far beyond the confines of Syria. Before very long perfervid imaginations detected the hand of the enmissaries of the Old Man in political murders and attempted murders even in Europe, and as early as the first half of the fourteenth century the word was already in use in Italy in the general sense of professional murderer without specific refereiice to the Syrian sect.' After the Mongol conquests in the Near East, European travellers like Odoric of Pordenone and Marco Polo brought word of the Isma'ili strongholds in Persia, and their stories, mingling with the earlier narratives of the Crusaders, found many echoes in the literatures of western Europe.

The first western attempt at a scholarly examination of the Assassins seems to be that of Denis Lebey de Batilly, published in Lyons in 1603.2 The author, who describes himself as 'Conseiller du Roy, Maistre des Requestes de son hostel a la Couronne de Navarre, et commis par sa Maieste a l'exercise de l'Estat de President en la Ville de Mets,' sets out to explain the true historic origin of a term receintly become topical in France. His account is based exclusively on Christian sources: Jacques de Vitry, Matthew of Paris, Odoric of Pordenone, Arnold of Llibeck, William of Tyre, Rigord, and Vincent of Beauvais, together with tile Byzantine Nicetas alnd the Franco-Armenian Haithon. A second and briefer attempt, again based on Christian sources, appeared in 1659, when Henricus Bangertus published his edition, with commentary, of the Slav Chronicle of Arnold of Luibeck.3 This text cointains two important passages on the Assassins, and in his discussion of them BaDgertus briefly reviews the other Latin sources. He does not appear to have known the work of his predecessor.

In 1697 d'Herbelot published his great BibliotheIque Orientale,4 a pioneer work

1 The earliest example known to me is in Dante (Irnferno, xix, 49-50), 'io stava come il frate dhe confessa / lo perfido assassin . . . ,' on which Francesco da Buti comments, in the second half of the fourteenth ceintury, 'Assassino e colui che uccide altrui par denari.' Villani (d. 1348) also speaks of the lord of Lucca sending 'i suoi assassini' to Pisa to kill an enemy (Cronica, ix, 290-291).

2 Traite de l'Origine des Anciens Assassins Porte-Couteaux - Avec quelques examples de leurs at- tentats et homicides e's personnes d'anciens Roys, Princes, et Seigneurs de la Chretiente'. Pp. 64. Lyon, 1603 (two editions). Reprinted in Vol. 20 of J. M. C. Leber, Collection des Meilleurs Dissertations, etc. (Paris, 1826).

3 Chronicon Slavorum, ed. Henricus Bangertus (Ltibeck, 1659), pp. 379, 381-382, 523, and 550-551. 4Bibliotheique Orientale, ou Dictionnaire Universel contenant ggnaralement tout ce qui regarde de la

Connoissance des peuples de l'Orient, 4 volumes (Paris, 1697).

475



476 The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins

containing most of what western oriental scholarship at the time had to offer on the history, literature, and religion of the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. Here for the first time somie of the Islamic sources - the few known at the time - are used, and an attempt made to fit the Syrian Assassins into the broader frame- work of Shi'ite and Isma'ili history. During the eighteenth century the orieli- talists made a few further contributions to the study of the subject. Thomas Hyde5 and J. S. Assemani,6 a Lebanese Maronite, both discussed the Assassins briefly and suggested etymologies - since rejected - of the name, while J. J. Reiske, with his edition of the Annals of abu-al-Fida',7 added a new Arabic source which, though now regarded as late and comparatively unimportant, was still of great value while its own sources remained unknown.

The main advance of the eighteenth century is due however to a non-orientalist, M. Falconnet, who in 1743 read a detailed and critical analysis of the history of the Assassins to the Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.8 Be- ginning with the Spanish Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela and William of Tyre, the two earliest western writers on the sect, he examines the western literature, com- paring it with Byzantine accounts and with oriental material as given by d'Herbe- lot. He also makes use of abu-al-Fida', the relevant passages of which were com- municated to him by his contemporary de Guignes.9 He discusses both the Syrian andl the Persian Assassins, noting their connection with the Carmathians, Isnaii'lis and other cognate sects. He deals also at some length with the problem of the etymology of the word 'Assassin.' In the same year De la Ravaliere read a paper dealing with three specific points: the murder of Conrad, the threat to Philip Augustus in 1192, as reported by Rigord, and the alleged Assassin plot against St Louis, as described by Guillaume de Nangis.'0 He rejects the second and third as apocryphal, and, a propos of the first, rejects as a forgery the letter which the Old Man sent to the Emperor Leopold, claiming responsibility for the leed. The Napoleonic expedition to Egypt and the closer relations with the Islamic

orient that followed it gave a new impetus and new opportunities to oriental studies, and in the first half of the nineteenth century a body of important works appeared. The first to deal specifically with the Assassins was an essay published in 1806 by Simon Assemani, professor of oriental languages in Padua." Assemani's

o IIistoria Religionis Veterum Per8arum (Oxford, 1700; reprinted 1760), p. 493. 6 Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana (Rome, 1719-1728), ii, 214-215, 320. 7 Annales Muslemici (Copenhagen, 1789-91), iII, especialy pp. 251, 330-333, and notes p. 714,

where another etymology is suggested. 8 'Dissertation sur les Assassins, peuple d'Asie,' 2 parts, MEmoires de Litterature, tir&s des Registres

de l'Acad6mie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettre9, xvii (Paris, 1751), 127-170. (An English translation was published as an appendix to the Memoirs of Joinville, translated by Thomas Johnes (Lon- don, 1807), ii, 287-328.

9 De Guignes himself published a brief account of the conquest of the Persian Assassins by the Mongols in his Histoire G6n&rale des Huns (Paris, 1762), iII, 128-129.

10 'Eclaircissemens sur quelques circonstances de l'histoire du Vieux de la Montagne, Prince des Assassins,' lIistoire de l'Acad6mie Royale, etc., xvi (Paris, 1751), 155-164. English translation in Thomas Johnes, op. cit., II, 275-285.



The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins 477

article gives a brief account of the sect from secondary sources - the oriental after d'Herbelot and the western after the Dietionnaire Geographique of De la Martiniere. His only original contribution is yet another addition to the growing list of suggested - and later rejected - etymologies. Another accoulnt was published in the following year by J. Mariti,12 and on 19 May 1809 Silvestre de Sacy, the greatest Arabic scholar of the time, read a memoir to the Institut Royal entitled 'Memoire sur la Dynastie des Assassins et sur lttymologie de leur nom."13

De Sacy's memoir was a landmark in Assassin studies. In addition to the few oriental sources published or used by previous scholars, lie was able to draw on the rich Paris collection of Arabic manuscripts, including several of the major Arabic chronicles of the later Crusades period, notably abu Shamah; and his analysis of the sources wholly supersedes the earlier efforts of European writers. Certainly the most important part of the memoir is his solution, once and for all, of the vexed problem of the meaning of the word 'Assassin.' After examining and dismissing previous suggestions, he showed conclusively that the word comes fronm hzashish, the use of which by the sectaries is mentioned by both western and eastern authorities. In confirmation of this he was able to produce several oriental texts in which the Assassins are called hashishiyah.14

The interest aroused by De Sacy's memoir brought new information from a new and different kind of source. In 1809-10 an account of the Ismii'lis of Syria appeared, from the pen of M. Rousseau,"5 French consul-general in Aleppo, with additional notes by De Sacy himself. Rousseau gives a description of the sects in Syria in his own day, with geographical, historical, and religious data. The sources are not given, but appear to be oral and local. Some travel notes on the surviving IsmWilis in central Syria had appeared in the eighteenth century,16 but Rousseau was the first to be able to draw on extensive local sources of in-

ll'Ragguaglio storico-critico sopra la setta Assissana detta volgarmente degli Assassini,' Giornale dell'Italiana Letteratura, XIII (Padua, 1806), 241-262.

12 Mcmorie istoriche del popolo degli Assassini e del vecchio della montagna, loro capo-signore (Leg- horn, 1807). I have not seen this work, which Silvestre de Sacy dismisses as 'un tissu d'erreurs et d'assertions hasardees.'

13 A brief summary was published in the Moniteur, no. 210 of 1809, a German translation of which appeared in T. F. Ehrmann, Neueste Beitrage zur Kunde der asiatischen Tiirkei (Weimar, 1809). The full text of the memoir was published in the M6moires de l'Institut Royal, Iv (Paris, 1818),1-85 (=Mgmoires d'Ilistoire et de Literature Orientale [Paris, 1818], pp. 322-403).

14 Many more have since become known. On the other band no instance is known to me of the use of hashdhsh - hashish-addict - of the sectaries. It may, therefore, be necessary to reconsider De Sacy's derivation of Assassini and Assissini from aashshdshin and aashishiya (or lashishiyin) respec- tively, and to regard both of them as corruptions of the second. An interesting variant comes from a Jewish writer in Constantinople in the mid-twelfth century, who says that the Hashishiyah were so called because they dismissed the things of this world as so much grass (hashish). Judah Hadasi, EsAkU1 IIak-Kofer (Eupatoria, 1836), fol. 41a, quoted by S. Pines in Bulletin d'Etudes fIistoriques Juives (Cairo) I (1946), 22, note 2.

16 'Memoire sur les Ismaelis et les Nosairis de la Syrie. Adress6 A M. Silvestre de Sacy par M. Rous- seau . . . ' Cahier XLII, Annades des Voyages (Paris 1809-10), xiv, 271 ff.

16 See for example C. Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung Arabiens (Copenhagen, 1778), II, 444-445.




forrnation, bringing to Europe, for the first time, some scraps of evidence from the IsmWilis themselves. In 181217 he published some extracts from a Syrian IsmWili book obtained in Masyaf, which, though containing little historical information, throws some light on the religious doctrines of the sect. Rousseau procured a number of other texts, some of which were later published.

In 1814 the first of a series of more strictly historical studies appeared - the 'Memioire Historique sur les Ismaeliens' of Ptienne Quatremere.18 This gives a connected history of the activities of the sect, chiefly in Syria, and is particularly important in that it makes extensive use of two new sources, the History of Aleppo of Kamal al-Din alnd the general chronicle of ibn-al-Furat.19 Since neither of these has yet been fully edited, the article is still of value, and has been much used by later writers. Its main weakness is that it is somewhat episodic, discussing each incident in which the Assassins were involved in turn, without any attempt at a coherent account of the development of the sect and its place in Islamic or even Syrian history. This was attempted (chiefly for the Persian Assassins) by J. von Hammer in his Geschichte der Assassinen aus morgen- ldndischlen Quellen published in Stuttgart in 1818.20 This work, apparenltly the first book on the Assassins since Lebey de Batilly, achieved a wide success, and was long regarded as the standard authority on the subject. It is in effect a history of the Isma'ili dynasty of Alamit in N. W. Persia, tracing its history from the founder 1Jasan-i-$abbMh to its destruction by the Mongols, and based in the main on published and unpublished Persian sources. The book concludes with a brief account of the later history of the sect in both Persia and Syria, including events of the author's own time. The treatment of the Syrian Assassins is brief and based mainly on late, secondary Arabic and Turkish works. Despite this and other (lefects, the work marked an important step forward in the understanding of the place of the Assassins in Islamic history, and it is still the only detailed gerieral account of the sect in all its branches based on both eastern and western sources.

In 1825 A. Jourdain, who had already edited and tranislated an important Persian source on the Assassins of Persia,2' published a short general account of the history and doctrines of the Assassins of Syria from the Crusades to his own day, based on Silvestre de Sacy, Quatremnere, Rousseau, and his own edition of Mirkhond.22 Finally, in 1854-55 Charles Defremery published two long articles in the Journal Asiatique23 on the Assassins in Syria; the first on the period from the

17 'Extrait d'un livre des Ismaelis,' Cahier LII. Annales des Voyages, pp. 28 (with additional notes by Silvestre de Sacy).

18 Fundgruben des Orients (Vienna, 1814), iv, 339-376. 19 On these two sources v. infra. p. 10 ff. 20 French and English translations appeared in 1833 (tr. P. A. de la Nourais) and 1835 (tr. 0. C.

Wood). 21 'Ilistoire de la Dynastie des Ismaeliens de la Perse, traduite du Persan de Mirkhond,' Notices

des Manuscrits (Paris, 1813) ix, 192-248 (text) and 142-183 (translation). 22 In M. Michaud: Histoire des Croisades (Paris, 1805), ii, note 2, pp. 549-477 -'sur les Assas-

sins,' by A. Jourdain. 23 'Nouvelles Recherches sur les Ismaeliens ou Bathiniens de Syrie,' Journal Asiatique, 5th series,

II (1854), 373-421, and v (1855), 5-76.




arrival of the first missionaries from Persia to the accession of Rashid-al-Din Sinan, the second on the period from the accession of Sinan onwards. In addition to the sources available to Quatremere, Defremery was able to use a number of other Arabic chronicles, notably the works of ibn-al-Jawzi, abu-al-Mahasin Taghri-Bardi, Dhahabi, and ibn-al-Athir. Though comparatively late, these sources brought important new information, and enabled Defremery to add a great deal to the work of his predecessors, at least as regards the share of the Assassins in the military and political events of the Crusades.

Since then, much new material has come to light. Many of the sources used by the first investigators have been published, and others, hitherto unexplored, have becomie known, making possible a critical reassessment of the whole body of material. In 1877 Guyard published and translated the first Syrian Isma'ili historical source to become known, an Arabic collection of anecdotes about the grand master Rashid-al-Din Sinan.24 The origins and early history of the sect were studied, notably by M. J. de Goeje,25 as were other, related groups such as the Nusayris. Most important of all, our whole knowledge of the Isma'ili sect was revolu-tionized by the discovery and partial publication and study of a rich Isma'ili literature preserved by the surviving followers of the sect in India and, to a lesser extent, in Yemen, Persia, and Central Asia.26 Though this literature has thrown little or no light on the history of the Assassins in Syria, it has added much to our knowledge of the parent center in Persia, and, most important, has made necessary a complete revision of our ideas of the doctrines and the historical and religious significance of Ismailism in the Islamic world, differing radically from the hostile and distorted picture taken by nineteenth-century orientalists from the writings of orthodox theologians and historians whose main concern was to refute and condemn, not to understand or explain.

Though a few studies have appeared dealing with one or another aspect of Syrian Isma'ili history, no general re-examination of the subject has appeared since Defrernery. A necessary prelinminary to such a study is the classification and evaluation of the main sources upon which it would be based. These may be colnsidered as follows:

(A) ISMA'ILI SOURCES

The literature of the Ismn'Ilis was almost entirely unknown to the scholars of the nineteenth century, and its discovery in the twentieth is probably the most important single addition to the documentation of the subject. Though disap- pointingly poor in historical data, especially for the period of the Crusades, it is invaluable for the light it throws on the general religious development of the Islamic sects at the time, and thus supplements the earlier writers where they

24 'Un Grand Maltre des Assassins au Temps de Saladin,' Journal Asiatique, 7th series, ix (1877), 824-489. A preliminary note on the manuscript was published by Catafago in Journal Asiatique, 4th series, xiI (1848), 485-493, with a translation of the preface and a brief summary of the text.

25 Mtmoire sur les Carmathes ... (Leiden, 1862; second edition, 1880). 26 For bibliographies of some recent work on Ismailism see Asaf A. A. Fyzee, 'Materials for an

Ismaili Bibliography, 1920-1934,' Journal of the Bombay Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, N.S., xi (1935), 59-65, and Supplement, xii (1936), 107-109.




are most deficient. The Isma'ili sources fall into two main groups: (1) The literature of the so-called 'New Preaching' -the reformed Isma'ili religion founded by Uasan-i-$abbAh in the eleventh century, rejecting the succession of the Fatimid Caliph Musta'li (1094-1101) and his successors and offering allegiance instead to his deposed brother Nizar. This was the faith of the Persian Assassins and their Syrian off-shoot, and of the followers of the Agha Khan (Khojas) in India and elsewhere at the present day. (2) The 'Old Preaching'- the literature of the Ismaiilis up to the split, and of the followers of the 'un- reformed' religion of Musta'li and his successors thereafter. This was the official faith of the Fatimid Caliphate, of the Ismi'ilis of the Yemen and of the Bohras of India27 up to the present day. To these two main groups we may add the Druzes, a dissident group who broke away from the main Isma'ili body in the eleventh century and developed a distinct religion of their own. They are still to be found in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Syrian Asscssin Sources: The first and most important of these is still the anecdotal biography of Rashid-al-Dmn Sinan, published and translated by Guyard. This work was known in manuscript to Defremery and partially ex- ploited by him, but its full use dates from the detailed introduction which Guyard prefaced to his edition. This work, despite its anecdotal and legendary form, is an original source of the first value, and remains still the only lengthy narrative text of Syrian Assassin origin available to us.

In addition to this document Guyard also published a group of Syrian Isma'ili texts of doctrinal content, many of them by or about Sinan.28 Though they contain little direct historical information, they are of value as evidence of the status that Sinan enjoyed among his followers and as a check on external testimony on the doctrines he professed. Other similar texts of Syrian provenance are to be found in Leningrad and in private possession.29

Of more direct historical value are the Isma'ili inscriptions, a number of which are still to be seen in Ma~y af and other Syrian centers. Most of these were edited and discussed by M. Van Berchem in 1897.30

In recent times there has been an awakening of historical interest among the Syrian IsmndiIlis themselves. In 1933 an Isma'ili from Khawabi called 'Abdallah ibn-Murtada published a history of the sect which is, however, mainly based on the general histories and shows no sign of an independent traditionA31 Of greater interest are the publications of a more recent writer, Mr 'Arif Tamir of Salamiyah, who, in the magazine al-'Irf&n of Sidon has begun the publication of some genuine Isma'ili documents, apparently of Syrian provenance. These consist so

27 A few years ago some of the Isma'ili villages in Syria transferred their allegiance from the Agha Khan to the Bohras.

28 'Fragments relatifs A la Doctrine des Isma(lis,' Notices et Extraits (Paris, 1874), xxii, 177-428. 28 My thanks are due to Mr I. Ivanow for this information. I was myself able to see some doctrinal

literature during a stay in the Syrian IsmA'Ili centers in 1938. 30 '1:pigraphie des Assassins de Syrie,' Journal Asatique, 9th series, Ix (1897), 453-501. 31 Al-Falak al-Dawwir fi Sama al-A'immah al-A thar (Aleppo, 1933).




far of a letter of the Ftimid Caliph al-Hakim against heretics and backsliders and some poems by Isma'ili poets, some of them undoubtedly early.82

Persian Assa?sin Sources: The literature of the parent center in Persia seems to have been much richer, and some of it has been known indirectly for a long time. A fragment of a Persian work attributed to Uasan-i-$abbaJ. is quoted in Arabic translation by the Arabic heresiographer ShahrastSni (1086-1153), and has long been known to scholars. Ismi'ili works, including an alleged autobiography of 1jasan-i-$abbab, became accessible after the subjugation of the Isma'ili castles by the Mongols, and were used by the Persian historians Rashid- al-Din and Juvayni, whose writings were utilized by Hammer and other scholars. Since then, thanks to the work of W. Ivanow, the surviving literature of the Persian and Central Asian Isma'llis has become far better known, an(l several important texts and studies have appeared.33 Though invaluable for the general history of the sect, its organization and its doctrines, they throw regrettably little light on the story of the Assassins in Syria.34

Other Ismii'ili Sources: During more than two centuries of Fatimid Isma'ili rule in North Africa and Egypt, a rich and varied literature was produced, including historical and literary works as well as theology and law. The restoration of orthodoxy by Saladin was accompanied by the wholesale destruction of the literature of the deposed schismatic dynasty,35 which disappeared completely from the Near East and survived only among the sectaries in India and the Yemen. Thanks to the work of Griffini, Ivanow, Massignon, Kraus and a number of successors, a series of important works have been described, analyzed and edited. Though the literature so far available contains but few direct references to Syria,35a it is nevertheless of great value to the historian of the Syrian Assassins, first for the light it throws on the religious and intellectual development of Ismailism as a whole during these crucial centuries, second for the precious information it gives on the complicated relations between the differeint Isina'ili sects and sub-sects.

Druze Sources: The Druze sect was an off-shoot from the main Isma'ili trunk. Like other off-shoots before them, the Druzes called a halt with the Imamate of one ruler, proclaiming him as the final revelation of divinity and refusing to recognize his successors. Though many extraneous elements have been added to

32 See al-'Irfdn, xxxv (1948), 974-977 and 1307-1311. 33 See W. Ivanow, A Guide to Lsmaili Literature (London, 1933), especially pp. 89-117. w4 A possible explanation of this surprising silence has been given by Mr Ivanow, who points out

that, probably in the middle of the fourteenth century, a split occurred in the line of Nizarl Imams, and the Syrian and Persian Isma'ilis followed different claimants, thus losing contact with one another. Cf. W. Ivanow, 'A Forgotten Branch of the Ismailis,' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London), 1938S, pp. 57-79.

35 The famous and wholly apocryphal tale of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria by the Arab conquerors first appears at this period, and it may well be, as has been suggested, an attempt to produce a precedent for the destruction of the Fatimid libraries.

36a For an example see S. M. Stern, 'The Epistle of the Fatimid Caliph al-Amir,' J.R.A.S., 1950, pp. 20-31.




their religion, Druze doctrine is fundamentally Isma'ili in origin, and for some time after the disappearance of al-Iljkim in 1021 the Druzes maintained con- tacts with other branches of the Isma'ili community. The almost complete absence of any mention of them in either the eastern or the western literature of the Crusades36 raises the possibility that they may have been lumped together with the Syrian Assassins. Very little of the extensive Druze literature has yet been published, but collections exist in most of the great European libraries, and since the monumental work of Silvestre de Sacy on the Druze religion37 it has been well-known to scholars. The most important Druze texts were written during the eleventh century, and consequently tell us nothing about the As- sassins. On the other hand they offer useful information on the religious situation in Syria on the eve of the Crusades, and on the eve of the coming of the Assassin emissaries from Persia.

(B) WESTERN SOURCES

Little need be said of the western sources, certainly the most thoroughly ex- plored hitherto. Most of the western chroniclers of the Crusades period make some reference to the Assassins, if only to record their more striking murders and attempts, and they are useful as a check on the chronology of the eastern sources. The first to give a general account of the sect was William of Tyre38 whose story, though by no means unfavorable, sets the pattern for later descriptions. Most of the historians of the Third Crusade refer to the murder of Corirad de Mont- ferrat, usually with a descriptive note on the Assassins.39 Of particular interest is Arnold of Liubeck, who gives two separate accounts.40 The first, dealing with the murder of Conrad, contains what is probably the first reference in a western source to the use of hashish. The second occurs in one of the documents inserted by Arnold in his history - the report of a mission to Egypt and Syria, carried out in 117, by one Gerard,4l vice-dominus of Strasburg. It contains several details not found elsewhere, and has the unusual merit of being a dated contemporary impression.

The historians of the thirteenth century seem to rely for their descriptions on their predecessors rather than on new evidence, and apart from a few references to more recent events add little that is new. The best account is that of Jacques de Vitry,42 which may be based in part on the lost oriental history of William of Tyre - perhaps also a source of Arniold of Liibeck. The Crusade of St Louis

-m The first reference to the Druzes known to me in an outside source is that of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Syria in 1167. Cf. his Itinerary [ed. A. Asher. New York, n.d.I, text, pp. 29-30; translation, pp. 61-62. Thereafter very little is heard of them until the chroniclers of the Mamlfik period.

37 Expose de la religion des Druzes, two volumes (Paris, 1838). 38 listoria rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, Book xx, Chapters 31-32. 39 See, for example, Continuation of William of Tyre, Book xxiv. Chapter 15; Itinerarium Ri-

cardi 338-341; WYilliam of Newburgh, iv, 24, and v, 16; Roger of Hloveden, iII, 181, etc. 40 Chronicon Slavorum, Iv, 16, and vii, 8. 41 Arnold's editor suggests that this is an error for Burchard. 42IIistoria Orientalis, xxii, 47-50. See also Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum listoriale, xxx, 93,

and xxxi, 66.




brought new and valuable material, in the form of an account by Joinville43 of an exchange of envoys between the king and the Old Man of the Mountain, and a most interesting conversation between the latter and a Breton friar on religion. Allowing for the inevitable distortions and misunderstandings, the views attributed to the Old Man are near enough to what we know of Isma'ili doctrine to admit of the episodes being authentic.

Meanwhile the Assassins were becoming well-known in the West in other ways. As early as the twelfth century Proveiiqal poets compare themselves to Assassins in their self-sacrificing devotion to their ladies,44 and western historians see the hand of the Old Man in a number of purely western attempts with which the Syrian Isma'ilis were certainly not concerned.4" By the fourteenth century, as we have seen, the word was already in use in a general sense.

(C) OTHER NON-MUSLIM SOURCES

Besides the western and iMuslim sources, some information may also be derived from other literatures, the most important of which is Syriac. Michael the Syrian and Bar-Hebraeus both give some attention to the Assassins, sometimes apparently basing themselves on lost Syriac chronicles independent of Arabic historiography. Of the Hebrew sources we have already referred to Judah Hadasi and the traveller Benjamin of Tudela - the latter probably the first west Euro- pean to describe the Syrian Assassins and to give their name in its correct form. Though the information to be derived from these sources, and from Greek and Armenian writers, is small, it has the value of an independent testimony outside the Arabic-Muslim tradition.

(D) GENERAL ARABIC SOURCES

For the detailed history of Assassin activities in Syria in the period of the Crusades our main source of information is and will probably remain the great Arabic chronicles. These are now far better known than they were in the days of Quatremere and Defremery, and the discovery of some of the contemporary, original sources used by later historians like ibn-al-Athir and Kamal-al-Din, upon whom western scholars have hitherto chiefly relied, has made possible a critical re-examnination of the Arabic sources and of their relations to one another. The task is by no means easy, and has barely begun. Many of these sources are still unpublished and difficult of access; others are badly and uncritically edited. Hardly any have been studied in detail. Since Professor H. A. R. Gibb posed the problem and pointed the way in 1935,46 the major contribution to the study of

4Ifistoire de St Loui8, ed. Wailly (Paris, 1868), pp. 88, 162, 246 ff 44 See F. M. Chambers, 'The Troubadours and the Assassins,' Modemn Language Notes, Lxiv (1949),

9245 ff., and D. Scheludko, 'Uber die arabisehen Lehnworter im altprovenzalischen,' Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, XLVII (1927), 423. My thanks are due to Mr A. T. Hatto for these references.

0 For a discussion of these see C. E. Nowell, 'The Old Man of the Mountain,' SPECULuM, XXII

(1948), 497-519. 4 'Notes on the Arabic Materials for the History of the Early Crusades,' Bulldin of the School

of Oriental Studies, VII (1935), 789-754.




Arabic historiography has come from MI. Claude Cahen, whose masterly analysis of the Arabic sources for the history of Northern Syria47 has been of constant value in the compilation of the following notes.

The history of the Syrian Assassins in the time of the Crusades can be most conveniently divided into three periods:

(1) 1100-ca 1 162. From the arrival of the first emissaries from Persia to the accession of RMshid-al-Din Sinan as Grand Master in Syria."8 The main events of this period are: the establishment of the mission in Aleppo, with the connivance of Rudwan; the unsuccessful attempts to win strongholds in the neighborhood of the Jabal Summaq in central Syria, at Kafarlaltha, Afamiyah anid Shaizar; the setback in Aleppo on the death of Rudwan and transference of the center to Damascus, followed by a new attempt to establish a stronghold at Banyas; the set-back in Damascus and loss of Banyas; the final consolidation of a group of strongholds between .Harnah and the sea, obtained by purchase, cession, capture or treason. The chief murders of the time are those of Janai-al-Dawlah (Ijims 1103), Mawdfid (Damiascus 1113), Afdal (Cairo 11921), Bursuqi (Mosul 1126), Al-Amir (Cairo 1130), Buri (Damascus 1131-32) and Raymond II of Tripoli (Tripoli ? 1148-49).

All these events are described in fair detail by the Arabic chroniclers; some of them go further and tell something of the role of the Assassins in the Syrian politics of the time, their relations with the princes and the populace, and similar topics. It is here that it becomes particularly important to assess the sources in the light of their time, place, outlook and opportunities. Until recent times scholars relied principally on three authors - ibn-al-Athir (1180-1233), whose point of view is that of Mosul, Sibt ibn-al-Jawzi (1186-1256), who wrote in Damascus, and Kamal-al-Din (1191-1263), the chronicler of Aleppo. Though all three remain valuable, they are late, and view events from the very different standpoint of the thirteenth century.49 In recent years it has become possible to examine some of the sources which they themselves used, and thus to arrive at a more reliable estimate of the value of these chroniclers. In 1908 H. F. Amedroz published the history of Damascus of ibn-al-Qalanisi (1073-1160),5? the sole detailed contemporary source for the history of Syria from the Seljuq invasion till Nfir-al-Din. Qalanisi, whose work is a contemporary eye-witness account, apparently based on docunments, personal experience and direct testimony, seems to have no literary sources, and is himself the chief source for Syrian history of most of the later chroniclers. The few examples given by Gibb5' of ibn-al-Athir's treatment of Qalanisi show how important such a confrontation is. Qalanisi was a Damascene, and chiefly concerned with events in the south, the point of view of

47 La Syrie du Nord a I'Epoquo d Crai8adem (Paris, 1940), Introduction, pp. 33-93. 48 On the date of Sin&n's arrival in Syria see Guyard, Un Grand Maitre, p. 35. 49 Cf. Grousset, Histoire d Croisades (Paris, 1934), I, 510, note 4, and Gibb, op. cit. (note 46 above),

pp. 745-746. 50 The abridged English translation of H. A. R. Gibb (Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, London,

1932) contains most, though not all, of the passages relating to the Assassins. On Qal&nisi see Cahen, La Syrie, pp. 38-40.

51 Gibb, op. cit. (note 46 above), pp. 746-753.




which he reflects. Of the northern chroniclers no comparable relic has yet come to light. The most important so far known is a short general history by 'A4lm (1090-after 1161), of which the section from 1064 onwards was published by Cahen in 1938.52 Another summary of history, the anonymous Bustan, was written in 1196-97, apparently in Aleppo, and again preserves some traces of a North Syrian tradition. The portion covering the years 490-593/1097-1197 was also published by Cahen.53 The rest of 'Azimi's work, and that of other lost North Syrian chroniclers of the period, survives only in quotations in Kamal-al-Din54 and other writers. Besides his chronicle of Aleppo, which survives in manuscript in Paris and has been partly published and extensively used by scholars, Kamal- al-Din also wrote a large-scale biographical dictionary of Aleppo, which is far more detailed and has the additional merit of giving fuller references to sources. Several volumes survive in manuscript in Istanbul.15 They include biographies of Rudwan, Janab-al-Dawlah, Khalaf b. Mulaiib and others, containing a fair amount of information about the Assassins. Besides 'A7Tmi, KamMl-al-DIn quotes the lost North Syrian chronicle of ibn-Zurayq (1051-after 1115),56 the writings of the famous Usamah ibn-Munqidh (1095-1188), as well as of his less known brother Munqidh and his son Murhaf ibn-Usamah,57 and a number of other sources both written and oral. Traces of other lost North Syrian sources also survive in other later works. Of some importance is the chronicle of ibn-abi- Tayy (ca 1110-1233),68 whose account of this period survives only in ibn-al- Furat (1334-1433), whence it was used by Quatremere. Ibn-abi-Tayy was a Shi'ite, indeed the only Shi'ite chronicler of the period, and his testimony, though fragmentary, has a special value. For these years he seems to rely on Qalanisi, supplemented by lost North Syrian works. Another local source, relative to the North East, is ibn-al-Azraq al-Fiariqi (?-1171?), whose history of Mayyafariqin and Amid is first-hand for this period, and was used by Sibt ibn al-Jawzi and other later writers.69

One example will suffice of the variation of the sources - the murder of Jana1- al-Dawlah in Ijimn.60 'A7Imi simply records the murder of Janalh in 496/1102)-3, in the mosque of Hiima, by persons 'in the garb of ascetics'; and says that QarAja succeeded as ruler of the city.6" The Bust&n, under the same year, reports the

52 'La Chronique Abr6gee, d'Al-'Azimi, Journal Asiatique, ccxxx (1938), 353-448. 5 'Une Chronique Syrienne du Vle/XIIe siecle: le Bu8tdn al-Jdmi',' Bulletin d'Etudes Orientale8

de l'Institut FranQais de Damas, vii-vmII, 113-158. 64 Cf. Cahen, Syriie, pp. 62-63. 65 Mss Saray 2995, Ayasofya 8036, Feyzlillah 1404. Cf. J. Sauvaget, 'Extraits du "Bugyat at-

Talab" . . . ,' Rvue des Etuds Islramiques, vii (1933), 393-409. 16 Cf. Cahen, Syrie, pp. 40-41. 57 Ibid., 43-46. 58 See Cahen, Syrie, pp. 55-67, and 'Une Chronique Chiite,' Comptes Rendus de l'AcadAmie des

Incriptions et des Belles Lettre,s, 1935, pp. 258-969. 59 Cf. Cahen, Syrie, pp. 46-47. The work, though stiU unpublished, has been examined and utilized

by several scholars. 60 Two others relating to the Assassins are discussed by Gibb, op. cit. (Note 46 above), pp. 750-752. 81 P. 375.




murder 'by the Ismd'ilis'.62 Qalanisi, again in 496 A.H., gives a fairly circumstan- tial account of the actual murder by three Persians, and attributes the author- ship of the crime to Al-Hakim al-Munajjim, the 'physician-astrologer,' and leader of the Assassins in Syria, whom he describes as 'a member of the entourage of Rudwdn.03 Prompt action by Duqaq forestalled a Frankish attempt to take advantage of the situation by attacking I*Jims. Ibn-al-Athir's reference is brief, but contains several significant changes. 'A Batini [-Assassin] killed him in the chief mosque, and it was said that Al-Malik Rud.wan, his step-son, instigated his inurderer against him.' Ibn al-Athir says that the murder took place in the previous year, 495 A.H., while Janab-al-Dawlah was assembling forces to oppose Raymond de Saint-Gilles at Hji~n al-Akrad, and that Raymond assaulted Hims the morning after receiving news of the assassination." Kamdl ad-Din, in the chronicle of Aleppo, again gives a slightly different version."b According to him, the Ismna'Ili leader, an old enemy of Janahb, had set Rudwan against him. The murder was ordered by the IsmaC1li leader, and took place on 22 Rajab 496/1 May 1103, just after Janai's return from Aleppo and apparent reconciliation with Rudwan. Like ibn-al-AthIr, Kamal-al-DIn adds the phrase: 'and it was said that this took place at the order and with the approval of Rudwdn.' In the Bio- graphical Dictionary, he gives no less than five different versions, attributed to al-Haqfiz al-DimashqI [=ibn-'Asakir], Usamah ibn Munqidh (quoted orally), Munqidli ibn Munqidh, Murhaf ibn Usrmnah and 'AZImi. All agree on the year 496 A.H. Usamah gives the date as Friday 22 Rajab, Munqidh as Friday 28 Rajab. Only ibn-'Asakir and Munqidh ascribe the murder to Rudwan. Usamah agrees closely with the version of Qalanisi, and speaks of the intervention of Damascus. Munqidh mentions the succession of Qaraja. Kamal-al-Din's summing up is much the same as his version in the chronicle. The divergences are significant. Ibn-al-Athir - or the tradition that he follows - is anxious to discredit Rudwan, and by putting the assassination back to the previous year heightens the be- trayal of Islamic unity which, with his 13th century outlook, he conceives it to be.66

(2) ca 1162-1192. The career of Rashid-al-Din Sinan, coinciding with that of Saladin.67 The main events recorded are: the two attempts on Saladin at Aleppo and 'Azaz; Saladin's advance upon Masvyf, and his withdrawal, probably after reaching an agreement with Sinan; the murder of Conrad de Montferrat and the death of Sindn himself. The main primary sources for this period are the Bustain, Baha'-al-Din (1145-1234),68 'Imad-al-Din (1125-1200)69 and the ShI'ite chroni-

P p. 115. O Text, p. 142; Translation, pp. 57-58. 64 KCimil (Leiden edition, x, 237, Recueil des Iistoriens des Croisades, Hlistoriens orientanx, i, p. 9213). 65 Recueil, H. or., iII pp. 589-591. 66 Among NVestern scholars, Quatremere (p. 342) follows Kamal-al-Din; Defremery (iii, 377-379),

followed by Grousset (i, 338-340), combines Kamal-al-Din's date with ibn-al-Athir's year, and gives the date as 292 Rajab 495/12 May 1102.

67 On this period generally see H. A. R Gibb, 'The Arabic Sources for the Life of Saladin,' SPECU- LUM, xxv (1950), 58-72.

68 See Cahen, Syrie, p. 52. 89 IbIid., pp. 50-592.




cler ibn-abi-Tayy. Only the first two are fully extant. 'Imad-al-Din survives in one short work, some parts of a larger one, and in long quotations in abu- Shamah (1203-1267).7? Large parts of ibn-abi-Tayy are preserved by ibn-al- Furat (1334-1443) and abui-Shamah, whose faithful recording of his sources gives his work a special value. It is much to be regretted that this author has been so little studied. The French version in the Recueil is very much abridged, while the partial German translation of Goergens is so inaccurate as to be almost worth- less.7" Abu-Shamah also preserves some of the correspondence of al-Qadi al- Fadil (1135-1196), a high chancery official under Saladin. Among later historians ibn-al-Athir uses 'Imad-al-Din and other unknown sources, Sibt follows 'Imad-al- Din and ibn-al-Athir, as does Kamail-al-Din, who also uses other lost sources, probably of North Syrian origin. A valuable source is Kamzl-al-D in's biography of Sinan in the Biographical Dictionary. The volume containing this is unfortunately not extant, but a summary of it is given by Dhahabi (1274-1353)72 in his history, and was used by Defremery and other early writers. A fuller version has now come to light in the chronicle of Yunini (d.1326),73 who gives what is probably the full text of Kamal ad-Din. The author quotes from the writings of Dari (twelfth century),74 abu-Ghalib (1140-1201)75 and the Munqidhites, and in addition preserves a number of oral narratives, some of them of possible Isma'ili provenance. The story of Sinan's correspondence with Saladin, well known from ibn-Khallikan (1211-1282),76 is quoted by Kamal-al-DIn in two versions, the second of which is traced back to the narrative of Saladin's messenger, who is named. Ibn-Khallikan claims to have read the letters in the correspondence of al-Qiidi al-Fa(dil, and may have used Kamail-al-Din for additional detail. Among other later historians we may mention ibn Wiasil (1207-1298),77 who for this period relies chiefly on abu-Shamah.

A good example of the divergences of the sources is their treatment of the murder of Conrad de Montferrat. Baha'-al-DIn,78 quoting a letter from the Muslim envoy to Conrad, says that the two murderers, when put to the question, confessed that the king of England had sent them. He makes no reference to

70 Ibid., pp. 60-67. 71 Zur Geschichte Saldhaddins (Berlin, 1879). ,2 In the obituary notices of the year 589. Defremery made extensive use of this text, without enter-

ing into an analysis of Dhahabi's sources. On Dhahabi's history see J. de Somogyi, 'The Ta'rikh al-Islam of Dhahabi,' J.R.A.S., 1932, pp. 815-855.

73 In three manuscripts in Istanbul. Cf. C. Cahen, 'Les Chroniques Arabes concernant la Syrie etc. dans les Bibliotheques d'Istanbul,' Revue des Etudes Islamiques, 1936, pp. 844-845. For the text see B. Lewis, Three Biographiesfrom Kamdl ad-Din (in the press).

74 Cf. Cahen, Syrie, p. 47. 76 Ibid., P. 53. 76 Wafaydt al-A'yan (Cairo, 1882), ii, 115-116=De Slane, Biographical Dictionary (Paris, 1842-

71), iii, 339-341. The attribution of the correspondence to Nur-al-Din is rejected as unsound by both Kamal-al-Din and ibn-Khallik&n - though this does not prevent the latter from including it in his biography of Nuir-al-DIn.

77 See Cahen, Syrie, pp. 68-70. 78 Recueil, HI. or., III, 297.




Assassins. 'Imad-al-D in,79 in a much more detailed account obviously based on later and fuller information than Baha'-al-Din's first impression, describes the murderers as renegade Ismaiilis. He also tells of their implication of Richard, and suggests a reason for the king's alleged action. Ibn-al-Athir on the other hand attributes the murder to Saladin, who arranged it with Sinan, and even namnes the price. Only at the end of his account does he remark that 'the Franks at- tribute his murder to the instigation of the king of England.'80

(3) 1192-1260. The Ayyubids. The main events are the temporary reversion to orthodoxy in 1210-12, the murder of Raymond of Antioch in 1213 and the Frankish attack on the Isma'ili center in Khawabi. Ibn-abi-Tayy (as preserved by ibn-al-Furat), ibn-al-Athir, Kamal-al-Din, Sibt ibn-al-Jawzi, abu- ShiLmah8' and ibn-Wasil are all primary for this period. The last named is of special interest in view of his Central Syrian origin and his personal acquaintance with T-j-al-Din, the Isma'ili chief ca 1240. An interesting variant on the story of the reversion to orthodoxy as related by Sibt, abu-Shamah and ibn-Wdtil is given without source, by Dhahabi.82

(4) 1260-1273. The subjugation of the Syrian castles by Baibars. The two chief primary sources for the career of Baibars are the biographies of ibn-'Abd-al- Zahir and ibll-Shaddad.83 Unfortunately neither of these is fully extant. A British Museum manuscript, known for some time to scholars, was believed to contain the first part of ibn-'Abd al-Zahir's biography, covering the period up to the beginning of 663/1265, and therefore omitting most of Baibars' dealings with the Assassins. A comparison of this manuscript with other works suggests that it is part of an abridgement rather than of the full text, which is lost. The whole of an abridged version is to be found in a manuscript that has recently come to light in Istanbul.84 It gives fairly full information on the final suppression of the Assassins. A unique manuscript of ibn-Shaddad's life of Baibars, again incom- plete, was discovered in Edirne by the late B. $erefettin Yaltkaya, who published a Turkish translatioin of it, without an edition of the text."' It covers the period 670-676/1272-78, with a lenigthy general account of Baibars' reign, appended to his obituary notice. For the missing period, and foiL some matters not covered by either source, we must continue to rely on later chroniclers like Dhahabi, Nuwairi, Maqrlzi, etc.

The foregoing summary deals only with the main historical sources for Syria. To these must be added a host of works from which some information may be

79 Fat&, ed. Landberg (Leiden, 1888), pp. 420-422. Summarized, together with another version, by abu-ShAmah, Arabic text, ii, 196.

80 Kdinil, XII, 51 = Recueil, II. or., ii, 58-59. 81 His 'Continuation,' dealing with this period, was used in manuscript by Van Berchem and has

now been published in Cairo. 82 Cf. Defremery, V, 39-40. 83 See Cahen, Syrie, pp. 74-76. 84 F^ti 4367, wrongly titled and catalogued. My thanks are due to Professor MUkrimin Halil

Yinang for drawing my attention to this manuscript. "I Baypars Tarihi (Istanbul, 1941).



The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassmsn 489

gleaned - clronicles of other regions, travellers, poets, theologians, and such unclassifiable works as the autobiography of Usamah ibn-Munqidh.

The mass of the source-material is imposing, and most of it has been but little studied. Its use presents special difficulties for the writing of a history of the Syrian Assassins. The sect was of necessity secretive, and it only came to the notice of the outside world - and of the historians - when its followers engaged in som-e public and striking action. Its history as recorded consists, therefore, of a series of apparently disconnected episodes, which are oftenl difficult to bring into relation with one another. The chroniclers are usually Sunni and hostile; those of the Ayyuibid and Mamluk periods - that is, the majority - lived at a time of militant orthodoxy and counter-crusade, when the last embers of the Fatimid empire were stamped out and a new Islamic unity was forged to meet and defeat the threat of heresy within and invasion from without. Inevitably they read back into the eleventh and early twelfth centuries the conditions and outlook of their own time, giving to both orthodoxy and heterodoxy a significance which they did not then possess. To some extent the tactics of the Assassins themselves are responsible. Of a score of murders recorded between 1103 and 1273, half are attributed by one or another source to outside instigation. From what we know of the Isma'ilis, it is unlikely that in this period of their prime the daggers of the faithful were for hire. Even if thev were, it is still more unlikely that the actual assassins would know the identity of the instigator who had arranged the crime with their chief. But the assassin setting out on a mission might well have been given what in modern parlance would be called a 'cover-story' -which would have the additional advantage of creating mistrust and suspicion in the right quarters. The Assassins were helped in this respect by the readiness with which Muslim rulers took up and utilized these stories as a means of discrediting rivals. In the strongly religious atmosphere of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, no more damning charge could be brought against a Muslim prince than that of complicity with the dreaded Assassins, and even those whose own hands were not clean in this respect did not hesitate to use it.86

For the period after the subjugation information is very sparse indeed. For Mamluik times Quatremere anid Defremery were able to cull a few details from the literature of the time, mainly relating to the use of professional Assassins by some of the sultans. More could be added from other sources now available. For Ottoman times information is even scantier, and practically inothing is known until the rnineteenth century, when Rousseau and other travellers brought news of the Ismaiili villagers. From this time onwards the local tradition of the Syrian Ism&'ilis themselves begins to be of some historical value.

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

86 See, for example, the revealing letter of Saladin, written in 577/1181-118P, in which he speaks of the threefold threat of unbelief (the Franks), heresy (the Assassins) and treachery (the Zangids) in Syria (abu-ShAmah, ii, 23-24). Yet the weight of the evidence suggests that by this date Saladin himself had at least an understanding with the Assassin chief.



The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins

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