Secret Societies: Inside the World's Most Notorious Organizations (5 page)

Marco Polo accurately described the chilling control Hasan held over his young Muslim disciples.

Those who appeared to believe his tale were drugged with hashish and other narcotics until they sank into a deep, almost comatose sleep. In that condition, they were carried through a secret passage to the kiosk in the hidden garden. Once Hasan and his trusted assistants had returned to the fortress the
houris
, obeying Hasan's instructions, splashed the young men with vinegar to wake them. The confused youths were told they had entered Paradise, a concept that, in their drugged condition, appeared plausible. With fruit and wine in abundance, they lay back on plush satin cushions while the
houris
filled—and probably exceeded—all of their adolescent fantasies. Reportedly, the maidens would whisper into each aspirant's ear,

We are only waiting for thy death, for this place is destined for thee. This is but one of the pavilions of Paradise, and we are the
houris
and the children of Paradise. If thou were dead, thou would be forever with us. But thou art only dreaming, and will soon awake.

After a day of this illusion, the youths would be drugged to unconsciousness again and returned to the fortress, where they were permitted to slowly awake.

When asked by Hasan, and later by the chiefs who replaced him, where they had been, they would reply, “In Paradise, through the favor of Your Highness.” Then, encouraged by their leader, they would describe their experience in great detail
to others. The envy of those who absorbed these testosterone-fueled tales of beautiful and willing young women, and endless supplies of fruit and wine, must have been spectacular.

“We have the assurance of the Prophet,” Hasan and his later deputies would promise the youths, “that he who defends his lord shall inherit Paradise forever, and if you show yourself to be obedient to my orders, that happy lot is yours.” The most gullible could hardly wait.

How convincing was this subterfuge? Convincing enough that some followers committed suicide in the belief that they would be instantly transported to Paradise and all its rumored delights, a practice Hasan suppressed by explaining that only those who died in obedience to his orders would receive the key to Paradise. These were the young men who, posing as Christian monks, slaughtered Conrad of Montferrat and endured horrific tortures in silence following their capture. They were the men who launched themselves from high towers at their leader's command as a demonstration of their unflinching obedience. And they were the first to be known as the
hashshashin
or assassins, instruments of revenge and political expediency throughout the Middle East.

A few historians have questioned the likelihood that twelfth-century men could be so gullible and trusting, suggesting the tale is an allegory or at best apocryphal. In response, others note that these were impressionable youths and point to the accounts of Henry, Count of Champagne, and Marco Polo as evidence that Hasan's deception actually worked. From today's perspective, recent events imply not only that Hasan's techniques were successful, but also that they continue to be effective on a regular, almost daily, basis. On the streets of Baghdad, Beirut and Tel Aviv young men and, increasingly, young women carry out terrorist activities by sacrificing themselves as human bombs, many in the belief that they will be transported instantly to Paradise. Knowing this, we can hardly doubt the authenticity of those tales of Hasan and his fanatical followers. Muslim youths of a millennium ago rarely encountered
any nubile females outside their own family. An afternoon with a barely clad girl willing to engage him in carnal delights would have the usual impact on a pubescent boy, heightened even more by his narcotic-induced state of mind.

Hasan's manipulation of his young followers spawned more than an efficient killing machine. It also spawned other fables that may or may not be rooted in reality.

As described in the ancient work
Art of Imposture
by AbdelRahman of Damascus, Hasan strengthened his power over the trusting disciples by digging a deep, narrow pit in the floor of his chambers. Within the pit he positioned a young man, known to others in the fortress, so that only the youth's head appeared above the level of the floor. Then, after filling in the space surrounding the young man's body, Hasan had a two-piece circular dish with a hole in the middle set on the floor around the man's neck as though the head were resting on a plate. To add to the subterfuge, fresh blood was poured on the plate, completing the realistic impression of a severed head.

Recruits, perhaps drugged with hashish, were brought into the room and, in their presence, the “head” explained that he had followed the Master's instructions, earning himself a place in Paradise. While his awed compatriots listened, the much-alive young man described all the pleasures he was enjoying there—endless fruit and wine, luxurious surroundings, and beautiful and willing young virgins.

“You have seen the head of a man who died while carrying out my commands,” Hasan told the undoubtedly wide-eyed onlookers. “He is a man you all know. I willed him to speak with his own tongue of the pleasures that his soul is enjoying even now. Go and fulfill my orders.” It was pretty persuasive stuff, made even more plausible when, after the recruits departed, Hasan chopped off the talking head—no doubt to its owner's surprise—and displayed it on the parapet of the fortress for everyone to see. Their former colleague, Hasan's followers believed, was indeed enjoying the pleasures of Paradise, even as they remained on earth. How soon could they join him?

None of the reported techniques used by Hasan and those who replaced him is surprising to contemporary experts. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, in his book
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
, outlines three primary characteristics of secret societies that are as effective today as they were in Hasan's time. They are the following:

1. A charismatic leader who becomes an object of worship when the general principles that originally sustained the group lose their power.

2. A process such as coercive persuasion or thought reform.

3. Economic, sexual and other forms of exploitation of group members by the leader and ruling coterie.

The Assassins were not overly selective in choosing their victims. During the Crusades, they supported whichever side suited their purposes while maintaining a vendetta against Sunnis. On at least one occasion they combined forces with the Knights Templar, hated enemies of Saladin and his Islamic defenders of Jerusalem. And by charging fees from others in a murder-for-hire operation, the Assassins built a substantial income over the years.

When their reign of terror against selected targets rose to a crest, a mere rumor that an individual had somehow offended Hasan or had been selected for death was sufficient for the man to flee for his life. Few managed to escape.

¹
Atabeg
was a title of nobility commonly used in Mesopotamia from the twelfth century. The term indicated a governor of a nation, below an emperor or king in rank but above a khan, as well as a military advisor to a young and inexperienced prince.

Added to the certainty of death was the uncertainty of its time and place. The sultan's own prime minister, Nizam-alMulk, was cut to pieces by an Assassin posing as a dervish while Nizam was being carried in a litter to his harem, his mind likely diverted with expectations of carnal delights even as the dagger was plunged into his chest. The Atabeg
¹
of Hims warned that
he had been selected for murder by the Assassins, kept a contingent of armed guards always at his side. As the atabeg entered a mosque for prayers, the guards relaxed their vigil, for who would dare offend Allah by committing murder at such a time? In an eye blink, the atabeg was surrounded by Assassins who cut him to ribbons. And when a Christian, the Marquis Corrado di Montefeltro, was named for death, he was attacked by two Assassins posing as monks even as the marquis was being entertained by the Bishop of Tyre at a banquet. They managed only to wound the marquis before one of the Assassins was killed. The other managed to escape and hide in the chapel, where he knew the marquis would arrive to give thanks for his deliverance from certain death. He did, and as the marquis knelt in prayer, the surviving Assassin emerged from behind the altar and finished the job before dying in bliss at the hands of guards.

When it served their advantage, the Assassins chose intimidation over outright murder. After the Assassins dispatched the son of Nizam-al-Mulk with their daggers, the father declared he would lead an army unlike any in history, march on Alamut, and destroy it and all of its inhabitants. One evening, arriving within sight of the fortress and making camp in the foothills of the Alborz, Nizam-al-Mulk went to sleep confident that he would rise the next day to lead his warriors against the Assassins, wiping them from the face of the earth. When he awoke in the morning, he found a dagger buried to its hilt in the sand next to his head, the blade piercing a note warning that nothing but massacre awaited him and his army.

None of Nizam-al-Mulk's entourage could explain how the dagger and note had been placed there. No one had been seen approaching his tent. Had it been ghosts or spirits? Whatever it was, Nizam-al-Mulk decided to call off his attack, instructing his forces to avoid the region in the future, and providing Hasan and his followers with a free hand throughout the Muslim world.

As Hasan increased both his power and wealth he expanded his authority, acquiring and strengthening fortifications among the crags of the Alborz, each impregnable to all but the largest,
most dedicated armies. And as the years passed, Hasan acquired a description that sounds almost paternal to today's ears. He and each of his descendants who led a group of Assassins, including the Dai-el-Kebir, became known as the Old Man of the Mountain.

The Assassins did not restrict themselves to political or spiritual figures, nor did they lack an appreciation for the power of psychology to achieve their goals, as they proved with their intimidation of the sultan. The Imam Razi, one of the great Muslim intellectuals of his era, was foolish enough to insult the Assassins by declaring they were not qualified theologians, until visited by an envoy of the group who offered the Imam a choice: death by dagger or an annual pension of a thousand gold pieces. The imam's condemnation promptly ceased, causing a colleague to ask why the wise man was no longer criticizing the Assassins. The old man glanced quickly around. “Because,” he whispered, “their arguments are so sharp. And pointed.”

Fear of the Assassins grew not only out of their ruthlessness but also from the unpredictability of their actions, and the near impossibility of preventing an attack once a command was issued. Hasan and his successors originated and perfected the strategy of “sleeper cells,” dedicated killers dispatched to communities hundreds of miles away and instructed to meld into local society until ordered to act. These devotees might wait for years until contacted by an envoy. By this time, they could approach the victim without raising suspicion about their identity or intention. Adding to the difficulty would be the assassin's demeanor—calm, almost pleasurable, not fearing reprisal but actually welcoming it as his entry into Paradise.

The Assassins, under the direction of Hasan and his lieutenants, terrorized the Middle East into the thirteenth century. Hasan's son and loyal followers assumed leadership after the founder's death, and at least three generations of his descendants carried on his work. But not even the Assassins could resist the brutality of the Mongols.

Hasan's grandson provided the first break with the murderous tradition. Upon his elevation to the position of Imam in 1210, Hasan iii did the unthinkable by converting to the Sunni faith, restoring Islamic law and even inviting Sunni teachers to visit Alamut. The apparent conversion had less to do with theology than with practicality and survival: hordes of Mongols, whose legendary ferocity made even the Assassins quake in their boots, were beginning to flow across the steppes into Persia. Faced with a common enemy, both Shiites and Sunnis set aside their differences to launch a mutual defense.

Hasan III's sense of discretion was not, unfortunately for his followers, passed on to his son Muhammad iii, also called Aladdin (Height of the Faith). Muhammad returned the group to Shiite beliefs and exceeded all previous Assassin leaders for cruelty, to the point where most historians consider him mad. He was so intolerable that his followers quickly transferred their allegiance to his son Khurshah, who attempted to negotiate an understanding with the Mongols now heavily infiltrating the mountainous area.

It was too late. In the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongol leader Hulagu Khan began methodically attacking each mountain stronghold of the Assassins. Using trickery, brutality and the force of overwhelming arms, the Mongols seized each fortress one by one, slaughtering the inhabitants and laying waste to the carefully contrived Paradise on Earth.

The Assassins were too devoted, too fanatic, and too numerous to be totally eliminated, even by the Mongols who swept through the region like a tsunami of slaughter. A few managed to escape to India, where they became known as the
Khojas
(honorable converts) and resumed their practices on a limited scale. Remnants of the sect reportedly still exist in Iraq, Iran and Syria, but they are little more than splinter groups of militant Shiites.

The Assassins were more than an early prototype of Murder Inc. Their influence extends, in both benign and malignant
versions, through the present day. The concentric circular construction of the Abode of Learning, adapted by Hasan, became a prototype for restricted organizations and secret societies. Most notable are the Freemasons, who drew inspiration for their organizational structure from the Knights Templar, reputed allies of the Assassins during the Crusades.