ASSASSINS. 



237 



Buzoorg departed from the maxims of the founder, 

 by appointing his son Mohammed as his successor. 

 He was a weak and inefficient prince, but his son 

 and successor, Hassan the Second, was of a more 

 enterprising character. His vanity induced him, 

 contrary to the prudent counsels of the founder, to 

 set himself up as a teacher and illuminator, and by 

 his foolish disclosures of the mysteries of his sect, 

 he justified the curses of the people, the excom- 

 munications of the church, and the persecution of 

 the order by the surrounding sovereigns. He was, 

 after a short reign, murdered by his brother-in-law 

 and his son Mohammed, who succeeded him. This 

 prince rivalled his father in knowledge, and in the 

 open disregard of all religion and morality. At 

 this period, when the brave Saladin and the cru- 

 saders maintained a bloody war in Palestine, the 

 grand prior of the Assassins was Sinan, one of those 

 personages who have at various times in the East 

 gained, by an extraordinary appearance of austerity 

 and devotion in the eyes of the credulous multi- 

 tude, the reputation of divinity. He gave himself 

 out to be an incarnation of the deity; wore no 

 clothing but sackcloth ; was never seen to eat, drink, 

 or sleep ; and, from sunrise to sunset, preached from 

 the top of a lofty rock to the assembled multitude, 

 who listened to him as to a god. Notwithstanding 

 the risk he ran, on one occasion, of being murdered 

 by his followers, who discovered him to be only 

 a mere mortal, he retained his influence over 

 them during his life, and at present his writings 

 are held in high veneration by the remnant of 

 the sect which still lingers in the mountains of 

 Syria. 



Sinan had read the books of the Christians, and 

 whether from conviction, or, what is more probable, 

 from a wish for peace and exemption from tribute, 

 he sent an ambassador to Almeric, king of Jeru- 

 salem, offering, in his own name, and in those of 

 his people, to submit to baptism, if the Templars, 

 their near neighbours, would remit the annual tri- 

 bute of 2000 ducats which they had imposed on 

 them, and live together in future in peace and 

 amity. The king received the embassy with joy, 

 agreed to all the conditions, offered to reimburse 

 the Templars from his own coffers, and, after hav- 

 ing detained the envoy and his suite some days, 

 dismissed them with guides and an escort to their 

 own frontiers. But as they approached their castles, 

 Walter of Dumesnil, who, with a body of Tem- 

 plars, had lain in ambush, assaulted them, and in 

 the fray murdered the ambassador. Almeric, in- 

 censed at this treacherous and cruel action, assem- 

 bled the princes of the crusade, and, by their 

 advice, sent to demand satisfaction of the grand 

 master, Odo de St Amande. The haughty priest 

 gave an evasive answer, which so enraged the king, 

 that he ordered the murderer to be dragged from 

 the habitation of the Templars, and thrown into a 

 prison in Tyre. The perfidious grand master was 

 himself soon after made a prisoner by Saladin, and 

 in the same year perished unlamented in a dungeon. 

 Almeric had no difficulty in exculpating himself in 

 the opinion of Sinan ; but all hopes of the conver- 

 sion of the Assassins were now at an end, and the 

 dagger, after a truce of forty-two years, was again 

 brandished against the crusaders. 



Its most illustrious victim was Conrad, marquis 

 of Tyre and Montferrat, the guilt of whose death, 

 both oriental and occidental writers agree in as- 

 cribing to the gallant Richard Coeur de Lion. Con- 

 rad was attacked and murdered in the market- 



place of Tyre, by two of the Assassins. The king 

 of England was known to be his enemy, and Al- 

 bericus Trium Fontium says expressly that the 

 murderers were hired by him. Bohadin, the Arabic 

 historian,, thus writes : " The marquis went to 

 visit the bishop of Tyre. As he was going out, 

 he was attacked by two Assassins, who slew him 

 with their daggers. When taken and stretched on 

 the rack, they confessed that they had been em- 

 ployed by the king of England. They died under 

 the torture." He also observes, that nothing could 

 be settled with Richard, " because he always broke 

 off what he had arranged, by continually retracting 

 what he had said. May God curse him!" Coeur de 

 Lion, however much his countrymen may have wish- 

 ed to make him appear so, cannot we are sorry to say, 

 be declared innocent of the murder of the marquis. 

 We shall not, however, insist upon this point, 

 which has proved a subject of no little dispute, 

 but only revert to the curious circumstance, that 

 we should be beholden to an Arabic author for the 

 knowledge of certain points in the character of a 

 king of England. 



The reign of Jellal-ed-deen, who succeeded his 

 father Mohammed, was a period of repose for Asia. 

 He directed all his efforts to restore religion and 

 piety ; sent circular letters for this purpose to the 

 caliph and sultan, and other princes ; was dignified 

 by the doctors of the law, who were convinced of 

 his sincerity, with the appellation of New Mussul- 

 man, and obtained from the caliph the title of 

 Prince, which had never been granted to any of 

 his predecessors. His harem made the great pil- 

 grimage to Mecca, and the caliph gave precedence 

 to his banners over those of many other princes. 

 But his reign was too short to be productive of 

 much benefit to mankind, and on his death, occa- 

 sioned by poison, the dagger was again unsheathed 

 by his kindred, at the command of his son, Ala-ed- 

 deen, a boy of nine years of age, and the murder 

 of the prince was avenged amid torrents of blood. 

 Ala-ed-deen, after a disastrous reign, was mur- 

 dered in his turn, and was succeeded by his son, 

 Roken-ed-deen, who had joined in the conspiracy 

 against him. In his time, the caliph of Bagdad 

 and other princes invoked the mighty Mangoo Kaan 

 to rid the earth of this band of murderers, who 

 rendered life wretched to those who dared to pro- 

 voke their resentment, and the conqueror of the 

 world gave orders to his brother Hulagoo to exter- 

 minate the hated race. His orders were obeyed. 

 The treachery of the chief astronomer and vizier 

 of the Assassin prince facilitated the operations of 

 the Tartars; Alamoot surrendered, and Roken-ed- 

 deen was brought a prisoner to the camp of Hul- 

 agoo. The other fortresses of the order followed 

 the example of Alamoot, except Kirdeoo, which 

 for three years resisted the efforts of the Tartar 

 troops, when it fell into their hands. Orders for 

 the indiscriminate massacre of the Assassins, wher- 

 ever found, were given by Mangoo, and, without 

 distinction of age or sex, they fell by thousands 

 beneath the sword of justice and of vengeance. 

 Fourteen years afterwards, the Syrian branch was 

 destroyed by Bibars, the great Mameluke sultan ; 

 and though the sect, like the Jesuits, still 

 clung together, in hopes of once more attaining to 

 power, the opportunity never presented itself. 

 The merchants and peasants who at this day still 

 hold the speculative opinions of the order, are 

 scarcely aware of the bloody part it once enacted 

 on the theatre of the world. 



