564 
ALAROF. 
and disciples, as some say, and, according toothers, the predecessors 
and masters of Manes ; and even Manes himself, Constantine being 
now th^ir great apostle. After he had seduced an infinite number of 
people, he was at last stoned by order of the emperor. This seel pre- 
vailed in Bosnia and the adjacent provinces about the close of the 
fifteenth century, propagated their doctrines with confidence, and 
held their religious assemblies with impunity. 
Assassins, or Hassassins. 
These people were a sect of Mahometans, and appeared first about 
the year 890. Their earliest chief was a pretended prophet, named 
Karmal, who drew many followers by releasing them from all the 
restrictions common to the disciplej of Mahomet, and promising un- 
bounded enjoyment to such as implicitly obeyed his commands. In 
process of time these persons obtained possession of ten or twelve 
cities, Rnd chose a leader or king, to whom they gave the name of the 
Old Man of the Mountains, under whose direction they perpetrated 
the most -savage yet secret massacres. It being a part of their creed, 
for those to expect perfect happiness and every sensual enjoyment 
hereafter, who perished in the performance of their leader’s commands, 
their devotion to the will of their chief may be easily imagined, and 
a singular instance is recorded by Ebn Amid in his History of the 
Saracens. In 1090, Malek, third sultan of the Seljukians of Iran, 
sent a messenger to Hassan, the Old Man of the Mountains, at this 
period, calling on him for obedience, and accompanying the demand 
with certain threats as the consequence of refusal. Hassan desired 
the ambassador might be admitted ; and, having his troops assembled 
round him, commanded one of them to destroy himself; the man, 
without the slightest hesitation, stabbed himself to the heart, and fell 
dead at his sovereign’s feet. He then commanded a second to precipi- 
tate himself from the nearest tower ; and was instantaneously obeyed. 
Go,” said Hassan, “ to the sultan your master, and inform him 
that I have no other reply to make him, excepting, that I have twenty 
thousand troops equally obedient with those you have this day wit- 
nessed.” The sultan took the hint ; and, says the historian, having 
other matters on his hands, thought it not advisable to prosecute a 
war against that prince. 
The Assassins in 1192 assassinated Conrad^ marquis of Mont- 
ferrat, who had rendered himself obnoxious to them by putting to 
death some of their companions. In 1231, they destroyed Lewis of 
Bavaria ; and indeed the greatest and most powerful monarchs stood 
in awe of their displeasure, since no precaution was sufficient to 
guard any person against the effects of their revenge. They were 
destroyed, in 1257, by Haloen, the cham of Tartary, although a rem- 
nant, under the title of Ismaelians, existed so late as 1280, when they 
were finally extirpated by the Mamelukes. 
Alarof. 
This, in the Mahometan theology, is the partition wall that sepa- 
rates heaven from hell. The word is plural, and properly written 
