THE ASSASSINS. 
287 
course. Once secure of his empire over these mountain hordes, 
he secured every pass with fastnesses ; and holding himself totally 
independent of the surrounding states, he spread his colonies 
over Elborz, and along the whole range of hills to beyond 
Tabreez; whence they issued forth, singly, or in bands, at the 
command of their imam, or his deputed emissaries, to destroy 
by open assault, ambuscade, or private murder, all people or 
persons, that were obnoxious, either to his ambition, or his 
avarice. Christians, Jews, Mahomedans of Omar or of Ali, all 
were alike the objects of his excommunication; and he sold his 
dagger, or rather that of his followers, to what ever party were 
vile enough to buy the blood of their enemies. There was a 
mystical obscurity about his person, and in the views of his 
widely extending government; with a dauntless determination 
of proceeding, which held the princes of that dark age in a kind 
of superstitious awe. Jealous of his sway, and abhorring his 
tenets; contemning his divine pretensions, yet doubting whether 
he did not possess some superhuman means of mischief; they 
dreaded a power, which seemed to hang over themselves and 
people with constant threatening, though never showing when 
nor where it would strike. He soon acquired from these 
appalled sovereigns, the vague but supreme title of Sheik-ul- 
Jebal, or lord of the mountains; while in the minds of the most 
superstitious of the people, he might well be considered one of 
the dreadful Deevs, or Daemons of the waste. A1 Jebal was the 
old Asiatic name for the whole of the very mountainous quarter 
of Irak Ajem, which lies between Hamadan and Kerman shah. 
It stretches far to the south-west of the Caspian range, above 
described, and comprises Mount Elwund, the Orontes of the 
ancients ; this branch also, bearing the appellation Elburz. But 
