288 
THE ASSASSINS. 
the title given to Hassan Saheb seemed to import chief of the 
mountains in general; as he commanded those formidable posi¬ 
tions, not only in many parts of Persia, but over much of Syria, 
Palestine, and the high lands leading to Egypt. 
It so* happened, that for more than two centuries, in short, 
from their accession to their extinction, every successor of the 
first Imam inherited the same disposition to turn the blind zeal 
of their followers to the worst purposes. A colony of these 
fanatics, under the leading of one of Hassan Saheb’s most odious 
representatives, settled themselves amongst the heights of Leba¬ 
non, and have been variously called Ismaelians, Bathenians, or 
Assassins. That colony is the best known to European historians, 
from the horrible enormities which its people committed in the 
towns and villages of the Holy Land ; and not less so, on the per¬ 
sons and lives of some of our most gallant crusaders. It is woeful 
to read, who were the victims of those savages; but often 
much more horrible, to turn the page, and find who were their 
employers. Their universal violence, however, at last armed 
every hand against them ; and, much about the same time, to¬ 
wards the end of the thirteenth century, they were rooted out of 
Syria, and Egypt, (whither they had extended themselves,) and 
from their original seats in Persia; leaving nothing but their 
appropriate appellation of Assassin behind them ; no longer to be 
considered, what it had originally imported, the mere distinguish¬ 
ing name of a sect, but to be universally affixed, from age to 
age hereafter, as a peculiar brand of infamy, on every treacher¬ 
ous, secret, or hired murderer. 
Halukoo, the Mogul conqueror of Persia, and of the family of 
the famous Zingis Khan, was the prince whose victorious arms, 
almost repaid to his new dominions, the devastations of his con- 
