The Assassins of Alamut: When Murder Became a Religious Sacrament

In 1090, a charismatic leader named Hassan-i Sabbah seized the impregnable mountain fortress of Alamut in northern Persia and founded one of history's most feared organizations - the Nizari Ismailis, better known as the Assassins. For nearly 200 years, this secretive sect pioneered the art of political assassination, killing caliphs, sultans, crusader kings, and anyone who threatened their faith. Their agents were so fanatically loyal they would wait years embedded in enemy courts before striking, and they never feared death because they believed paradise awaited them.

The Assassins operated from a network of mountain fortresses considered nearly impossible to capture. Legend says Hassan-i Sabbah, the "Old Man of the Mountain," used drugs and ela ...