In my fantasy series, The Queen’s Blade,
the assassin Blade is a member of an assassins’ guild. It’s the stuff of
fiction, right? Wrong.
Between 1090 and 1273,
the Order of Assassins was a very real entity in the Middle East. The order’s
few members were Shiite Muslims who were considered heretics by not only the
Sunni Muslims, but also other Shiites. Due to the efforts of the leader, Hasan-i
Sabbah, by the end of the 11th century the order had become one of
the deadliest terrorist groups in today’s recorded history.
The Order of
Assassins’ members often spent months or years following or infiltrating the
targets, who they considered political or religious enemies. The killings were
up close and personal, mostly in public places such as mosques. One ‘infiltrated’
assassination was that of Conrad of Montferrat, who was to be the Kingdom of
Acre’s next ruler. In 1192, two assassins who were posing as Christian Arab
monks killed him.
The assassins never
killed innocents like today’s terrorists, only targeting prominent figures.
They never tried to flee the scene either, apparently not fearing death.
By the middle of the
12th century, Sunni leaders left the Order of Assassins alone,
realising it wasn’t good for their longevity.
Ultimately, the invading
Mongols, under the rule of Genghis
Khan, destroyed
the Order of Assassins to guarantee their own safety after hearing of the
order’s reputation.
The above illustration depicts an
Order of Assassins member (left) stabbing Nizam al-Mulk, a Seljuk vizier. (Source:
wikimedia.org; originally
from a 14th century manuscript)
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