A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

he was deported ran into a violent storm; Hasan stood calmly on the deck and declared that he
could not possibly die until he had fulfilled his mission. In fact, the ship was wrecked in Syria, but
Hasan escaped. He finally arrived back in Persia in 1081. By now in his late forties, he had become
an impressive figure, a man with a ravaged face, burning eyes and a tone of total conviction. For
the next nine years he travelled and preached, gaining an increasing horde of followers. And in
1090 he came to the castle of Alamut and decided that this was the fortress he was looking for. If
political intrigues prevented Nizar from becoming the next Fatimid Caliph - as seemed likely - then
Hasan would need a firm base from which to conduct his own campaign.
He achieved his aim with remarkable ease. The castle was owned by an orthodox Muslim. Hasan’s
preaching converted the surrounding villages, then his preachers became guests at the castle and
converted the servants. Hasan was smuggled into the Eagle’s Nest in disguise. One morning, the
owner woke up to be told that he had been dispossessed. He was politely shown the door and
handed a generous sum in compensation.
Hasan ruled like a patriarch. His followers seldom saw him. The rule was strict. One of his sons
was caught drinking wine and executed. Hasan lived frugally, wrote books, and plotted how to
overthrow the Abbasids in Baghdad. The first problem was to undermine the Seljuk Turks who
supported them, and who were now the masters of Persia. Little by little, Hasan extended his
religious empire. He proved to be as good a general as the prophet himself - his greatest ally being
the hatred of the Persians for the Turks. His preachers - called dais - won over the surrounding
villages. He extended his influence to an area called Quhistan in the south-east, and the Turks were
overthrown in a popular uprising. The Turks besieged him in Alamut, but it was impregnable - as
he had known it would be.
As a general he had one major problem. His followers were devoted - fanatically so - but they were
few in number compared to the Turks. In 1092 he decided upon the answer: to strike down his
enemies one by one, making use of the total obedience of his disciples.
We have seen that the Seljuks established their power when they defeated the Byzantine army at
the battle of Manzikert in 1071; but their leader, Alp Arslan, died a year later and his son Malik
Shah came to the throne. Malik’s Grand Vizier was a man called Nizam al-Mulk - who, as it
happened, had been at school with Hasan bin Sabah, as well as with the mathematician and poet,
Omar Khayyam. Nizam had set Omar to the task of revising the calendar. The Arab chroniclers tell
a story to the effect that when Nizam became Vizier in 1073, both Omar and Hasan came to him
asking for jobs, and Hasan was given a position at court; but his thirst for power soon became
apparent, and Nizam sacked him. It is just possible, for in 1073, Hasan had not yet set out on his
travels to Cairo.
Twenty years later, Nizam was Hasan’s most dangerous enemy, the man he would most like to see
dead. In October 1092, during Ramadan, Nizam had finished giving audience to various suppliants
and was carried out of the tent towards the tent of his womenfolk. A man in the garb of a Sufi - a
holy man - came forward and was allowed to approach the litter. He pulled a knife from his clothes
and drove it into Nizam’s heart. A few moments later, he was himself killed by Nizam’s guards.
When Hasan heard the news, he chuckled with elation. ‘The killing of this devil is the beginning of
bliss.’
It seems likely that when Hasan planned the murder he had no other aim in view than to get rid of a
‘traitor’, but that now he suddenly realised that he had an infallible method of extending his power.