4 (french) Werber, Bernard

declared themselves followers of Mohammed’s nephew,
which, being a descendant of the Prophet by women, was
not recognized by all Muslims.
According to the testimony of the Venetian traveler Marco
Polo (1323) and many Persian historians, the Hashishins
lived in the fortress of Alamut, 1800 meters above sea
level, Mazenderan in the south of the Caspian Sea.
Confined to their mountains and do not have the means to
undertake conventional wars, they devised to send in six
men (the fidawis) charged with stabbing the enemy
leaders, the most often while they were engaged in their
devotions in mosques.
The master of the assassins was sacred “Old Man of the
Mountain “. The first of these was obviously Hasan i-
Sabbah, the founder of the sect.
Those designated to commit the murders were
anesthetized with hashish, introduced into their food in a
paste mixed with rose jam. The Old Man of Mountain spoke
to them at length and the men fell asleep because hashish
is a drug and not overpowering not exciting. Asleep, they
were transported in a garden secret, deep in the fortress of
Alamut. In their wake, they there were approximately of
young slave girls and boys, eager to fulfill all their sexual