Posted on 09/12/2001 8:07:41 PM PDT by RippleFire
The Assassins "had emerged because of a schism in the Shia Muslim sect and established themselves in northern and eastern Persia by taking and controlling a series of mountain fortifications. Behind their walls they lived a contemplative life, producing beautifully wrought paintings and metalwork, but beyond their retreats they terrorized those civilizations they deemed heretical and so earned the enmity not just of the rest of the Islamic world but eventually of Europe. The local Ismaili leader had done little to enhance their reputation. Rather than confront his enemies in open combat he preferred to sponsor a campaign of political murder, usually executed with a dagger in the back, as the means to his end. " ... "The Mongols made first for the Elburz Mountains, where the Assassins lay in wait behind what they believed to be their impregnable fortresses. With extraordinary ingenuity the Mongol generals and their Chinese engineers manoeuvred their artillery up the mountain slopes and set them up around the walls of the fortress of Alamut. But before the order was given to commence firing the Assassins' Grand Master, Rukn ad-Din, signalled that he wanted to negotiate. Hulegu countered that he must immediately order the destruction of his own fortifications; when Rukn ad-Din prevaricated, the bombardment commenced. Under the most devastatingly accurate artillery fire, the walls quickly tumbled and Rukn ad-Din surrendered. Hulegu took him prisoner, transported him to every Assassin castle they confronted, and paraded him before each garrison with the demand for an immediate surrender. Some obliged, as at Alamut; while others, like Gerdkuh, had to be taken by force. Today the spherical stone missiles fired by the artillery teams at the walls still litter the perimeter of the ruins. Whether each 'eagle's nest' surrendered or was taken, the Mongols put all the inhabitants to the sword; even the women in their homes and the babies in their cradles. As this slaughter continued, Rukn ad-Din begged Hulegu to allow him to go to Qaraqorum where he would pay homage to the Great Khan and plead for clemency. Hulegu agreed, but when he got to Qaragorum Mongke Khan refused to see him. It was effectively a sentence of death. On the journey back his Mongol escort turned on the Grand Master and his attendants, who were 'kicked to a pulp' . The Persian historian Juvaini commented that 'tine world has been cleansed'. Five hundred years later Edward Gibbon echoed those sentiments, claiming that the Mongols' campaign 'may be considered as a service to mankind'. It took two years for the Mongols to dislodge over 100 'eagles' nests', but in the process they virtually expunged the Assassins from Persia. "
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