Of These Aliites, Eventually Called Shiahs, A Chief
Sect, And Parent Of Many Heretical Branches, Were The Ismailites, Who Took
Their Name, From The Seventh Imam, Whose Return To Earth They Professed To
Expect At The End Of The World.
About A.D. 1090 a branch of the Ismaili
stock was established by Hassan, son of Sabah, in the
Mountainous
districts of Northern Persia; and, before their suppression by the
Mongols, 170 years later, the power of the quasi-spiritual dynasty which
Hassan founded had spread over the Eastern Kohistan, at least as far as
Kain. Their headquarters were at Alamut ("Eagle's Nest"), about 32 miles
north-east of Kazwin, and all over the territory which they held they
established fortresses of great strength. De Sacy seems to have proved
that they were called Hashishiya or Hashishin, from their use of the
preparation of hemp called Hashish; and thence, through their system of
murder and terrorism, came the modern application of the word Assassin.
The original aim of this system was perhaps that of a kind of
Vehmgericht, to punish or terrify orthodox persecutors who were too
strong to be faced with the sword. I have adopted in the text one of the
readings of the G. Text Asciscin, as expressing the original word with
the greatest accuracy that Italian spelling admits. In another author we
find it as Chazisii (see Bollandists, May, vol. ii. p. xi.); Joinville
calls them Assacis; whilst Nangis and others corrupt the name into
Harsacidae, and what not.
The explanation of the name MULEHET as it is in Ramusio, or Mulcete as
it is in the G. Text (the last expressing in Rusticiano's Pisan tongue the
strongly aspirated Mulhete), is given by the former: "This name of
Mulehet is as much as to say in the Saracen tongue 'The Abode of
Heretics,'" the fact being that it does represent the Arabic term
Mulhid, pl. Mulahidah, "Impii, heretici," which is in the Persian
histories (as of Rashiduddin and Wassaf) the title most commonly used to
indicate this community, and which is still applied by orthodox Mahomedans
to the Nosairis, Druses, and other sects of that kind, more or less
kindred to the Ismaili. The writer of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri calls the
sectarians of Alamut Mulahidat-ul-maut, "Heretics of Death."[1] The
curious reading of the G. Text which we have preserved "vaut a dire des
Aram," should be read as we have rendered it. I conceive that Marco was
here unconsciously using one Oriental term to explain another. For it
seems possible to explain Aram only as standing for Haram, in the
sense of "wicked" or "reprobate."
In Pauthier's Text, instead of des aram, we find "veult dire en
francois Diex Terrien," or Terrestrial God. This may have been
substituted, in the correction of the original rough dictation, from a
perception that the first expression was unintelligible. The new phrase
does not indeed convey the meaning of Mulahidah, but it expresses a main
characteristic of the heretical doctrine. The correction was probably made
by Polo himself; it is certainly of very early date. For in the romance of
Bauduin de Sebourc, which I believe dates early in the 14th century, the
Caliph, on witnessing the extraordinary devotion of the followers of the
Old Man (see note 1, ch. xxiv.), exclaims:
"Par Mahon ...
Vous estes Diex en terre, autre coze n'i a!" (I. p. 360.)
So also Fr. Jacopo d'Aqui in the Imago Mundi, says of the Assassins:
"Dicitur iis quod sunt in Paradiso magno Dei Terreni" - expressions, no
doubt, taken in both cases from Polo's book.
Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the name
Mulehet represents Alamut. But the resemblance is much closer and more
satisfactory to Mulhid or Mulahidah. Mulhet is precisely the name by
which the kingdom of the Ismailites is mentioned in Armenian history, and
Mulihet is already applied in the same way by Rabbi Benjamin in the 12th
century, and by Rubruquis in the 13th. The Chinese narrative of Hulaku's
expedition calls it the kingdom of Mulahi. (Joinville, p. 138; J.
As. ser. II., tom. xii. 285; Benj. Tudela, p. 106; Rub. p. 265;
Remusat, Nouv. Melanges, I. 176; Gaubil, p. 128; Pauthier, pp.
cxxxix.-cxli.; Mon. Hist. Patr. Scriptorum, III. 1559, Turin, 1848.)
[Cf. on Mulehet, melahideh, Heretics, plural of molhid. Heretic, my
note, pp. 476-482 of my ed. of Friar Odoric. - H. C.]
"Old Man of the Mountain" was the title applied by the Crusaders to the
chief of that branch of the sect which was settled in the mountains north
of Lebanon, being a translation of his popular Arabic title
Shaikh-ul-Jibal. But according to Hammer this title properly belonged, as
Polo gives it, to the Prince of Alamut, who never called himself Sultan,
Malik, or Amir; and this seems probable, as his territory was known as the
Balad-ul-Jibal. (See Abulf. in Buesching, V. 319.)
[1] Elliot, II. 290.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW THE OLD MAN USED TO TRAIN HIS ASSASSINS.
When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so charming,
they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the ladies and damsels
dallied with them to their hearts' content, so that they had what young
men would have; and with their own good will they never would have quitted
the place.
Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his Court in grand and noble
style, and made those simple hill-folks about him believe firmly that he
was a great Prophet. And when he wanted one of his Ashishin to send on
any mission, he would cause that potion whereof I spoke to be given to one
of the youths in the garden, and then had him carried into his Palace. So
when the young man awoke, he found himself in the Castle, and no longer in
that Paradise; whereat he was not over well pleased. He was then conducted
to the Old Man's presence, and bowed before him with great veneration as
believing himself to be in the presence of a true Prophet.
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