This of course gave the others who stood by, and who had not been
admitted, the greatest desire to enter therein.
So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he would say to such a
youth: "Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest my Angels
shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so
will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise." So he caused them
to believe; and thus there was no order of his that they would not affront
any peril to execute, for the great desire they had to get back into that
Paradise of his. And in this manner the Old One got his people to murder
any one whom he desired to get rid of. Thus, too, the great dread that he
inspired all Princes withal, made them become his tributaries in order
that he might abide at peace and amity with them.[NOTE 1]
I should also tell you that the Old Man had certain others under him, who
copied his proceedings and acted exactly in the same manner. One of these
was sent into the territory of Damascus, and the other into
Curdistan.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - Romantic as this story is, it seems to be precisely the same that
was current over all the East. It is given by Odoric at length, more
briefly by a Chinese author, and again from an Arabic source by Hammer in
the Mines de l'Orient.
The following is the Chinese account as rendered by Remusat: "The soldiers
of this country (Mulahi) are veritable brigands. When they see a lusty
youth, they tempt him with the hope of gain, and bring him to such a point
that he will be ready to kill his father or his elder brother with his own
hand. After he is enlisted, they intoxicate him, and carry him in that
state into a secluded retreat, where he is charmed with delicious music
and beautiful women. All his desires are satisfied for several days, and
then (in sleep) he is transported back to his original position. When he
awakes, they ask what he has seen. He is then informed that if he will
become an Assassin, he will be rewarded with the same felicity. And with
the texts and prayers that they teach him they heat him to such a pitch
that whatever commission be given him he will brave death without regret
in order to execute it."
The Arabic narrative is too long to extract. It is from a kind of
historical romance called The Memoirs of Hakim, the date of which Hammer
unfortunately omits to give. Its close coincidence in substance with
Polo's story is quite remarkable. After a detailed description of the
Paradise, and the transfer into it of the aspirant under the influence of
bang, on his awaking and seeing his chief enter, he says, "O chief! am I
awake or am I dreaming?" To which the chief: "O such an One, take heed
that thou tell not the dream to any stranger. Know that Ali thy Lord hath
vouchsafed to show thee the place destined for thee in Paradise....
Hesitate not a moment therefore in the service of the Imam who thus deigns
to intimate his contentment with thee," and so on.
William de Nangis thus speaks of the Syrian Shaikh, who alone was known to
the Crusaders, though one of their historians (Jacques de Vitry, in
Bongars, I. 1062) shows knowledge that the headquarters of the sect was
in Persia: "He was much dreaded far and near, by both Saracens and
Christians, because he so often caused princes of both classes
indifferently to be murdered by his emissaries. For he used to bring up in
his palace youths belonging to his territory, and had them taught a
variety of languages, and above all things to fear their Lord and obey him
unto death, which would thus become to them an entrance into the joys of
Paradise. And whosoever of them thus perished in carrying out his Lord's
behests was worshipped as an angel." As an instance of the implicit
obedience rendered by the Fidawi or devoted disciples of the Shaikh, Fra
Pipino and Marino Sanuto relate that when Henry Count of Champagne
(titular King of Jerusalem) was on a visit to the Old Man of Syria, one
day as they walked together they saw some lads in white sitting on the top
of a high tower. The Shaikh, turning to the Count, asked if he had any
subjects as obedient as his own? and without giving time for reply made a
sign to two of the boys, who immediately leapt from the tower, and were
killed on the spot. The same story is told in the Cento Novelle Antiche,
as happening when the Emperor Frederic was on a visit (imaginary) to the
Veglio. And it is introduced likewise as an incident in the Romance of
Bauduin de Sebourc:
"Volles veioir merveilles? dist li Rois Seignouris"
to Bauduin and his friends, and on their assenting he makes the signal to
one of his men on the battlements, and in a twinkling
"Quant le vinrent en l'air salant de tel avis,
Et aussi liement, et aussi esjois,
Qu'il deust conquester mil livres de parisis!
Ains qu'il venist a tiere il fut mors et fenis,
Surles roches agues desrompis corps et pis,"[1] etc.
(Cathay, 153; Remusat, Nouv. Mel. I. 178; Mines de l'Orient, III.
201 seqq.; Nangis in Duchesne, V. 332; Pipino in Muratori, IX.
705; Defremery in J. As. ser. V. tom. v. 34 seqq.; Cent. Nov.
Antiche, Firenze, 1572, p. 91; Bauduin de Sebourc, I. 359.)
The following are some of the more notable murders or attempts at murder
ascribed to the Ismailite emissaries either from Syria or from Persia:
