The Assassins

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Название:The Assassins

Автор: Edward Burman

Издательство: Inner Traditions International

ISBN: 1852740272

Дата издания:1988-06

Страниц: 216

Язык:Английский

Формат:PDF

Размер:45.88 MB

Islam has fostered many revolutionary movements, but none so fascinating to the West, perhaps, as the Assassins — the sect whose members dedicated themselves with unquestioning obedience to acts of political murder.

Until the twentieth century knowledge of the Assassins was based largely on hostile sources — Crusaders who viewed their suicidal courage with awe and Moslems who regarded them as dangerous heretics. Modern scholarship, however, has slowly peeled away the layers of secrecy and distortion and it is now possible to see the Isma’ilis — the sect of which the Assassins were a branch — in a more objective light.

Edward Burman draws on this research, and his own detailed knowledge of the Middle East, to present an engrossing history of the Assassins, from their rise in the twelfth century under the dynamic leadership of Hasan-i Sabbah and Rashid al-Din Sinan (the «Old Man of the Mountains») to their defeat, decline and eventual re-emergence in India in the nineteenth century. He also documents the impact of the Assassins on the Western imagination and finally lays to rest many of the myths and legends that have grown up around them.