Letters of the First Crusade: Anselme of Ribemont to Manasses II in February 10, 1098

To his reverend lord M., by God's grace archbishop of Reims, A. of Ribemont, his vassal and humble servant — greeting.

Inasmuch as you are our lord and as the kingdom of France is especially dependent upon your care, we tell to you, our father, the events which have happened to us and the condition of the army of the Lord. Yet, in the first place, although we are not ignorant that the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord, we advise and beseech you in the name of our Lord Jesus to consider what you are and what the duty of a priest and bishop is. Provide therefore for our land, so that the lords may keep peace among themselves, the vassals may in safety work on their property, and the ministers of Christ may serve the Lord, leading quiet and tranquil lives. I also pray you and the canons of the holy mother church of Reims, my fathers and lords, to be mindful of us, not only of me and of those who are now sweating in the service of God, but also of the members of the army of the Lord who have fallen in arms or died in peace.

But passing over these things, let us return to what we promised. Accordingly after the army had reached Nicomedia, which is situated at the entrance to the land of the Turks, we all, lords and vassals, cleansed by confession, fortified ourselves by partaking of the body and blood of our Lord, and proceeding thence beset Nicaea on the second day before the Nones of May. After we had for some days besieged the city with many machines and various engines of war, the craft of the Turks, as often before, deceived us greatly. For on the very day on which they had promised that they would surrender, Soliman and all the Turks, collected from neighboring and distant regions, suddenly fell upon us and attempted to capture our camp. However the count of St. Gilles, with the remaining Franks, made an attack upon them and killed an innumerable multitude. All the others fled in confusion. Our men, moreover, returning in victory and bearing many heads fixed upon pikes and spears, furnished a joyful spectacle for the people of God. This was on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of June.

Beset moreover and routed in attacks by night and day, they surrendered unwillingly on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of July. Then the Christians entering the walls with their crosses and imperial standards, reconciled the city to God, and both within the city and outside the gates cried out in Greek and Latin, " Glory to Thee, O God." Having accomplished this, the princes of the army met the emperor who had come to offer them his thanks, and having received from him gifts of inestimable value, some withdrew, with kindly feelings, others with different emotions.

We moved our camp from Nicaea on the fourth day before the Kalends of July and proceeded on our journey for three days. On the fourth day the Turks, having collected their forces from all sides, again attacked the smaller portion of our army, killed many of our men and drove all the remainder back to their camps. Bohemond, count of the Romans, 1 count Stephen, and the count of Flanders commanded this section. When these were thus terrified by fear, the standards of the larger army suddenly appeared. Hugh the Great and the duke of Lorraine were riding at the head, the count of St. Gilles and the venerable bishop of Puy followed. For they had heard of the battle and were hastening to our aid. The number of the Turks was estimated at 260,000. All of our army attacked them, killed many and routed the rest. On that day I returned from the emperor, to whom the princes had sent me on public business.

After that day our princes remained together and were not separated from one another. Therefore, in traversing the countries of Romania and Armenia we found no obstacle, except that after passing Iconium, we, who formed the advance guard, saw a few Turks. After routing these, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of November, we laid siege to Antioch, and now we captured the neighboring places, the cities of Tarsus and Laodicea and many others, by force. On a certain day, moreover, before we besieged the city, at the " Iron Bridge " we routed the Turks, who had set out to devastate the surrounding country, and we rescued many Christians. Moreover, we led back the horses and camels with very great booty.

While we were besieging the city, the Turks from the nearest redoubt daily killed those entering and leaving the army. The princes of our army seeing this, killed 400 of the Turks who were lying in wait, drove others into a certain river and led back some as captives. You may be assured that we are now besieging Antioch with all diligence, and hope soon to capture it. The city is supplied to an incredible extent with grain, wine, oil and all kinds of food.

I ask, moreover, that you and all whom this letter reaches pray for us and for our departed brethren. Those who have fallen in battle are: at Nicaea, Baldwin of Ghent, Baldwin Chalderuns who was the first to make an attack upon the Turks and who fell in battle on the Kalends of July, Robert of Paris, Lisiard of Flanders, Hilduin of Mansgarbio [Mazingarbe], Ansellus of Caium [Anseau of Caien], Manasses of Claromonte [Clermont], Laudunensis.

Those who died from sickness: at Nicaea, Guy of Vitreio, Odo of Vernolio [Verneuil (?)], Hugh of Reims; at the fortress of Sparnum, the venerable abbot Roger, my chaplain; at Antioch, Alard of Spiniaeco, Hugh of Calniaco.

Again and again I beseech you, readers of this letter, to pray for us, and you, my lord archbishop, to order this to be done by your bishops. And know for certain that we have captured for the Lord 200 cities and fortresses. May our mother, the western church, rejoice that she has begotten such men, who are acquiring for her so glorious a name and who are so wonderfully aiding the eastern church. And in order that you may believe this, know that you have sent to me a tapestry by Raymond " de Castello." Farewell.

The Assassins

    The Muslims are divided into two great sections, the Sunnites, followers of tradition, who recognise the Caliphs of Damascus and Bagdad, and now the Sultan of Turkey, as the legitimate successors of Mahomet and the Shiites who, rejecting their authority, hold for Mahomet's true successor his nephew and son-in-law, Ali and the Imams his successors. The Shiites or followers of Ali soon split up into minute sections. Of these none was more famous than that of the Ismailites, who drew their name from Ismail, a descendant of Ali in the latter half of the ninth century. About the same time a certain Persian, Abdallah, conceived the idea of turning the new doctrines to a political end. Under the assumption that all religions were true and all false he established a secret society divided into various grades. Each grade, in ascending order, was taught the comparative worthlessness of preceding knowledge till the neophytes reached the final one, which, according to some authorities, inculcated the indifference of all actions and a creed whose practical results could be hardly distinguished from blank Atheism.

    A descendant of Abdallah established himself in Africa about the year 909 a.d. He pretended to be a descendant of Ali, and his third successor Moizz li din Allah founded the dynasty of the Fatimites, who ruled Egypt from about 960 a.d. to 1199. In the latter half of the eleventh century another Persian, Hasan ben Sabeh, after a Jife of unprincipled adventure, became an Ismailite and for a time settled in Egypt, whence he was before long banished for his share in a political intrigue. Returning home he soon settled himself (logo) in the impregnable Castle of Alamut, (the Vulture's Nest), south of the Caspian Sea, where the descendants of his immediate successor ruled for a century and a half, till they were overthrown by the Mongol prince Hulagu (1256 A.D.). It is to this section of the Ismailites founded by Hasan that the name Assassin or Hashashin, hempeaters, was applied, because a drug prepared from this plant, which is the great Frenchman's fiantagruelion, was used during the initiation of members or to nerve them for any extraordinary effort.

    Hasan's influence was political rather than religious; his teaching enforced a blind obedience to the grand master's commands ; and, for nearly two hundred years, the Ismailites became the terror of East and West. His devoted sectaries, assured that death itself was but the gateway to Paradise, never hesitated to execute their leader's mandate. Neither private friendship nor public greatness interfered with his plans ; and Hasan ordered the murder of his old schoolfellow Nizam-al-Mulk, the great vizier of Malik Shah, just as lightly as his followers in a later generation murdered caliphs in their tents or hurled themselves in succession against Saladin in his camp.

    Early in the twelfth century the Assassins began to multiply in Syria. By purchase or conquest they became masters of a ring of fortresses east of Tortosa among the mountains of Lebanon. Their first prior in Syria died about 1169, and was succeeded by the famous Sinan, Saladin's enemy, who, as it seems, sent the celebrated embassy to Amalric I. of Jerusalem, offering to become a Christian if released from his tribute to the Templars. Sinan seems to have introduced fresh tenets into his creed ; he threw off the authority of his nominal lord at Alamut, and in later days is said to have declared himself an incarnation of the Deity. He died in September, 1192. Eighty years later the great Syrian fortresses fell before the Mamlook Sultan of Egypt. Massiaf was taken 1270; Kadmous and Katif had fallen by July, 1273. In Persia Hulagu had already done his best to exterminate the Assassins; but in Syria Beibars contented himself with their political subjection. Fifty years later (1326) an Eastern traveller, Ibn Batutah, found the Ismailites inhabiting their old castles in the Lebanon. He tells us the Egyptian calif of that^time did not scruple to use the Ismailites against his enemies, and, to this day, a few thousands of the sect hang round the ruins of their old fortresses.

    More than twenty-five years ago it was discovered that a group of sectaries in Bombay— the Khodjas — were Ismailites, and paid a tribute of ^50,000 a year to their religious chief Aga Khan. He was the son of Khaliloullah, who in the latter half of the eighteenth century was chief of the Ismailites of Persia ; and his pedigree goes back to Hasan 'Ala Dhikrihissalam, the grand master of the Assassins in the middle of the twelfth century. In 1875, when the Prince of Wales was meditating his tour in India, Aga Khan wrote him an English letter with his own hand begging to be honoured with a visit ; and the possible successor of Richard Coeur de Lion accepted the hospitality of the descendant of the grand master of the Assassins, then living as a private gentleman in India and passionately addicted to racing and field sports. Aga Khan's son has several times ridden as a gentleman jockey in Bombay.


References:

Hammer-Purgstall, Die Geschichte der Assassinen (Stuttgart-Tübingen, 1818), English trans., The History of the Assassins, tr. O.C. Wood, London, 1835

Lewis (B.), The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam, London, 1967.

Marshall (G.S. H.), The Order of Assassins, 82—84, 110—115, 133—137. The Hague: Mouton, 1955.

Daftary (F.), Introduction to The Assassin Legends (Online Article), at:
                  http://iis.ac.uk/introduction-assassin-legends