Templars and Assassins

Templars and Assassins, story by story.

1. INorthern Iran, 1090 to 1092
   

   Chapter I · Northern Iran, 1090 to 1092

   Alamut

   You play Hasan-i Sabbah

   You have no army, no money and no castle. How does one man fight an empire?

   Northern Iran, 1090. The Turkish sultan Malik-Shah rules a vast empire, and at one sign from him, thousands of horsemen ride.

   Your first call · Your army: none

   Slip inside with your converts' helpStorm the castle with your followers

   Sources

   • Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Manchester, 1958), vol. 2, 'Of Hasan-i-Sabbah', pp. 666 to 683, quoting the Ismaili Sar-Guzasht-i Sayyidna found in the Alamut library: his father settles in Ray, where Hasan was born; Twelver Shi'ism, disputes with Amira Zarrab, the dreadful illness and 'I shall have perished without attaining the truth'; the oath; arrives in Egypt 471/1078-9; Amir al-Juyush ill-disposed, sent by ship toward the Maghrib, driven to Syria by rough seas; preaching in Isfahan, Kerman and Yezd; Nizam al-Mulk charges Bu-Muslim Razi to lay hands on him; da'is sent to Alamut, held by the Alid Mahdi as a fief from Malik-Shah; 'Alamut is aluh-amut, i.e. the eagle's nest, and an eagle had its nest there'; converts sent down, gates shut, re-admitted, refuse to go down; Hasan at Andij-Rud; converts won by his asceticism; brought up by stealth on 6 Rajab 483 (4 September 1090), in disguise as Dihkhuda; Mahdi powerless, given leave to go with a draft for 3,000 dinars on the ra'is Muzaffar, who kissed the writing and paid; Yurun-Tash, holder of the district as fief, massacring converts at the foot of Alamut; no stores, followers decide to leave the castle to a few men; Hasan's claimed message from the Imam Mustansir, 'the Town of Good Fortune'; Arslan-Tash before Alamut in Jumada I 485 (June-July 1092), Hasan with 60 or 70 men; Dihdar Bu-'Ali of Qazvin sends some 300 men, night attack at the end of Sha'ban with the garrison and people of Rudbar, the army put to flight; Malik-Shah's armies 'at one sign from him'; the Isfahan house of the ra'is Abul-Fazl, 'Had I but two men of one mind with me I should turn this realm upside down', perfumed food for melancholia, Hasan leaves; Bu-Tahir Arrani, disguised as a Sufi, stabs Nizam al-Mulk in his litter on 12 Ramadan 485 (16 October 1092) after the fast is broken, 'the first person to be killed by the fida'is'; Malik-Shah dies 40 days later; Abul-Fazl comes to Alamut and begs forgiveness; 35 years without descending, never leaving his house but twice; his son Ustad Husain executed for a murder, his son Muhammad for drinking wine; local rulers near and far in danger; death in Rabi' II 518 (May 1124)
   • Bernard Lewis, The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1967), ch. 2 to 3: Alamut on a narrow ridge on a high rock in the heart of the Elburz, reached only by a narrow, steep and winding path; the Ismailis' own term fida'i, 'roughly devotee'; ch. 2, Hasan's own account of Amira Zarrab, 'There were controversies and debates between us'
2. IIJerusalem and France, 1119 to 1130s
   

   Chapter II · Jerusalem and France, 1119 to 1130s

   The Poor Knights

   You play Hugues de Payens

   Nine knights with monks' vows. Will the Church agree that a monk may kill?

   Jerusalem, Easter 1119. About 700 unarmed pilgrims walk down toward the Jordan River, and raiders from Tyre and Ascalon kill 300 of them.

   Your first call · Knights in the order: nine

   Sail west and ask for a ruleStay and guard the roads as before

   Sources

   • Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana XII.33 (RHC Historiens occidentaux IV, pp. 712 to 713): on Holy Saturday in the second year of Baldwin II (1119), about 700 pilgrims going down from Jerusalem to the Jordan attacked by Saracens from Tyre and Ascalon; 300 killed, 60 taken captive
   • William of Tyre, Historia XII.7, trans. J. Brundage (Medieval Sourcebook): knights bind themselves to Christ's service in the hands of the Patriarch, vows of chastity and obedience, without possessions; Hugh of Payens and Geoffrey of St Omer; the king gives them a dwelling in the palace near the Lord's Temple, hence 'Brothers of the Militia of the Temple'; duty to protect roads against robbers, especially for pilgrims; nine years in secular clothes given them by the people; council at Troyes, rule and white habit; still only nine knights after nine years; red cloth crosses from Pope Eugene's time; c. 1170-74 about 300 knights in white mantles and countless brothers, wealth 'equal to the treasures of kings'
   • William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey (Columbia, 1943), XIII.26, vol. 2, p. 40: 'Hugh de Payens, the first master of the Knights of the Temple, and several other men of religion returned. They had been sent by the king and the chief men of the kingdom to the princes of the West ... Above all, they were to try to induce men of influence to come to help us besiege Damascus'; the foraging party under William of Bury cut to pieces
   • The Primitive Rule of the Templars, trans. J. M. Upton-Ward, The Rule of the Templars (1992), excerpted in the Medieval Sourcebook: prologue (secular knighthood 'strove to plunder, despoil and kill'; council at Troyes on the feast of St Hilary 1128 (13 January 1129 new style), at the request of Master Hugues de Payens, who related the beginnings of the order; scribe by order of Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux; Hugues present with five named brothers); clauses 17 (white cloaks for knight brothers only), 21 to 22 (short hair, no pointed shoes), 55 to 56 (no hunting except the lion), 57 to 58 (they may have lands and men, and receive tithes)
   • Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood, trans. C. Greenia (Cistercian Publications, 1977), excerpt on ORB: prologue 'TO HUGH, KNIGHT OF CHRIST AND MASTER OF CHRIST'S MILITIA ... my dear Hugh, you have asked me not once or twice, but three times'; ch. 1 'if you succeed ... and kill a man, you live a murderer'; ch. 2 worldly knights' silk-covered horses and effeminate locks; ch. 3 'If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil'; ch. 4 Templars wear short hair, forswear hunting and falconry
   • Hugh the Sinner, Letter to the Knights of Christ in the Temple at Jerusalem, trans. H. J. Nicholson (ORB), dated probably 1119 to 1135, author unknown: urges the brothers to remain in their calling against the temptation to leave for a contemplative order, and not to think God has forgotten them because Christians in the West seem to have
   • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough), s.a. 1128 (Ingram/Everyman trans.): Hugh of the Temple came from Jerusalem to the king in Normandy, received with much honour and rich presents of gold and silver; sent into England and Scotland; 'more people than ever did before, since that the first expedition was in the day of Pope Urban'; 'he said, that a mighty war was begun between the Christians and the heathens; but when they came thither, then was it nought but leasing [lies]'
   • Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, trans. H. A. R. Gibb (1932), A.H. 523 (1129), pp. 195 to 200: the Franks covet Damascus, gather their forces with reinforcements by sea under the new Count; camp at the Wooden Bridge; foragers sent to the Hawran destroyed at Buraq; the Franks burn their baggage and retreat by night
   • Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (2nd ed., 2006), ch. 1: the Templars founded in 1119 by 'two French knights, Hugh of Payns and Godfrey of Saint-Omer'
3. IIISyria, 1174 to 1176
   

   Chapter III · Syria, 1174 to 1176

   The Dagger by the Bed

   You play Saladin

   The Assassins are already inside your camp. How do you beat an enemy you never see coming?

   Syria, 1176. Saladin, the ruler of Egypt, is taking Syria city by city, and no army has managed to stop him.

   Your first call · Attempts on your life: two

   Send away every soldier you don't knowTrust your guards and carry on

   Sources

   • Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, years 571 to 572 (Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux I, pp. 622 to 627, French trans.): Gumushtigin administering the states of al-Malik al-Salih; the siege of Azaz from 3 Dhu'l-Qa'da 571 (May 1176); in the tent of the emir Jawali a Batini strikes Saladin's head with a knife, saved by a mail cap under his qalansuwa; blows on the neck stopped by the mail; the emir Bazkush seizes the dagger and holds it until the attacker is killed; a second and a third Ismaili killed; Saladin rides to his tent 'as a frightened man', inspects his soldiers, sends away those he suspects; Azaz besieged 38 days, taken 11 Dhu'l-Hijja (22 June 1176); peace with Aleppo 20 Muharram 572 (29 July 1176); the little sister of al-Malik al-Salih, coached, asks for Azaz and Saladin gives it; Saladin enters the Ismaili lands in Muharram 572 (July-August 1176) to punish them, ravages and burns, besieges Masyaf with mangonels; Sinan asks Shihab al-Din al-Harimi, lord of Hama and Saladin's maternal uncle, to intercede, threatening to kill him and all Saladin's kin and emirs; Saladin makes peace; his soldiers, laden with spoils, ask leave to go home; Frankish raids in the Bekaa that year
   • Abu'l-Fida, Annals, years 569 to 572 (Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux I, pp. 42 to 47, French trans.): Nur al-Din dies 11 Shawwal 569 (15 May 1174) at Damascus, his son recognised; Saladin takes Damascus with 700 horsemen at the end of Rabi' I 570 (October 1174), then Homs and Hama, and besieges Aleppo; Gumushtigin sends a large sum to Sinan, grand master of the Ismailis, to have Saladin assassinated, the killers slain before reaching him; the attack at Azaz; the siege of Masyaf and Shihab al-Din of Hama's mediation
   • Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad, What Befell Sultan Yusuf (Conder trans., PPTS 1897), p. 74: the siege of Azaz from 4 Dhu'l-Qa'da 571 (15 May 1176), the Isma'iliya's attempt to assassinate him, 'This occurrence did not daunt his determination'
   • Bernard Lewis, The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1967), ch. 1 (the word: Arabic hashishi, a local Syrian term of abuse rather than a description of drug use; the Crusaders' 'Assassin'; 'Old Man of the Mountain' a Syrian, probably Crusader, title) and ch. 5 (Sinan from near Basra, schooled at Alamut and sent to Syria; 'kings took care not to attack his possessions for fear of the murderous attacks of his henchmen'; first attempt on Saladin in December 1174 or January 1175, the killers recognised by the emir of Abu Qubais, a neighbour, who was killed; Saladin afterwards slept in a specially built wooden tower and let no one he did not know approach; Imad al-Din attributes the withdrawal from Masyaf to the uncle's mediation; the Ismaili version heavily overlaid with legend; no overt Assassin acts against Saladin after Masyaf; Conrad of Montferrat murdered at Tyre on 28 April 1192; Assassin lands included in the 1192 truce at Saladin's request)
   • Stanislas Guyard, 'Un grand maître des Assassins au temps de Saladin', Journal Asiatique, 7th series, vol. 9 (1877), pp. 403 to 406, translating the Ismaili biography of Sinan (Fasl, by Abu Firas): Saladin has lime and ashes spread around his tent and sentries posted; Sinan enters the sleeping Saladin's tent, swaps the lamps, leaves hot Ismaili cakes with a poisoned dagger stuck in them and a paper of threatening verses; the guards find footprints in the lime leading only outward; Saladin asks the prince of Hama to obtain a safe-conduct and withdraws
4. IVKingdom of Jerusalem, 1186 to 1187
   

   Chapter IV · Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1186 to 1187

   Hattin

   You play Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem

   Your kingdom is split, and the Templar Master wants war. Whose advice do you take?

   Jerusalem, 1186. The crusaders have held the Holy City for almost ninety years, and next door, Saladin now rules both Egypt and Syria.

   Your first call · Saladin's army: waiting near Tiberias

   Disband the army and talk to RaymondMarch on Tiberias

   Sources

   • Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, ed. L. de Mas Latrie (Paris, 1871), chs. 11 to 15, pp. 129 to 174 (Old French): ch. 10 (1183): if the boy king died, the regency stays with Raymond until 'l'apostoile de Roume ... l'empereour d'Alemaigne et le roi de France et le roi d'Engletiere' judge the kingdom between the two sisters; the boy king's death; the barons at Nablus bound by their oath; the patriarch and the Master of the Temple crown the countess of Jaffa (Sibylla) despite the barons, the Master 'pour le haine qu'il avoit au conte de Triple'; the gates shut; a sergeant disguised as a monk spies; Sibylla crowns her husband: 'Sire, venés avant, et si recevés ceste couronne; car je ne sai où je le puisse miex emploiier que à vous'; Baldwin of Ramla: Guy will not be king a year, calls him 'fol et musart', leaves for Antioch; Raymond: 'si ai trives as Sarrasins ... ainz nous aideront, se mestier en avons'; Raymond refuses homage and goes to Tiberias; the Master of the Temple advises besieging Tiberias, 'il en aroit grant avoir'; the host summoned to Nazareth, five leagues from Tiberias; Saladin sends Raymond knights, sergeants and crossbowmen, promising help by evening if attacked in the morning, and musters at Banyas; Balian: 'it is not the time to hold an army against winter', the plan 'mauvais et faus', 'il n'en escapera ja pies'; 'départés vostre ost, et jou et une partie des barons ... irons al conte de Triple parler'; the king disbands and sends messengers; Raymond refuses peace until restored to a castle taken from him; after Easter the barons: 'se vous perdés l'aiue et le consel del conte de Triple, vous avés tout perdu'; Saladin's son's one-day ride, sunrise to sunset, no damage to towns; the Master of the Temple attacks at the Fountain of Cresson (1 May 1187), about 140 knights against 7,000; only the Master and two knights escape; reconciliation near the castle of Saint Job, the king dismounts, the count kneels, the king raises and embraces him; muster at the springs of Saffuriya on Raymond's advice; the treasure Henry II of England had deposited with the Temple after Becket's martyrdom given to the king, troops under English banners; Saladin besieges Tiberias, the countess within; the council: Raymond, 'Tabarie est moie, et si i est me feme', no water but the little spring of Cresson, harassment all day; the barons and the king agree; near midnight after supper the Master: 'Sire, créés vous chel traïtour qui tel consel vous a donné? C'est pour vous honnir'; a new king who loses a city six leagues away; the Templars 'meteroient les blans mantiaus jus, et venderoient et enwageroient' before leaving the shame unavenged; the king 'l'amoit et cremoit pour çou qu'il l'avoit fait roi'; the army arms and follows the banner of the Holy Cross; the camp halfway without water; the Saracens fire the brush; Raymond's charge and escape; the Holy Cross lost; Saladin's drink, the cup passed to Renaud, Renaud beheaded by Saladin's own hand
   • Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, year 583 (Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux I, pp. 680 to 688, French trans.): Raymond's speech, Tiberias belongs to him and his wife, 'I have never seen an army like the one with Saladin'; the Franks without water, the night of thirst; 4 July; the fire in the dry grass blown at the Franks; the count's charge, Taqi al-Din opens his ranks and lets him through; the survivors on a hill near Hittin where only the king's tent could be pitched; the cross of the crucifixion taken; al-Afdal's account of the tent falling; the king, his brother, Prince Arnat of Kerak and the chief of the Templars captured; iced water to the king, passed to Arnat, 'this accursed one has not drunk with my consent'; Saladin kills Arnat with his own hand
   • Abu'l-Fida, Annals, year 583 (Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux I, French trans.): Tiberias taken by assault, the citadel holds; the count charges and Taqi al-Din opens his ranks; the king, Arnat (Reynald) and the grand master of the Templars among the captives; iced water passed to Arnat; Saladin 'se leva et lui coupa la tête'
   • Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad, What Befell Sultan Yusuf (Conder trans., PPTS 1897), pp. 110 to 115: Tiberias taken by assault, the castle alone holding out; the battle; a band climbs Hattin hill and is ringed with fires; the chief of the Templars among the captives; 'the Hospitallers and Templars the Sultan resolved to execute'; Prince Arnat's attack on a caravan during the truce and Saladin's oath; the 1187 surrender of Jerusalem on ransom terms
   • William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey (1943), XXII.1: Sibylla married to 'a young man of fairly good rank, Guy de Lusignan, son of Hugh the Brown, of the diocese of Poitiers'
5. VNorthern Iran, 1253 to 1256
   

   Chapter V · Northern Iran, 1253 to 1256

   Alamut Falls

   You play Rukn al-Din Khurshah

   The Mongols want you to come down. Can you talk your way out?

   Northern Iran, 1256. For 166 years, the heirs of Hasan-i Sabbah have ruled from Alamut, a mountain castle that sultans besieged in vain, and from many castles like it.

   Your first call · Hulagu's demand: come in person

   Pull down some walls. Ask for a yearRefuse, and fight from your castles

   Sources

   • Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Manchester, 1958), vol. 2, pp. 617 to 642 (Hulagu's advance: Rukn al-Din evacuates five weak castles and wrenches out the gates and demolishes the battlements of the others; Shahanshah sent; the envoys' demand that he present himself and destroy the castles; a year's grace asked; Shah-Diz stormed; the boy of seven or eight sent as his son, recognised as spurious, sent back; Rukn al-Din's officials and soldiers detained at Jamalabad near Qazvin secretly put to death; 8 November 1256 the parasol pitched on a hilltop facing Maymun-Diz; the council on whether to besiege or wait for spring, Buqa-Temur, Saif al-Din and Ked-Buqa for a siege; Maymun-Diz built by Ala al-Din, so cold that no beast could live there from autumn to the middle of spring; mangonels cut from the defenders' own trees; a kaman-i gav built by Khitayan craftsmen with a range of 2,500 paces, many defenders burnt; fanatical fida'is threaten to kill Rukn al-Din if he goes down; no snow; he descends on the last of Shawwal 654, 19 November 1256; Alamut's commander surrenders in December; Juvaini, at Lammasar, asks Hulagu to spare the library, extracts Korans, choice books and astronomical instruments and burns the heretical books; the Sar-Guzasht found in the library, p. 666) and pp. 707 to 725 (Ala al-Din's drinking and his flock of sheep; 'My life is not safe with my father'; Rukn al-Din's plan to secede and submit to the Mongols 'that land and people may survive', the leading men swear to him; Ala al-Din found at midnight in a hut of wood and reeds by his sheepfold, the head severed with an axe, last of Shawwal 653 (1 December 1255); Hasan of Mazandaran, his favourite, killed and his children burnt; Rukn al-Din in a fever that night, made no inquiry; his mother and brothers accuse him; messengers to Yasa'ur Noyan, 'come out in person'; Shahanshah sent; Yasa'ur enters the Rudbar on 5 June 1256, the defenders on Siyalan-Kuh above Alamut repel him, he withdraws laying the crops waste; Hulagu's yarligh: the father's crimes forgiven, Rukn al-Din has committed no crime, 'He should destroy his castles and come to do homage'; the Mongol girl; the request to go to Mongke; Mongke refuses his presents and sends him back; killed by his escort near the Khangai; his family and kin killed at Qazvin; 12,000 put to death in Quhistan)
   • Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Jami'u't-tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston (Harvard, 1998 to 1999), part 2, Hulagu Khan, pp. 478 to 486: Mongke's instructions to Hulagu, 'Rip up Gird Koh and Lambasar fortress and turn them upside down. / Neither let any bastion remain in the world nor leave a pile of dust standing'; Ket Buqa sent ahead, at Gird Koh in May 1253 with a ditch and wall; pestilence in Gird Koh, 110 men break through with henna and salt; Ala'uddin killed by his chamberlain Hasan Mazandarani with Khwarshah's connivance; Khwaja Nasiruddin Tusi, 'the most learned and most intelligent man in the world', and the physicians, 'trapped involuntarily', urging surrender; Hulagu's council at Maymun Diz; Khwarshah descends on 1 Dhu'l-Qa'da 654 with Tusi; Alamut surrenders; Gird Koh holds out 'nearly twenty years' until Abaqa's reign; 'There are many versions of how he died, but the truth is ... envoys to do away with him along the way'
6. VIFrance, 1306 to 1314
   

   Chapter VI · France, 1306 to 1314

   Friday the 13th

   You play Jacques de Molay

   A broke king wants your order's money. What do you say when they ask you to confess?

   France, 1307. The Templars have lost the Holy Land they were founded to defend, but they still have castles, farms, money and a hand in the king's own accounts.

   Your first call · The rumours: in every court

   Ask the Pope for a full inquiryQuietly move the treasure to Cyprus

   Sources

   • Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (2nd ed., Cambridge, 2006), chs. 1 to 3 and 9: Acre lost in May 1291; James of Molay, received at Beaune in 1265, Master by 1292; Ruad lost in 1302, the Templars enslaved, nearly 40 still in prison in Cairo years later, dying of starvation after refusing riches to apostasise (Matthew Zaccaria); Clement V crowned November 1305, plans a crusade, summons the Masters of the Temple and the Hospital to Poitiers on 6 June 1306; Molay leaves Cyprus in mid-October and finds the meeting postponed by the pope's illness; Molay disapproves of the union of the orders; Philip IV's debasement of the coinage 1295 to 1306, the return to good money in 1306, rents tripled, the riot, the king takes refuge in the Templar fortress in Paris; the Jews arrested and expelled about 22 July 1306; the royal treasure kept at the Temple; Esquin of Floyran's claims; the king raises the matter with the pope at Lyon and Poitiers; Clement's letter of 24 August 1307: 'we could scarcely bring our mind to believe', Molay and many preceptors 'had several times strongly petitioned him to institute an inquiry'; Molay holds a cord of the pall at the funeral of Catherine, wife of Charles of Valois, the day before the arrests; the arrests at dawn on Friday 13 October 1307; William of Paris, inquisitor and royal confessor, questions the first witnesses 19 to 26 October; torture and deaths in custody; Molay's confession of 24 October (denied Christ, 'he spat on the floor'), repeated on 25 October before the university masters, the open letters urging confession; revocation before the cardinals in December 1307; renewed confession at Chinon in August 1308; reliance on papal judgement; suppression in 1312; 18 March 1314: Molay, Pairaud, Gonneville and Charney 'adjudged to be thrust into harsh and perpetual imprisonment', Molay and Charney retract and are burned that evening 'on a certain small island in the Seine' to the admiration of onlookers (continuator of William of Nangis); Geoffrey of Paris, apparently an eyewitness, has Molay say God would avenge their deaths; Clement dies 20 April and Philip 29 November 1314; the legend of the summons
   • Geoffroi de Paris, Chronique métrique, lines 5711 to 5742 (Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, vol. 22, p. 145, Old French): 'Le mestre ... (einsi com le vi, devise)', 'N'onques de riens n'ala tremblant', 'Lessiez-moi joindre i po mes mains', 'Diex en vengera nostre mort', 'devers la Vierge Marie ... Mon visage vous me tornez', 'Et si doucement la mort prist / Que chascun merveillex en fist'