Hasan ibn Sabbah (circa 1034 - 1124), or "The Old Man of the Mountain", was an Iranian Ismaili missionary who converted a community in the late 11th century in the heart of the Elburz Mountains of northern Iran. The place was called Alamut and was attributed to an ancient king of Daylam . When Hassan discovered Alamut, it was in the hands of a Seljuk subject. Hassan prepared the takeover of the castle by secretly converting its staff. With the household on his side, he was smuggled into the castle and began to establish his rule at Alamut. When the castle's residents realized they were no longer in control it was too late. Hassan graciously allowed the former tennant leave of his castle in addition to a draft of 3,000 silver dinars in payment for the castle. From this point on his community and its branches spread throughout Iran and Syria and came to be called Hashshashin or Assassins, an Islamic mystery cult

Hassan was known as the Old Man of the Mountain, and was extremely strict and disciplined. He believed that the sharia had been abrogated and he and his followers were free to do as they pleased, he and his followers used to eat Hashish hence the name. (Others suggest that since hashish-eaters were generally ostractized in the middle ages the word "Hashshashin" had become a common synonym for "outlaws". So the attribution of Hassan's Ismaili sect with this term is not necessarily a clue for drug usage.)

Not much is known about Sabbah, but legends abound as to the tactics used to inculcate members into his quasi-religious political organization. A future assassin was subjected to rites very similar to those of other mystery cults in which the subject was made to believe that he was in imminent danger of death. But the twist of the assassins was that they drugged the person to simulate a "dying" to later have them awaken in a garden flowing with wine and served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that Sabbah was a minion of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even to death. The cult was responsible for the assassination of a number of Sunni scholars and rulers.

William S. Burroughs is one of a number of fiction writers who have incorporated Sabbah--himself or his ideas--in their work.

See also

• Ismaili

External links

• http://www.accampbell.uklinux.net/assassins/assassins-html/hasan.html the life of Hassan-i-Sabbah as part of a online book on the Assassins of Alamut
• http://www.geocities.com/skews_me_too/assassin.html illustrated article on the Order of Assassins
• http://www.linesofadvance.com/nova.html William S. Burrough's invocation of Hassan-i-Sabbah in Nova Express.