Hassan-i-Sabah
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Hasan was extremely strict and disciplined. The abrogation of Islamic law (sharia) occurred under a later Grand Master, Hasan II, in 1174. If hashish was used by the community (and this is uncertain) it probably also occurred later.
Not much is known about Hasan, but legends abound as to the tactics used to induct 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. This legend derives from Marco Polo, who visited Alamut just after it fell to the Mongols in the thirteenth century.
Hasan i Sabbah was born Hassan Bin Ali Bin Muhammad Bin Ja'fr Bin Hussain Bin Muhammad al Sabbah al Hameeri in Re, Iran. He belonged to the tribe of al Hameer from Yemen. His ancestors were all Asna Asheri Shiites, but Hassan under the influence of Ismaili friends or probably a physician converted to Ismaili Shiism. The Paradise or "Firdous e Bareen" was the brainchild of Hassan Bin Sabbah, which was used to literally 'forge' Hashshishin, his most lethal weapon. He died on 26 Rabi utthani 518 Hijri in his abode, Alamut.
The famous novel Firdous e Bareen written by Indian Muslim novelist Abdul Halim Sherer gives the biographical account of Hassan, a youth lured and captured by Hassan's men and then forced into his assassination machinery.
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. Hassan i Sabbah is also the name of a now defunct screamo band.
See also
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.bg:Хасан ибн Сабах
nl:Hasan al-Sabah fr:Hassan ibn al-Sabbah sl:as-Sabah es:Hassan-i Sabbah