Home of the Assassins and the "Old Man of the Mountain"

I have always been fascinated by Castles. I never knew there were so many Castles in the Middle East. There are Castles in Syria, Iran, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel. In Iran alone there over 80 Castles, most were built by the Pershians. Most of the Castles in the Middle East were built during the Byzantine Empire, from the years 950 to 1200 AD. While many others were built by Muslims, and Crusaders.

While browsing the internet this week I found another group. The Hashshashin , was a religious sect of Ismaili Muslims from the Nizari sub-sect. They had a militant basis which was employed in various political or religious purposes. They were thought to be active from 1090 to 1272. This mystic secret society was known to specialize in terrorising the crusaders with fearlessly executed, politically motivated assassinations.

The name "assassin" is commonly believed to be a mutation of the Arabic "haššāšīn" (حشّاشين). However, there are those who dispute this etymology, arguing that it originates from Marco Polo's account of his visit to Alamut in 1273, in which he describes a drug whose effects are more like those of alcohol than of hashish. It is suggested by some writers that assassin simply means 'followers of Al-Hassan' (or Hassan-i-Sabah, the Sheikh of Alamut). Others suggest that since hashish-eaters were generally ostracized 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. Some common accounts of their connection with hashish are that these "assassins" would take hashish before missions in order to calm themselves; others say that it helped to boost their strength, and turned them into madmen in battle.

Bernard Lewis notes in his book, "The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam", by the thirteenth century, the word Assassin, in various forms, had already passed into European usage in the general sense of hired professional murderer. The Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, tells how the lord of Lucca sent "his assassins" to Pisa to kill a troublesome enemy there.Even earlier, Dante, in a passing reference in the 19th canto of the Inferno, speaks of "the treacherous assassin"; and his fourteenth-century commentator Fancesco da Buti, explaining a term which for some readers at the time may still have been strange and obscure, remarked: "An assassin is one who kills others for money." Since then "assassin" has become a common noun in most European languages. It means a murderer or, more particularly, one who kills by stealth or treachery, whose victim is a public figure and whose motive is fanaticism or greed."Assassin" is now a common noun in most European languages, but it first came to the West from Arabic around the time of the Crusades, when it was the name of a secretive Muslim sect feared by the Crusaders and the Muslim establishment alike. Bernard Lewis traces the origins of the Assassin sect to the Shiite branch of Islam whereby the Assassins were to the first group to make planned, systematic and long term use of murder as a political weapon. They were history's first terrorists.

MASYAF CASTLE , SYRIA, Home of the Assassins and the "Old Man of the Mountain", made news this week. Secrets of Assassins' fort unearthed in Syria. Restoration of this Castle has begun in the last year, and authorities hope it will become a popular tourist attraction. Saladin, the great Muslim leader, laid siege to Masyaf castle in the 12th century. But he thought twice before launching an assault on the Assassins, who had a reputation for mounting daring operations to slay their foes. "Anyone who tried to take the Assassins' castle would be dead the next day," said Haytham Ali Hasan, an archaeologist involved in the restoration project.

You can browse many of the Castles of the Middle East here.

Song of the Week

The Rob Thomas album "Something to Be" was an amazing album, released in 2005. It was his first solo album, and immediately went to number one. It was also the first album by a solo artist, from a rock group, to hit the U.S. Billboard #1 in 50 years. It features the top ten hit "Lonely No More". It also features John Mayer's guitar on the single "Street Corner Symphony." One of my favorite songs on the album, ironically, is the cover song " Something to Be". The song was never played on the radio.........why?.........because the "S" word is used in the fourth verse.

Rob Thomas
Something To Be

Hey man

I don't wanna hear about love no more

I don't wanna talk about how I feel

I don't really wanna be me no more

Dress down now I look a little too

Boy next door

Maybe I should try to find a downtown whore

That'll make me look hardcore

I need you to tell me what to stand for

I've been looking for something

Something I've never seen

We're all looking for something

Something to be

Hey man

Play another one of those heartbreak songs

Tell another story how things go wrong

And they never get back

My pain is a platinum stack

Take that shit back

You don't wanna be me when it all goes wrong

You don't wanna see me with the houselights on

I'm a little too headstrong

Stand tall

I don't wanna get walked on

I can't stand what I'm starting to be

I can't stand the people that I'm starting to need

There's so much now

That can go wrong

And I don't need somebody

Trying to help it alongIt's the same old song

Everybody says you've been away too long

Everybody wanna take you what went wrong

Wanna make you like an icon

Will you believe that they're right

Have a Good Week

Daniel