By 1174, Saladin was the most powerful man in the Middle East. He’d seized power in Egypt, unified it with Syria under his command, and was gearing up for the campaign that would eventually take Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. No army in the region could challenge him. But there was one enemy that didn’t use armies — a man perched in a mountain fortress called Masyaf, who didn’t fight wars with soldiers. He fought them with a single knife slipped between a ruler’s ribs in the dead of night.
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Crowns & Conquests·2/7·1′
The place
Alamut Castle
The Dagger on Saladin's Pillow
Three attempts to kill the most powerful sultan alive -- and the night a phantom proved that power is not the same as safety
1174-1176 CE (assassination attempts and Siege of Masyaf)Alamut Castle
Moral of the Story
“Even the greatest conqueror must acknowledge the limits of his power -- for the man who cannot be killed by armies can still be reached by the silent hand that passes through every guard, and wisdom lies in knowing when the enemy you cannot destroy is better made an ally.”
Characters
R
Rashid al-Din Sinan (Syrian 'Old Man of the Mountain')S
Saladin (Sultan of Egypt and Syria)K
Khumartakin (emir of Abu Qubays who recognized the assassins)H
Hassan-i Sabbah (founder, whose methods Sinan perfected)Source
Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh (The Complete History); Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad, al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya (The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin); Kamal al-Din ibn al-Adim, Zubdat al-Halab (Cream of Aleppo); Bernard Lewis, The Assassins (1967); Farhad Daftary, The Isma'ilis (Cambridge, 2007); Medievalists.net