Ismailites who in this way tried to prove that Hassan was a descendant of Nesar were called by their opponents “the Nesari,” a title which involved extreme obloquy.
Crime and immorality now reigned wherever the Order had power or influence. Men who had hitherto been Assassins through obedience to those in power and in the belief that they were fulfilling a religious duty by removing persons who were harmful to Islam, now murdered people wantonly.
Hassan II died in the fourth year of his reign by the dagger of his brother-in-law at the castle of Lamsir.
Disorders caused through the revelation by Hassan were not stopped by his murder. Crimes of every kind increased greatly during the reign of his son and successor, Mohammed II, whose first act was to avenge the murder of his father. Nanver, the late Prior’s brother-in-law and assassin, died by the axe of the executioner, and with him died all his kindred, male and female.
Mohammed II preached and taught with even more insistence than had Hassan, his father, the doctrine of license, crime, and vice, and like him claimed to be the Imam. Deeply read in philosophy he thought himself unequalled in this and other forms of knowledge. He was a man devoted to evil, and though he reigned for forty-six years there is but little information to be obtained regarding the Order during that period. [[235]]
In the eyes of the Orthodox the Assassins were a band of vile heretics, an assemblage of outcasts; but that Order was still defiant and mighty. Fakhr ul Islam of Ruyan was the first doctor of the law to pronounce it impious. This he did in Kazvin by a fetva. On his return from Kazvin to Ruyan he fell by an Assassin. A doctor of greater reputation was treated more tenderly: Fakhr ud din Rasi, a professor of theology at Rayi, never failed in his lectures to refute all their doctrines, adding as he did so: “May God curse and destroy them.” The Ismailian Prior sent an agent to Rayi. This man appeared as a student, heard lectures and bided his time. At last, finding that Fakhr ud din was alone in his cabinet, he walked in, shut the door, placed the point of a dagger at the breast of his master and waited. “What is this?” cried the latter in terror. “Why do you curse the Ismailians and their doctrines unceasingly?” asked the Assassin. “I will speak of them no more,” said the teacher, “I swear this to you most solemnly.” “Will you keep this oath?” After strong assurance the agent was satisfied, drew back his dagger, and continued: “I had no command to kill you; if I had nothing could have turned me from duty. My master salutes you and says that he cares not for common men’s words, but he regards your discourses, since they will live in the memory of people. He invites you to visit him at Alamut, for he wishes to prove his high esteem to you in person.”
Fakhr ud din would not go, but promised silence. The agent then put down a purse of three hundred miskals, and said: “You will receive every year a purse such as this. I have brought you two tunics of Yeman besides; they are now in my lodgings.” That said the man disappeared. Some time after this a disciple of the teacher asked why he did not curse the Ismailians. “How can I curse them?” replied Fakhr ud din, “their arguments are so trenchant.”
In Arslan Kushad, the Ismailians surprised in the night a castle two leagues from Kazvin on the top of a high mountain. The people of that place were in despair at having such neighbors, and implored various princes to free them but in vain, till a certain Sheikh, Ali, persuaded the Kwaresmian Sultan, Tagash, to assist him. The Sultan laid siege to the castle, took it, allowed the Ismailians to withdraw, and placed a small garrison on the mountain. [[236]]Barely had the investing troops gone when the Ismailians reëntered the stronghold at night through an underground passage known to them only and slew the whole garrison. The Sheikh Ali implored Tagash again and he came now in person. The people of Kazvin joined his forces and after a siege of two months the Ismailians yielded the castle on condition that they should be allowed to retire unmolested. They promised to leave in two divisions. If the first passed in safety the second would follow, if not it would keep up the struggle. The first party descended, rendered homage to the Sultan and vanished. The besiegers waited for the second division, waited long and discovered at last that the garrison had gone in one party. The castle was then razed at command of the Sultan. But the Ismailians took vengeance on Sheikh Ali. While returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca he was slain by one of their Assassins in a mosque at Damascus.
Syria and Egypt at this time demand attention since it was there that the enemies of Saladin were acting.
In Cairo was the Sultan’s great palace where for two hundred years the Fatimids had been collecting the wealth not only of Egypt, but of Syria and Arabia. When after the death of the Sultan, Saladin took possession of this palace, he found there jewels of a value beyond estimate. There were magnificent pearls; an emerald “a span long and as thick as a finger,” there was furniture of ebony and ivory, there were coffers inlaid with gold and ornamented with precious stones. There was wealth of every kind. There was also a splendid library containing, as some historians state, 2,600,000 volumes, others mention a much smaller number but it was, in any case, at that time the largest library in Europe.