"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." With that fundamental truth established, I do agree BTW, we are launched into this truly amazing and interesting historical fiction/philosophical romp into the mind of Hassan-i Sabbah, the Sayyiduna ("Our Master"), who infamously founded the colloquially called Order of Assassins. A wee bit of actual history first-
If you find yourself in the South Caspian province of Qazvin in Iran, roughly 130 miles SW of Tehran, you can travel to the region of Alamut and still see the remains of the castle that is the novel's title. Though little of the once opulent and graceful architecture remains, you can see what was once a mighty fortress (you can thank the Mongols). In 865 AD a Justiniad ruler (this region was called Daylum) named Wahsūdān ibn Marzubān built a strategic fortress that used the natural lay off the land to present a very difficult means of approaching across any large front. Wahsūdān allegedly saw an eagle nest at the very top of the outcrop and developed the idea for the fortress and called it Aluh Amu(kh)t or "The Eagle's Teaching". Yet, this Justiniad ruler also had a deep cultural appreciation for gardens and incorporated gardens into the design of this fortress. That, in itself, makes this a unique concept. One Hassan would take to the next level.
Hassan intrinsically saw that the multi-tiered levels, with him perched on top almost in a literal "Eagle's Nest" or the "Old Man of the Mountain", allowed him to create lush gardens at the bottom completely separate from where the young Fedai would train. So what is going on? Hassan lived in a time of great religious upheaval in Iran. The ruling Sultan was a Seljuk Turk (The Seljuk Empire was founded by Tughril Beg and his brother Chagri Beg in 1037) and Hassan's particular sub-sect of Islam- Isma'ilism (they believed that Ismaʻil ibn Jafar was the True Imam) was in jeopardy due to antipathy from the Imperial Seljuk Court.
Hassan can not compete in direct military terms with these rich and powerful caliphs and sultans so he has to use his wits. The Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk had called for his arrest. But Hassan decided to take the impregnable fortress of Alamut. Instead of employing military means that he did not possess, he instead played on the valley's native population's sympathy with Isma'ilism to convert them to his cause. Thus when the Castle recruited it selected from a pool of candidates who had ultimate loyalty to Hassan. This went for servants to guards. Eventually, the castle's Zaydi ‘Alid lord, Mahdi (a vassal of the Seljuk's) noticed new faces among the castle's staff. But his revelation came too late as it was the summer of 1090 AD and strolling through his front gate was none other than Hassan himself. Upon trying to have him arrested and failing miserably since the guards turned on Madhi, Hassan let him go free unharmed, pending payment of 3000 gold dinars (paid by a Seljuq officer in service to the Isma'ili cause named Ra’is Muzaffar who honored the payment in full). Thus, Hassan's fame as a wise and leader spread and people began to call him a Prophet since he had managed to secure a fortress and profited from it. Without shedding a single drop of blood, Hassan had humbled the mighty Seljuk Empire. This is where our story begins. Also one last thing- the cool ass cover? If you read the Arabic (read right to left) on the girl's hand (I assume she represents either Halima or Miriam) it says :
I feel sorry for the Garden
No one is thinking about the flowers
No one is thinking about the fish
No one wants to believe
that the garden is dying
that the garden's heart has swollen under the sun
that the garden
is slowly forgetting its green moments....
Lovely poem. Alamut is not only a great historical fiction account of how Hassan trains and uses his feared Fedai. In history, these were called the Hashashin tales of which were brought to Europe by Marco Polo and started the term "assassins". While this is a historical tale it is also a fiction novel with three different main characters representing different viewpoints- Halima, Ibn Tahir and Hassan. For Halima it is a very hard journey into a tragic and doomed love as the personification of heavenly delights, for Ibn Tahir it is the journey into becoming first a Fedai and then his path towards truly understanding his calling, and finally Hassan's steadfast belief in the core of his beliefs and the hidden cost he pays to enact this supreme act of will. For only by created guiden missiles that can strike at any leader in any court can the survival of the Order be guaranteed. History proved him correct for over two centuries until the Mongols took the entire Order out in the late 1290's. But that is not the purview of this tale. It is to explain the how and the why and to show the perspectives of those three main characters, as well as the many fully developed side characters.
Finally, there is the philosophy of this novel. It reminded me of novel's like Heman Hesse's Siddhartha-though a completely different philosophy altogether *lol*. The ideas are quite interesting and I found myself in agreement with a great deal of Hassan's darkly realistic assessment of religion and belief. His argument about the one true god being death caused a chuckle since I have uttered those exact same words for over a decade on different battlefields seeing a recurring reality trumping all faiths, all beliefs, and all manner of denials. Even atheists succumbed to this truly omnipotent god of all things.
Hassan: "............................Yes, I did speak of some all-seeing god. Neither Jehovah, nor the Christian God, nor Allah could have created the world we live in. A world in which nothing is superfluous, in which the sun shines just as gently on the tiger and the lamb, the elephant and the fly, the scorpion and the butterfly, the serpent and the dove, the rabbit and the lion, the blossom and the oak, the beggar and the king. Where both the just and the unjust, the strong and the weak, the smart and the stupid fall victim to disease. Where happiness and pain are blindly strewn to the four winds. And where the same ending awaits all living things-death. Don't you see? That's the god whose prophet I am."
Amen. A brilliant novel on many levels. The best part? It was written by a Slovenian guy living in Italy in the early 1900's. Vladmir Bartol became fascinated by the Order of Assassins after learning about them from a Slovene literary critic named Josip Vidmar. Thus it is often difficult to understand that this amazing look into the complex world of the Order of Assassins and its brilliant found Hassan was a story written by a Solvene, but this excellent novel is well worth your time. Read for the story, the history or the philosophy. It works on many levels. Highly recommended.