Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood

by Steve Tibble

The story of the medieval world’s most extraordinary organisations, the Assassins and the Templars

The Assassins and the Templars are two of history’s most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Violently opposed, they had vastly different reputations, followings, and ambitions. Yet they developed strikingly similar strategies―and their intertwined stories have, oddly enough, uncanny parallels.

In this engaging account, Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction. He shows how, outnumbered and surrounded, they survived only by perfecting “the promise of death,” either in the form of a Templar charge or an Assassin’s dagger. Death, for themselves or their enemies, was at the core of these extraordinary organisations.

Their fanaticism changed the medieval world―and, even up to the present day, in video games and countless conspiracy theories, they have become endlessly conjoined in myth and memory.

Genres: History, Middle East, Nonfiction, Medieval, Religion

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 2025

About the author

Steve Tibble is honorary research associate at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the author of Monarchy and Lordships in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099–1291. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Sandra Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a general overview and timeline for both organizations and history behind their formation and downfall, Tibble does a masterful job of creating an easy-to-read narrative that is very conversational. It reads more like a casual interview and conversation with a scholar than boring, old and dry academia which I truly appreciated.

Again, the details are light (citations are heavy) since it is hard to condense over a hundred of years of details for both organizations into a nearly 300 page book that would be good for publishing. Since this was my first time reading Tibble's works, I am now interested in reading his other works.

I did like the tidbit detail (and chapter) that references the famous video game series which (not-so-incidentally) made me pick up this book. If it had not referenced it I'd probably be more disappointed and think it was published with an author who was oblivious to how popular the Assassins and Templars were in this day and age just due to the mass amount of media out there.

[G Liguori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Well researched and written with a different angle. Would have got five stars but a bit repetitive in places. What this book does well, is to provide, because of the leaning on perspectives not usually used (in this case, that of the Assassins) a history that isn't the usual story of the crusades and Templars.

[catweaseloz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. The disjointed nature of the narrative was at times a little confusing with dropping in events out of sequence making me go back and forth in the pages. But overall pretty good as a general background. The maps were ok but no map of the templar castles?

[Jerry]

review text for 330

[Paul Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written and vrry informative