Reading 1001 discussion

Alamut - Vladimir Bartol, read in 2016. Here is my review; This story is of Alamut and Hasan ibn al-Sabbah is set in 1092 in Iran and is the story of Hasan and his rise to power and control through young men trained to be killers willing to risk their lives for paradise.

Supposedly this is an allegory of Fascism. It was written in 1938 as forces were grabbing lands of the Slovenian people. Regardless, in the words of Michael Biggins “Alamut was and is simply a great read--imaginative, erudite, dynamic and humorous, a well-told tale set in an exotic time and place, yet populated by characters with universally recognizable ambitions, dreams and imperfections.” I couldn’t say it any better. I loved this story.

“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” The supreme Ismaili Motto, could very well be the motto that reflects our current times. This Hasan used anything and everything to gain his desire. He told them whatever they wanted to hear, “Because long experience has shown that men hold tightly to whatever they’ve invested their money in.” Hasan had believed there was no truth. He felt free to create a truth that served his purpose and he felt no remorse for using others for his gain. When we believe no truth then everything we want is permissible.

Great story about an actual historical figure from medieval Persia and how he persuaded men to join his group of fedayeen (martyred assassins). He created something of a paradise to give them a taste of what the real paradise would be like for them after they sacrificed their lives for his cause. It is a bit chilling to see how a charismatic leader can brainwash his or her followers. It is even more disturbing that similar radical groups are still seen in the world today. The story was meant to be an allegory to Fascism and Mussolini.

A good story with a lot of parallels to the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s-40s, and to the current opposition to the West (Europe & the U.S.) by muslim radicals. It's based on a story told to Marco Polo during his travels in the Middle East. While the characters are well-developed, the dialogs vary between somewhat cliche and good.

Loved it- loved the surface level story about the Hasan and the "assassins" (although it is really picked from the medieval European imagination of the story of Alamut and not the historical one), and also loved how it served as an allegory for 20th century fascism, and the message about how the complete relativism of truth is a ploy of fascism and other authoritarian regimes in history. Also found out that this novel inspired the assassins creed video game series- which I was not expecting but is quite funny to me.

I gave it 5 stars.

Pre-2016 review:

****

This is a fictional account of the emergence of the Assassins or Hashshashin, an Ismailite sect lead by Hassan-i Sabbah from the fortress of Alamut in today's Iran. The tale follows very closely the controversial account of the group made by Marco Polo on his return from the Orient. Bartol wrote this story in 1938, a period during the Italian Fascists agitated in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and allegedly orchestrated the murder of King Alexander I. The novel, and its motto ("Nothing is real, all is permitted"), are absolutely relevant to our era, when one thinks of the recruitment techniques of ISIL and their deliberate use of social media to instill terror in Western governments and populations. Although the novel started fairly slowly, the pace and the meanders of the plot started to be more obvious from the fifth chapter onwards. This is compelling reading, highlighting the dangers of mass manipulation, whether from political powers or even the media.