{"product_id":"the-assassin-legends-myths-of-the-ismailis-9781850437055","title":"The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor hundreds of years Westerners have been fascinated by stories of the Assassins  their mysterious leader and their remote mountain stronghold at Alamut in Northern Iran. The legends first emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries  when Crusaders in Syria came into contact with the Nazari Ismailis  one of the communities of Shiite Islam who  at the behest of their leader Hassan Sabaa (mythologized as the \"\"Old Man of the Mountain\"\")  engaged in dangerous missions to kill their enemies. Elaborated over the years  the tales culminated in Marco Polos claim that the \"\"Old Man\"\" controlled the behaviour of his self-sacrificing devotees through the use of hashish and a secret garden of paradise. So influential were these tales that the word \"\"assassin\"\" entered European languages as a common noun meaning \"\"murderer\"\".  Daftary traces the origins and early development of the legends - as well as investigating the historical context in which they were fabricated and transmitted. As such  this book reveals an extraordinary programme of propaganda rooted in the medieval Muslim world and medieval Europes ignorance of this world. This book also provides the first English translation of French orientalist Silvestre de Sacys famous 19th-century \"\"Memoire\"\" on the Assassins.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652933083189,"sku":"ByrdShop_185043705X","price":179.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781850437055.jpg?v=1781853484","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-assassin-legends-myths-of-the-ismailis-9781850437055","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}