Viewing entries tagged
Saladin

The Mongols

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The Mongols

Muhammad II now ruled as Imam over all Nizari Ismailis from his castle in Alamut, Persia whilst the Syrian Ismaili faction operated under the delegated leadership of the legendary Old Man of the Mountain. Feared by Crusaders and Saladin alike for his devoted assassins who wreaked havoc and terror in the Holy Land, he even had the King of Jerusalem assassinated in 1192.

In 1210, Muhammad II died and was succeeded by his son, Hassan III who immediately ordered his followers to embrace Sunni Islam.

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Hasan-i Sabah

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Hasan-i Sabah

Over a few decades, the Fatimid Ismaili empire succombed to bitter infighting, intense factionalism, leadership crises and defeat at the hands of the Crusaders in the Middle East. Finally, in 1171 Cairo itself was conquered by Saladin and his Sunni warriors. The Ismaili empire was at an end.

Meanwhile, in the mountains of Iran, a shift was taking in place in the identity of Ismailism. 

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