THE ASSASSINS OF ALAMUT

CONTENTS

• Chapter 1: Prologue
  The background to the story and an account of a personal visit to the site of the castle at Alamut.

• Chapter 2: Hasan-i-Sabbah
  Hasan-i-Sabbah captured the castle at Alamut and inaugurated the sect which became known in the West as the Assassins.

• Chapter 3: The Resurrection at Alamut
  In 1164 the Grand Master of Alamut called his followers together and announced that the Muslim law was at an end; all his followers were now living in the Time of the Resurrection.

• Chapter 4: The Assassins in Syria
  The Syrian offshoot of the Assassins was to some extent independent of Alamut under its talented and remarkable ruler, Sinan, who became known to the Crusaders as the "Old Man of the Mountains".

• Chapter 5: Decline and Fall
  The Assassins gradually declined in power and influence and were finally destroyed by the Mongols.

• Chapter 6: Continuing Echoes
  The Assassins disappeared in Iran but continued in India as the Khojas. The Agha Khan is the lineal descendant of the Grand Masters of Alamut.

• Appendix 1: Ismaili Theosophy
  A fuller account of the nature of the complex ideas that underlay Ismailism.

• Appendix 2: Cyclical Time in Ismailism
  The Ismailis had an elaborate cosmological scheme based on numerical correspondences and the Platonic Great Year. This Appendix traces the origins of these ideas.

• Appendix 3: The Nature and Role of the Ismaili Imam
  The role of the Imam was central in Ismailism. This Appendix gives details of how the Imam was conceived of and how the system of the Imamate was supposed to work.

• Notes and Bibliography