user of Indian hemp or the “Faqir’s herb” (_cannabis Indica_), as this was used as a means of intoxication and exaltation to arouse the members of the sect charged with peculiarly difficult duties. In a later chapter (cf. pp. 213, etc.) we shall see that these duties, the acts which are now especially associated with the term assassin, were performed by quite subordinate members of the sect; but these members entrusted with the performance of deeds of violence and daring were prepared by being worked up into a frenzy by the use of this drug whose peculiar influences are well known in the east. From 473 to the date of Mustansir’s death in 487 these “Assassins” were occupied in preaching the claims of the prince Nizar to the Imamate, but they did not definitely separate from the Ismaʿilian body or from their allegiance to the Fatimid Khalif until, at Mustansir’s death, the elder son Nizar was formally excluded from the succession, so that our further consideration of the sect is best deferred to the next reign. A large literature exists on the history of the Assassins. The most important authority is the “Adventures of our master” (_i.e._, of Hasan-i-Sabbah), a lost work included amongst the books in the great library at Alamut and examined by ʿAta Malik Juwayni before it was burned with other heretical works, and from it he makes important citations. The longest Khalifate of Muslim history closed with the death of Mustansir on the 18th of Dhu l-Hijja, 487 (A.D. 1094), and at once the wazir al-Afdal announced the accession of the younger son al-Mustali. XIII THE NINTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MUSTALI (A.H. 487-495 = A.D. 1094-1101)