The second important off-shoot is that of the Assassins. The Syrian branch of the Assassins was completely exterminated, and the great headquarters at Alamut was destroyed by the Turks, but besides these two greater branches there were many minor groups of the sect which have lived out a secluded existence scattered in various parts of central Asia and India, and undoubtedly exist at the present day. As late as 1866 an English judge in Bombay was called upon to decide a succession case according to the jurisprudence of the Assassins. Prof. Browne states, “remnants of the sect, as I was informed by a very intelligent and observant Babi dervish of Kirman, of whom I saw a great deal when I was in Cairo in the early part of the year 1903, still exist in Persia, while in India (under the name of ‘Khojas’ or ‘Khwajas’) and Chitral (under the name of ‘Mullas’), as well as in Zanzibar, Syria, and elsewhere, they still enjoy a certain influence and importance, though it requires a great effort of imagination to associate their present pontiff, the genial and polished Agha Khan, with the once redoubtable Grand Masters of Alamut and the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’—‘Le Vieux’ of Marco Polo’s quaint narrative” (Browne: _Literary Hist. of Persia_, p. 460). As a political force the Fatimids rapidly vanished. In the great struggle between Franks and Turks they had for a while hindered the co-operation of the Muslims under Turkish leadership, and perhaps had contributed to the weakness which had allowed the establishment of a Frankish kingdom in Jerusalem, though this weakness would be sufficiently explained by the fact that the earlier Turkish migration westwards had just ceased, and the greater movement which followed had not yet begun. When Saladin swept aside the remnants of the Fatimid Khalifate it disappeared without leaving any appreciable mark on contemporary history. On the religious history of Islam the Fatimids left even less impression. They were entirely excluded from the theological life of the Muslim community, save that they probably contributed to the strong disfavour with which the orthodox regarded philosophical and scientific studies as these took a suspected colour by reason of the sympathy with which the Shiʿites generally, and the Ismaʿilians in particular had regarded them. XIX THE FATIMID KHALIFATE IN ITS RELATION TO GENERAL HISTORY