Secret Societies of the Middle AgesKeightley, Thomas
History
Secret Societies of the Middle Ages
Keightley, Thomas
Secret societies
The same system was pursued in Persia, where sultan Sanjar, the son of
Malek Shah, had united under his sceptre the greater part of the
dominions of his father and Fakhr-al-Moolk (_Fame of the Realm_). The
son and successor of Nizam-al-Moolk and Chakar Beg, the great uncle of
the sultan, perished by the daggers of the emissaries of Hassan Sabah.
Sultan Sanjar was himself on his march, intending to lay siege to
Alamoot, and the other strong-holds of the Ismaïlites, when one morning,
on awaking, he found a dagger struck in the ground close to his pillow.
The sultan was dismayed, but he concealed his terror, and a few days
afterwards there came a brief note from Alamoot, containing these words:
"Were we not well affected towards the sultan, the dagger had been
struck in his bosom, not in the ground." Sanjar recollected that his
brother Mohammed, who had laid siege to the castles of Lamseer and
Alamoot, had died suddenly just as they were on the point of
surrendering--an event so opportune for the society, that it was but
natural to ascribe it to their agency--and he deemed it the safest
course to proceed gently with such dangerous opponents. He accordingly
hearkened to proposals of peace, which was concluded on the following
conditions: 1. That the Ismaïlites should add no new works to their
castles; 2. That they should purchase no arms or military machines; 3.
That they should make no more proselytes. The sultan, on his part,
released the Ismaïlites from all tolls and taxes in the district of
Kirdkoh, and assigned them a part of the revenue of the territory of
Komis by way of annual pension. To apprehend clearly what the power of
the society was, we must recollect that sultan Sanjar was the most
powerful monarch of the East, that his mandate was obeyed from Cashgar
to Antioch, from the Caspian to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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