A most remarkable sect of the Ismâilahs was that of the _Almutians_, so called from _Alamut_, a hill-fort in the Persian province of _Ghilan_. This fort was the seat of _Hassan_, a self-created Imám, and became the capital of an empire, perhaps unique in the history of the world.[166] An Imám, called by Europeans “the old man of the mountain,” without armies, or treasures, commanded the country around, and terrified a great part of Asia by a band of devoted adherents, whom he sent about to propagate his religion, and to execute his commands, which were frequently the murder of his enemies. The executioners were unknown save at the fatal moment of action; mighty khalifs and sultans met with their murderers among their most intimate servants, or the guardians of their doors, in the midst of crowded public places or in the solitude of their secret bed-chambers. The _Fedayis_, so were they called, devoted themselves not only to the sacred service of their Imám, but hired their arm also for profane service to foreign chiefs, such as the Christian crusaders. Among Europeans, these Ismâilahs were known under the name of _Assassins_, which well answered their infamous profession, but is better derived from _Hashishah_[167], a sort of hemp, from which they extracted an intoxicating beverage for their frequent use. During one hundred and sixty years the Ismâilahs were the terror of the weak and the mighty, until they fell in one promiscuous slaughter, with the khalif of Islámism, under the swords of the ferocious invaders who, issuing from the vast steppes of Tartary, fell upon the disordered empire of the Muhammedans. The Ismâilahs, and other sects connected with them, professed a great attachment to an Imám, whose lineage was always traced up to Ali through a series of intermediate descendants; but it belonged to the _Ali-Ilahians_ to deify Ali himself, or to believe his having been an incarnation of God. Another sect, the _Ulviahs_, also devoted to Ali, maintain that he was united with the sun, that he is now the sun, and having also been the sun before, he was for some days only united to an elemental body. Both these sects reject the Koran. Here terminates the review of the second volume of the English Dabistán. [161] See, in what sense, pp. 83-84. [162] See vol. III. pp. 202-203. See also _ibid._, p. 229 and note 2. [163] See upon this subject a recent very ingenious work: _Essai sur les Écoles philosophiques chez les Arabes, et notamment sur la doctrine d’Algazzalí, par Auguste Schmölders, docteur en philosophie_, Paris, 1842. Dedicated to M. Reinaud, member of the Institute of France, and professor of Arabic. [164] See vol. II. p. 368. [165] Vol. II. pp. 404-407. [166] See vol. II. p. 433 _et seq._ [167] See _Mémoires géographiques et historiques sur l’Égypte et sur quelques contrées voisines, par Étienne Quatremère_, vol. II. p. 504. 1811.