Kei Busurgomid had ruled the Assassin kingdom for fourteen years when, realizing that his last hour was near, he made his eldest son, Kia Mohammed, Grand Prior. The ruler at Alamut while increasing the power of the Order and extending its influence in every direction did not call himself sovereign or claim sovereign power. He ruled in the name of an invisible Imam of whom he called himself an apostle, an Imam who was to appear in the future and establish his rule over mankind. The real tenets of the Order were known only to the Grand Prior and to his chosen and tested associates who were bound to secrecy by the most dreadful oaths. The vast majority of people who were under the control of the chief of Alamut thought themselves devout followers of Mohammed the Prophet whose teachings they observed with the utmost fidelity. They looked upon the Grand Prior as an apostle whose wisdom was beyond question and obeyed his commands with willingness and the most implicit confidence. Those of his his disciples whom he employed as tools to carry out political schemes or private revenge requiring the removal of men by the use of the dagger thought they were working for a holy cause and removing enemies of their faith and their country. As the books and manuscripts of Hassan Ben Sabah and of those Alamut chiefs who succeeded him were destroyed at the coming of the Mongols it is difficult to obtain at this time much information regarding the internal government of the Assassin kingdom. Their real doctrine was carefully concealed and its supporters appeared only as upholders of Islam. This is shown by answers given the Sultan Sindjar who sent an envoy to Alamut to gain information concerning the doctrine of the Order. “The Ismailian doctrine is as follows,” replied the Prior. “We believe in one God and recognize that alone as true wisdom which accords with His holy word and the commands of His Prophet, Mohammed. We obey these as given in the sacred Koran; we believe in all that the Prophet taught touching creation and the last day, rewards, punishments, the judgment and the resurrection. To believe thus is needful for salvation, and no man may give an opinion on God’s commands, or alter one letter in them. These are the rules on which rests our religion, and if they please not the Sultan let him send a theologian to talk with us.”