You come across a book every once in a while that you know is a solid, scholarly account of a period in history. As such you don't question the author's intent or doubt that his reasoning is flawed. In fact virtually everything you read is dead on, at least from what little you know of that time period. Bernard Lewis does this in his account of a small religious sect in the Middle East called the Ismailis, or commonly known as the Assassins.

Right from the beginning we are given a quick explanation on how the sect's converts and followers were duped into believing wholeheartedly that their leader, The Old Man Of The Mountain, was a prophet and that he could grant them a life in paradise if they did his bidding. Then, just as effortlessly, he moves on to give the background history that leads up to how they got to where they were and how they began to gain their power.

This was, of course, the use of assassinating their political rivals and striking fear into those that would oppose them or dare to come against them. They were not a large land owning sect, they didn't have the political clout to push their weight around. In fact they played a rather minor role in the overall picture. But what they did have was the ability to strike fear into everyone, no matter where they were or how powerful they were. Whether you were the Sultan, the Caliph, the Vizier, a Western king, earl or baron, or perhaps even the Mongol emperor that invaded with such a huge amount of force that nobody could withstand, it didn't matter. They all feared the Assassins and attempted in numerous ways to rid themselves of such a dangerous sect.

Ultimately Lewis does a fantastic job in illustrating this wonderful time period for the history and stories that are so lush and full of life. Just as to kill someone became associated with this small religious sect that utilized this method, and thus how we today come to call assassinate or assassination, so to does Lewis's work reflect on the Ismailis. Lewis' work has staying power, being written in the sixties, and should be thought of as one of the leading sources of this time period and group.

You come across a book every once in a while that you know is a solid, scholarly account of a period in history. As such you don't question the author's intent or doubt that his reasoning is flawed. In fact virtually everything you read is dead on, at least from what little you know of that time period. Bernard Lewis does this in his account of a small religious sect in the Middle East called the Ismailis, or commonly known as the Assassins.

Right from the beginning we are given a quick explanation on how the sect's converts and followers were duped into believing wholeheartedly that their leader, The Old Man Of The Mountain, was a prophet and that he could grant them a life in paradise if they did his bidding. Then, just as effortlessly, he moves on to give the background history that leads up to how they got to where they were and how they began to gain their power.

This was, of course, the use of assassinating their political rivals and striking fear into those that would oppose them or dare to come against them. They were not a large land owning sect, they didn't have the political clout to push their weight around. In fact they played a rather minor role in the overall picture. But what they did have was the ability to strike fear into everyone, no matter where they were or how powerful they were. Whether you were the Sultan, the Caliph, the Vizier, a Western king, earl or baron, or perhaps even the Mongol emperor that invaded with such a huge amount of force that nobody could withstand, it didn't matter. They all feared the Assassins and attempted in numerous ways to rid themselves of such a dangerous sect.

Ultimately Lewis does a fantastic job in illustrating this wonderful time period for the history and stories that are so lush and full of life. Just as to kill someone became associated with this small religious sect that utilized this method, and thus how we today come to call assassinate or assassination, so to does Lewis's work reflect on the Ismailis. Lewis' work has staying power, being written in the sixties, and should be thought of as one of the leading sources of this time period and group.

The Assassins are part of the legend of the Crusades. The legend of their intoxicants, and the pleasures that initiates were allowed to sample before being sent on missions, are almost part of our historical lore, and of course the sect has lent its name to a word in the English language. This scholarly account by historian Bernard Lewis is detailed, and relentless at least in terms of sentimentality, brushing away legends and folklore and sticking to what's known of this splinter group of Islam and their culture, activities, motives, and fate.

It turns out that, as far as anyone knows, the Assassins are merely a splinter of the group called Ismailis (which still exists in Muslim countries, as a partially suppressed heresy). They existed for about three centuries, between the mid 11th century and the late 14th, in what is now northern Iran, and southern Syria. They never controlled a major city, and as a political entity, they appear to have survived largely through personal intimidation. While they were only so-so when it came to defeating armies, they were very effective at eliminating their leadership. In that era in which personal leadership, through monarchs and their surrogates, was the order of business for most governments in the area, this was particularly effective.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. If I do have a complaint, it's that the sum of knowledge about the Assassins, at least when Lewis wrote this, was rather thin, and so of course you don't get that much on them. The book itself runs to just about 150 pages in length, with an appendix which is another 50 pages tacked onto the end. The paucity of information isn't Lewis's fault, though, it's due to the secretiveness of the sect itself. Aside from that, the book is very well-done, interesting, and informative.

I am an Ismailli and totally offended by Lewis's book. He is no doubt a total anti-Muslim racist. For greater information on the Nizari ismaillis read Farhad Daftary

This book about the Ismailis and the Assassins could have been fascinating but it is only a compilation of facts and details about individuals and their actions. We never get into the deeper layers of their ideology, theology and religious beliefs and practices. They are connected to the Shi'ites agains the Sunni'ites but it is not clearly shown and explained what's the difference between the two sides and what's more how the Ismailis get into this picture. Altogether the vision of Islam given by this book is that of a world rent by factions, ambitions, personal power, military achievements, and the basic and irrepressible desire and need to be cruel and shed a lot of blood through torturing and making people suffer. This is a caricature. Never the filiation between the other semitic religions that judaism, christianism and the zealot branch of both in the first century before Christ and the first century after Christ were, is shown, stated or explained and explored. Islam is one descendent of the Bible, Old and New Testament. What's more this vast expanse of territory from the Mediterranean sea to India was one of the most brilliant melting pots of science, culture and philosophy, the Ismailis among them just as much as the Sh'ites or the Sunni'ites. This is not explored, nor explained. Hence this book accumulates factual details and data but never reaches any level of explanation, understanding and the desire to go and discover that enormously progressive and powerful culture and science. At the time of the Crusades, the west was definitely, at all levels, a lot less advanced than the Middle East and Islamic countries. It is these Crusades that started the movement thet will eventually lead to the freezing of these societies in some kind of ossified ancient state out of which it has become extremely difficult to move, and such a move has to be endogenous, to come from inside.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universitý Paris Dauphine, Universitý Paris I Panthýon Sorbonne

The subject matter is utterly fascinating yet the author has achieved something that is usually hard to do: take a rich and fascinating history of a strange and amazing cult, then bog its story down in tedious and annoying narrative. In otherwords, he may be a good researcher, but as a writer he's piss-poor. WE, the layman public, want to read an account of the Assassin Order, not petty details interlaced with utterly droll wordsmithing.

Goes to show you that whomever published this had their head up their ass. I'm very disappointed. Bypass this one!

Bernard Lewis has a long history of providing excellent reviews of major themes of Islam to Western readers. This is another such example.

Lewis produced this volume in 1967. His trademarks in scholarship, including a focus on primary sources and a deep knowledge of the language and history of the region, allows him to create a vivid picture of the religious sect in Muslim history, weeding out the myths that have surrounded the Assassins since the 11th century.

The Assassins were a radical offshoot of Shiite Islam called Ismailis. While never a conquering or crusading force, they were at various times able to influence and direct events, mainly out of fear and trepidation they caused in the various rulers around them. Their main objective was overturning the existing Sunni regimes, and they did so through radical fanaticism of their followers and a deep belief in the traditions of sacrifice and martyrdom in Shiite beliefs.

Lewis has produced a tidy little volume that is well worth the afternoon it takes to read this book. I highly recommend it.

This book was undoubtedly the most helpful to the background research I did in preparation for the first English translation of ALAMUT, Vladimir Bartol's novel based on Ismaili leader Hasan ibn Sabbah. Lewis describes ibn Sabbah -- the leader of the Ismaili sect that took over the castle of Alamut in northern Persia between the 11th and 13th centuries -- as the world's first "terrorist." While assassination had been used long before ibn Sabbah, he was the first to use it as a tool of "psychological terror." Although only 50 - 75 political leaders are said to have fallen to one of Sabbah's (in)famous assassins, stories of his ruthlessness spread as far north as Italy, and the castle of Alamut was the Mongols first target c.1250 as they rampaged their way across the Islamic world.

Professor Lewis has rankled some feathers with his views of the Middle East in general, and his views of the Iraq War in particular, but there are few scholars more worthy of respect when it comes to this subject matter. Anyone writing on ibn Sabbah or the Ismailis can not ignore this work.

An exciting subject matter made into a boring incomplete account.

Bernard Lewis is, no doubt a Scholar of exception ability, but he has missed the boat here. He seems obessesd with only the Islamic sources concerning the Assassins. He has neglected, or choosen to leave out, much of the crusader/Mongol source material.

He trys his best to legitimise the Assassins as a real Islamic sect, rather than an pagan sect operating under the pretence of Islam.

Lewis also attempts to distance the Assassins from the Templars and Crusaders, commenting very little on the endless envoys, pacts, tribute payments,and treaties between them. Nothing on the Assassin envoy that discussed the possibilty of the the Assassins turning christian (that the Templars murdered).


The book was a painfully boring read as well.

This is not a bad book, but it is too short, fragmented, with few footnotes, and seems like a collection of thoughts more than a 'scholarly' book.

Keeping that in mind, it gets 2 stars. You can also surf the web and get the same information.

Bernard Lewis's The Assassins is a supremely academic introduction to one of the most well-known and most feared sects within historical Islam.

The work, originally written in 1967, begins with a detailed explanation of the historical roots of the Assassins, a Nizari Ismaili sect within Shi'a Islam that used targeted killings in the Middle Ages to achieve political, military, and religious goals. Lewis uses a wealth of historical sources to untangle the myths of the Assassins and trace the group's history throughout Medieval Islam. While many people have a general knowledge of or interest in the Assassins, Lewis's book provides in-depth information about the inner workings of this secretive sect.

While the title and subject of this book may appeal to the general reader, the book is extremely scholarly. This is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. Lewis's use of primary source material, much of it previously undiscovered or unused, lends an extraordinary authoritativeness to the book. Lewis is able to fluidly weave this historical source material throughout the book, making it invaluable for historians and regional specialists. However, the book's extensive use of historical sources and quotes limits its accessibility to the general reader. As someone with an academic background in the Middle East and Islam, I still occasionally found myself overwhelmed by the density and scholarliness of Lewis's writing.

The book is a must-read for Middle East/Islamic specialists and historians. It is a superb example of succinct, historical, scholarly writing. However, general readers looking for insights into modern day Islamic terrorism and fanaticism will likely find themselves disappointed and overwhelmed by The Assassins.

Bernard Lewis is a prominent Middle East historian whose current works focus on the causes and use of terrorism in this area. This is one of his first books and he details the rise of the assassins in the Shiite area of Syria and Iran. The Assassins practiced political terror, since they were a small sect which held little ground. The use of assassination gave them advantages over their larger rivals, since it instilled fear into the top polical level of their rivals. These rivals wanted to control the Ismaili territories, but could not due to their location and the threat which assassination posed.
Lewis's book is overly scholarly and the readability of this short book is difficult. Many complex Islamic names also hinder the reader's ability to comprehend some of this material. However, the book gives the story of the rise of the assassins and the history of the religion of the Ismailis and the Aga Khan.
This book is beneficial to the history of the Middle East.

Bernard Lewis remains one of the most respected Middle Eastern historians and is a name more Americans should be familiar with. "The Assassins" was originally published in 1967. This edition has been updated slightly but most of the text is unchanged. The work represents some of the best scholarly efforts of Professor Lewis, especially his work with original historical sources. Some readers may be disappointed with this book however, in that they may be looking for conncections with modern Islamic terrorism. Those connections are elusive. This is a history of sectarian divisions within Islam, particulary certain Ismaili sects of Shi'i Islam. Foremost among those divisions was a sect known generally as the Assassins (do not look for a direct connection between this fascinating religious sect and modern events...there is none). The Assassins began with the sinister Hasn i-Sabbah, and practiced religious and political murder often with the use of certain drugs (hashish for one which may have produced the Persian reference to this group). Oddly enough, most of the targets of the various orders of the Assassins were Sunni Muslims. Christians, such as the Crusaders, were only rarely singled out for their particular arts. As Lewis tells us the Ismailis were generally radical and the Assassins perphaps the most radical sect in Islam. This is a very readible volume, at a very affordable price. Although a scholarly work "The Assassins" is easily accessable to the general reader with an interest in the Middle East. As an undergraduate in college, this writer nearly wore out the single volume in the university library and is very happy to have a new edition in the bookshelf.

This new edition has come out in the wake of the Sept 11 bombings and and upsurge in interest in Bernard Lewis's works. Those expecting a "glossy," ripped-from-the-headlines history might be put off by this book... it is a slightly updated reprinting of his classic history written a half-century ago. While it may not be a popular coffee table book, it is a throrough, highly informed work on the group that gave its name to political murder. To be honest, I got much more out of it the second time I read through it... some of the names, medieval politics, and Islamic debates left me feeling lost. The second time through, more things fell into place and I appreciated the details a great deal more. Also, I greatly appreciated his incredible knowlege of the subject and the region as a whole, as well as his keen insights into Islamic thinking. Clearly, Lewis is one of the most important Middle East scholars in a long time. Those looking for a scholarly, de-mystifying, and on its own terms readable work on the Assassins will like this book. If you're simply curious about this mysterious group, you may get more out of this volume if you first read one of Lewis's broader introductions to Islam... click on the authors name and several good choices will show up.