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Saladin and the Assassins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
In the year 577/1181–2, in a letter to the Caliph in Baghdad explaining his activities in Syria, Saladin writes that he is engaged in a struggle for Islam against a three-fold enemy—the infidel Frankish invader, the heretical and murderous Assassins, and the treacherous Zangid rulers of Mosul, whom he accuses of intelligence and even alliance with both Franks and Assassins.
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1953 , pp. 239 - 245
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1953
References
page 239 note 1 Abū āma, ii, 23–4 (= Goergens, 27–8). Repeated in Sibṭ, 234. Cf. Defrémery, 29–30.
page 239 note 2 Ibn Wāṣil otherwise follows fairly closely on ‘Imād ad-Dīn, with some variants. His text begins as follows:—
It will be noted that here umārtakīn is amīr of Ṣahyūn.
page 239 note 3 The Bustān confuses the two attempts.
page 240 note 1 Precise dates for this and the preceding are given only by ‘Imād ad-Dīn (apud Abū āma) and Ibn Wāṣil. De Sacy, following a different text of Abū āma, says Friday 19th Ramaḍān. According to Ibn Wāṣil, Saladin set out from Aleppo on 10th Muḥarram (cf. Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, Cairo, 1934, i, 62).Google Scholar
page 241 note 1
page 241 note 2 Cf. Lewis, , ‘Sources’, 489.Google Scholar
page 241 note 3 On the Nubuwīya see Thorning, H., Beiträge zur Kenntnis des islamischen Vereinswesens, Türkische Bibliothek, vol. 16, Berlin, 1913, 212–13Google Scholar, and Taeschner, F., ‘Das Futuwwa-Rittertum des islamischen Mittelalters’, in Beiträge zur Arabistik, Semitistik und Islamwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1944, 352, n. 17Google Scholar, where further references are given.
page 241 note 4 Thus the MS. The Jewett version says, absurdly, 13,000 Ismā'īlī leaders—
page 241 note 5 p. 208. MS. fol. 181a. The form in the Jewett text is an obvious error for as in the MS.
page 241 note 6 pp. 249–250 (translation 259–260). Ibn Jubair, writing in 580 A.H., speaks of these events as having taken place ‘eight years ago’.
page 241 note 7 fol. 146.
page 241 note 8 Guyard 97 and 149. In this version the Ismā'īlīs are of course victorious.
page 242 note 1 Gibb, H. A. R., ‘The Achievement of Saladin’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 35, 1952, 44–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the humiliation of the Ismā'īlīs at this time see Abū āma, i, 197.
page 242 note 2 Abū āma, i, 221.
page 242 note 3 Cf. Stern, S. M., ‘The Epistle of the Fatimid Caliph al-Āmir’. JRAS., 1950, 20–31.Google Scholar
page 243 note 1 Guyard, , 77 ff. and 137 ff.Google Scholar
page 243 note 2 Cf. Laoust, H., Essai sur les doctrines societies et politiques de Taḳī-d-Dīn Aḥmad b. Taimīya, Cairo, 1939, 124–5, 266–7Google Scholar, for such accusations in Abū Firās's time.
page 243 note 3 Lewis, , ‘Three Biographies’, 344.Google Scholar One of these stories, that of the threatening letter, is well known from Ibn allikān, Wafayāt al-A'yān, Cairo, 1882, ii, 115–6Google Scholar (= de Slane, M., Biographical Dictionary, Paris, 1842–1871, iii, 339–341Google Scholar), cf. Lewis, , ‘Sources’, 487.Google Scholar
page 243 note 4 Lewis, , ‘Three Biographies’, 341.Google Scholar Kamāl ad-Dīn quotes a letter of condolence from Sinān to Sābiq ad-Dīn ‘Ammār ibn ad-Dāya, lord of aizar, on the death of his brother ams ad-Dīn, lord of Qal'at Ja'bar.
page 244 note 1 A source quoted by Kamāl ad-Dīn in the Bu ya (Lewis, , ‘Three Biographies’, 343Google Scholar) mentions a third attempt on Saladin, in Damascus. But this does not appear to be mentioned by the other authorities.
page 244 note 2 Kamāl ad-Dīn, MS. fol. 193b ff. (= Blochet, , iv, 147–8Google Scholar); cf. Lewis, , ‘Three Biographies’, 338Google Scholar; Quatremère, 354–5; Defrémery, 8–9.
page 244 note 3 Abū āma, i, 274–5; Ibn al-Aīr, xi, 294–5; Kamāl ad-Dīn, MS. fol. 193b ff. (= Blochet, iv, 148–9); Bustān, 142Google Scholar; Sibṭ, 219; Ibn Wāṣil, 200–1, Ibn addād, fol. 1286; cf. Quatremère, 355–6; Defrémery, 20–23.
page 244 note 4 Kamāl ad-Dīn, MS., fol. 196; Abū āma, ii, 16 (= Goergens, 22); cf. Quatremère, 356–7, Defrémery, 24–5.
page 244 note 5 Bahā; ad-Dīn 165; Abū āma ii, 196 (= Goergens, 185–6); Ibn al-Aīr, xii, 51 (= Recueil ii, 58–9); Bar-Hebraeus, 339; 'Imād ad-Dīn, Fatḥ) 420–2; Sibṭ, 269; Ibn Wāṣil, 396–7; Quatremère, 357; Defrémery, 25–30; Lewis, , ‘Sources’, 487–8.Google Scholar
page 244 note 6 Abū āma, ii, 203; Defrémery, 29.
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