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Assassins: The Medieval Murder Cult That Terrorized the Middle East

Khalid Elhassan January 23, 2025 14 min

Assassins - The Old Man of the Mountain and his followers, as depicted in the TV series 'Al Hashashin' — The Old Man of the Mountain and his followers, as depicted in the TV series 'Al Hashashin'. TMDB

16. The Sunni-Shiite Split Birthed the Assassins Cult

Assassins - Sunni Seljuk Turks, new converts to Islam who zealously fell upon and fatally weakened the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate — Sunni Seljuk Turks, new converts to Islam who zealously fell upon and fatally weakened the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate. Pinterest

The origins of the Order of Assassins can be traced back to Islam’s Sunni-Shiite split. For much of the medieval era, there had been a rough balance of power between Islam’s two main branches. The less numerous Shiites were championed by the smaller but rising Fatimid Caliphate based in Egypt. The Sunnis, while more numerous, were led by the waning Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq. That balance was upset when the Seljuk Turks, who had recently adopted Sunni Islam, fell upon the Fatimids with all the zeal of the recently converted and broke their power between 1056 – 1060. The Fatimids, defeated militarily in the field of battle, responded with clandestine warfare and turned to assassination as a political tool against the rival Sunni leadership.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.