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Historic Groups that Started Innocent then Took an Evil Turn

Khalid Elhassan November 8, 2020 32 min

Harley-Davidson - Harley-Davidson WLA — Harley-Davidson WLAs. Motorcyclist

13. The Order of Assassins Withered and Vanished Into History

The ruins of Alamout Castle, the Order of Assassins’ main fortress, atop a summit amidst rugged terrain. Wikimedia

Remnants of the Assassins survived in Syria, which lay outside the Mongols’ control. Eventually, the Egyptian Mamelukes first reduced them to vassalage in the 1260s, and finally forced them to surrender their last fortresses in 1273.

The last cult members were allowed to live, kept on retainer as contract killers. However, their independence was forever gone. In that final phase of existence as contract killers, the steadily dwindling cult existed for a few decades more. It survived, at least in name, into the following century before vanishing into the mists of history.

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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.