THIS is apropos the letter ‘Modern-day assassins’ (Jan 12). The writer’s depiction of Hasan ibn Sabah and the Alamut castle are historically incorrect. The literature that is responsible for propagating these legends about Alamut is Marco Polo’s travelogue. Marco Polo went to China after decades of the end of Ismaili rule in Alamut. He stayed in China for over two decades and returned to his native town, where he was captured and imprisoned in inter-city wars.

In the prison he narrated these stories to a fellow prisoners who composed them. The original Marco Polo book has never been recovered and its translations in different dialects vary a great deal. The authenticity of Marco Polo’s extant book is, thus, contested. None of the mediaeval Muslim authors, who were more aware of the situation in Alamut, referred to any paradise or hashish in Alamut, which means that Marco Polo’s account of Alamut is fabricated beyond doubt.

Alamut was not a secret and other worldly castle rather people of different communities visited it. The Abbasid envoys went to Alamut on diplomatic missions. When the Mongols started their conquests of the Muslim lands, Muslim scholars, including the famous Khwaja Nasiruddin Tusi (d. 1274), took shelter in the Alamut castle and stayed there for several decades; none of these scholars mentioned any paradise-garden or use of intoxication in Alamut.

Ata Malik Juwini (d. 1283), the secretary of Hulagu Khan, went to the castle after conquering it. He took books and scientific instruments out of the library and burned the rest. Despite all his hostility towards the dwellers of the castles, he never mentioned any paradise-garden and hashish. Juwini instead praised Hasan-i-Sabah for completely prohibiting the use of all sorts of drugs in the areas under his control.

None of the Muslim historians, contemporary to Alamut rule, referred to any paradise-garden or use of hashish.The modern research has also proved that the allegations of a paradise-garden in Alamut by Hasan-i-Sabah are baseless. Along with textual evidences, the excavations at the sites of Alamut and other castles have also proved these allegations wrong. These are just myths which should stop now. Interested readers may consult Farhad Daftary’s Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismailis and Peter Willey’s Eagle’s Nest: Ismaili Castles in Iran and Syria.

Sher Rahmat Khan
Chitral

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2016