The End ?

The end of chapter was near,

for the Mongol hordes under Halaku,

lieutenant of Chinghiz,

were steadily destroying all the civilization of Islam

which lay in their inexorable path westwards.

Rukneddin, son of Alaeddin,

succeeded him and tried at first to turn the Mongol tide.

After a series of encounters, pitched battles,

intrigues and counter-intrigues,

Rukneddin was taken.

He played for time as long as he could,

but was eventually murdered in his own turn

by the victorious Mongol chief's men.

Assassin power in Persia was broken,

and what remained of the members were ordered

- none knows by whom -

to conceal their faith and await a signal

that the cult was in full operation again.

Alamut was silenced,

and the Syrian headquarters alone remained.

It was a long time

until the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt was able

to overcome the Mongol thrust.

In 1260, however,

he carried the banners of Islam victoriously against them,

and restored the fortress of Alamut

and other properties to the Assassins,

who were strongly surviving underground.

They soon found that they had exchanged one master for another,

for the Egyptians were now employing them

for their own purposes.

Ibn Batuta, the great traveller of the fourteeth century,

found them well entrenched in their former strong places,

being used

as the "arrows of the Sultan of Egypt

        with which he reaches his enemies."