Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Special Operations, Strategy, and Politics in the Age of Chivalry – An Analytical Overview
- 2 The Gateway to the Middle East: Antioch, 1098
- 3 Saving King Baldwin: Khartpert, 1123
- 4 The Assassination of King Conrad: Tyre, 1192
- 5 For a Sack-full of Gold Écus: Calais, 1350
- 6 Princes in the Cross-Hairs: The Rise and Fall of Valois Burgundy, 1407–83
- 7 The Mill of Auriol: Auriol, 1536
- 8 Conclusions
- Works Cited
- Index
4 - The Assassination of King Conrad: Tyre, 1192
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Special Operations, Strategy, and Politics in the Age of Chivalry – An Analytical Overview
- 2 The Gateway to the Middle East: Antioch, 1098
- 3 Saving King Baldwin: Khartpert, 1123
- 4 The Assassination of King Conrad: Tyre, 1192
- 5 For a Sack-full of Gold Écus: Calais, 1350
- 6 Princes in the Cross-Hairs: The Rise and Fall of Valois Burgundy, 1407–83
- 7 The Mill of Auriol: Auriol, 1536
- 8 Conclusions
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Most medieval special operations have long been forgotten, and have failed to leave a mark on either the popular or the academic image of medieval warfare. The sole exception is the operations conducted by the Nizari sect, made famous as the Order of the Assassins. The Nizaris not only bequeathed to posterity the memory of one of the most successful clandestine organizations in history, but have also enriched European languages with the word ‘assassination’ itself, denoting the use of premeditated murder of key individuals as a military and political tool. For assassin derives from the Arabic word hashīshīn – a pejorative term, meaning ‘users of hashish’ – by which hostile Muslim sources occasionally referred to the Nizari sect.
The Nizaris were a radical millenarian sect that sprang up in northern Persia in the late eleventh century, a splinter of the Isma'ili sect, which was itself a radical splinter group of Shi'ite Islam. Nizari theology and practices ran counter to mainstream Sunni Islam, and were anathema even to most Shi'ites and Isma'ilis. The assassinations of which the Nizaris were proudest were those of two Sunni caliphs in 1135 and 1138. In 1164 the Nizaris even took the extreme step of proclaiming the qiyāma, or the end of time and of the Law. All prohibitions of Muslim Law were formally abolished, and the faithful were encouraged to ceremoniously break the Law by such gestures as drinking wine, eating pork, feasting on the month of Ramadan, and praying with their backs towards Mecca.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100–1550 , pp. 91 - 108Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007