Alamut

By the end of the XI century, most of the inhabitants of the Rudbar valley were Ismailis . The Seljuk governor of Alamut Alavi Mahdu was also inclined toward Ismaili. In 1090, he surrendered the fortress to the leader of the Nizari Assassins, Hassan ibn Sabbah, for 3,000 gold dinars . The capture of the Alamut marked the beginning of the Ismaili state in Iran . For several years, the adherents of Hassan ibn Sabbah captured many cities (Cain, Thun, Turshiz, Zauzan, Tabas, Khur) and fortresses ( Lamasar , Girdkuh , Tanburak) in Kuhistan , Fars , Khuzistan and Mazandaran .

Having captured Alamut, Hassan exerted every effort to capture the districts adjacent to Alamut, or places close to him. Wherever he found a cliff suitable for building fortifications, he laid the foundation of the fortress.

- Ata Malik Juvaini ^[2]

Emir Yuryun-Tash, ruler of the Rudbar valley, tried several times to recapture the fortress, but to no avail. In early 1092, Sultan Malik Shah I sent troops against Alamut under the command of the Emir Arslan-Tash. Despite the fact that the fortress protected only 60–70 people, and food supplies were insufficient, the garrison withstood the many-month siege. In October 1092, a detachment of 300 Ismaili Ray and Kazvin came to the aid of Hassan. At night, they suddenly attacked the besiegers, defeated them and put Arslan-Tash to flight.

One month after the death of Vizier Nizam al-Mulk ( October 14, 1092), who was killed by the fidai sent by Hassan, Malik Shah died. In the country, strife broke out between the heirs of the Sultan, diverting their attention from Alamut. Taking advantage of this, Hassan in November 1096 took the Lamasar fortress and finally gained a foothold in the Rudbar valley. According to Juwaini, for all 35 years of his life in Alamut, Hassan ibn Sabbah never descended from the Alamut cliff and only twice climbed to the roof of his house, spending all his time at fasting , prayer , reading books, developing his teachings and government affairs ^[3] .

In Alamut, famous scientists, magicians and alchemists were gathered, intense scientific work was going on. . The outstanding astronomer, mathematician and philosopher Nasir ad-din at-Tusi ( 1201 - 1274 ) lived in the fortress for many years and created a number of scientific works here. In 1256, at-Tusi contributed to the surrender of Ismaili fortresses to the Mongols, and he himself went to the service of Khulag , becoming his adviser and astrologer .

Alamut was the seat of the successors of Hassan ibn Sabbah until Imam Ala Al-Din Muhammad ( 1221 - 1255 ) moved the residence to Meymundiz .

The great khan of the Mongolian state of Munke ( 1251 - 1259 ) received a complaint from the residents of Qazvin and the mountainous regions of Persia about the harm caused by the Ismailis ^[4] . It served as an occasion for the continuation of the offensive in Iran with the goal of the final conquest of the country, begun back in the 1220s . In March 1253, the Kit-Boogie Corps launched military operations in Kuhistan. It was the vanguard of the Hulagu army, which later, in 1256 , began a large-scale Middle Eastern campaign . Kit Bug failed to achieve significant success. He had too few forces, and the Ismaili fortresses were perfectly prepared for defense.

The situation changed with the approach of the main troops. On January 2, 1256, the army of Hulagu crossed the Amu Darya , and already in early June blocked the Alamut. On November 19, Imam Rukn ad-din Khurshah , hoping for the mercy of the victors, opened the gates of his residence, the Meimundiz, to the Mongols. At the request of Hulag, he sent messengers with an order to surrender to all parts of his state. About 40 commandants of the fortresses carried out his will and surrendered the fortress. But Alamut and Lamasar resisted for some time.

The assault on Alamut began on December 15 , and on December 19 the stronghold considered impregnable surrendered. The historian Ata Malik Juvaini, who accompanied Hulag on a campaign, was instructed to personally familiarize himself with the rich library of Alamut. In it, Juvaini found the “History of Gilan and Dalem” by an anonymous author of the 10th century and dedicated to the life of Hassan ibn Sabbah, the manuscript of Serguzasht-i seyydna , which he then used in his essay Tarih-i-jekhangush (“History of the World Conqueror”). Juvaini saved the library from pogrom and plunder, but he then burned a part of it, containing Ismaili dogma.

In the time of the Safavids, Alamut was used as a place of exile and imprisonment for political opponents of the ruling dynasty. Under Qajar, many of the fortresses of the Rudbar Valley were looted by treasure hunters.

In 2004 , after the earthquake, the remains of the fortifications fell into even greater decline.

Currently, the Alamut Cultural and Historical Project is operating in the Rudbar Valley under the auspices of the Iranian Organization of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. Alamut is listed in the register of cultural monuments of Iran.

Cinema

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) - Mike Newell's film. Alamut in the film is the holy city of Princess Tamina, and not a fortress of assassins ; although the fortress is present in the film, it exists separately from the city.
• Soothsayer Omar Khayyam. Chronicle of the Legend. (2011) - the series.

Fiction

• The Templars is a novel by Octavian Stampas.
• Alamut ( 1938 ) - a novel by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol .
• “In the Eagle's Nest of the“ Elder of the Mountain “” ( 1946 ) - the story of the Soviet writer Vasily Yan .
• Alamut (Alamut, 1989 ), The Dagger and the Cross (The Dagger and the Cross, 1991 ) - fantasy dilogy of the American writer Judith Tarr .
• Shadow of Alamut ( 2006 ) - a novel by Vladislav Silin (under the pseudonym "Andrei Basirin").
• In the Umberto Eco novel, the Pendulum of Foucault (Il pendolo di Foucault, 1988 ) Alamut acts as a kind of mystical Stone, one of the centers of invisible world power ^[5] . In another Eco- Baudolino novel, the main characters fall into the castle of the Assassins, from where they are saved by birds
• In the novel Pigeon Necklace (Das Halsband der Taube, 1994 ) by the German writer Ernst Wilhelm Heine , the protagonist - the Knight Templar - makes a trip to Alamut.
• The story of Victor Pelevin Assassin , which was included in the P5 collection : farewell songs of the political pygmies of Pindostana ( 2008 ), tells the story of a boy named Ali, who in early childhood fell into the high-mountain castle of Alamut, where he was made an assassin hired killer.
• In Henry Haggard ’s novel “Brothers,” part of the action takes place in Alamut at the court of al-Jabal.
• In Luis Lamour's novel Camping Drum
• In Marina Stepnova’s novel “The Surgeon”
• In the novel “Museum Artifact (Ring of Judah 2)” by Danil Koretsky, one of the chapters is dedicated to Alamut and Hassan ibn Sabbah.
• In the novel " Western Lands " by William Burroughs .
• In the novel The Sign of Fire by Robert Howard .
• In the novel “Sword on the palms” by Andrei Muravyov.
• In Andrei Vasiliev’s novel “The shark of the pen in the world of Firoll”, the castle of Attarin and the father of the assassins, Hassan ibn Kemal, resemble the castle of Alamut and Hassan ibn Sabbahu.

Computer Games

• Prophet and Killer 2. Secrets of Alamut (Secrets of Alamut, 2001) - a computer game from the company Arxel Tribe , localized in Russia Nival Interactive .
• Assassin's Creed is a computer game from Ubisoft.

Board Games

• In the setting for Vampire: The Masquerade, for the board role-playing game World of Darkness of White Wolf Game Studio, Alamut is the main base of the Assamite clan .

Music

• Ogrody Alamut ( Alamut Gardens ) is a Polish new age group.
• Bill Laswell's album Hashisheen: The End Of Law ( 1999 ) is entirely devoted to the topic of hashishins . In it, in particular, there are compositions by Freya Stark At Alamut , The Mongol's Destroy Alamut and A Quick Trip To Alamut .
• Abyssphere - “Alamut” (Russian version), “Alamut” (English version) ( EP “Again and Again”)

• The history of Iran from ancient times to the end of the XVIII century . - L .: Publishing house of the Leningrad University, 1958. - 390 p.
• Ryzhov K.V. All monarchs of the world. Muslim East. VII – XV centuries - M .: Veche,2004 .
• Stroeva L.V. The State of the Ismailis in Iran in the 11th – 13th centuries - M .: Publishing House "Science", GRVL, 1978. - 276 p. - 2400 copies.

• Alamut // Encyclopedic Dictionary compiled by Russian scientists and writers. Volume III / P.L. Lavrov . - SPb. : Type of. I.I. Glazunova and Comp., 1861. - S. 19.
• Emelyanova N.M. Ismaili Fortresses.
• Alamut Cultural Heritage Base - Official Website .
• Alamut on the website of the Institute of Ismaili Studies
• Hourcade B. Alamūt . Encyclopædia Iranica (15-12-1984). Date of treatment August 19, 2010. Archived August 24, 2011.