In the year 1253, Mongke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and grandson of Genghis Khan through his son Tolui and the formidable Sorghaghtani Beki, resolved to complete the unfinished conquests of his legendary forebear.
His ambition stretched across two vast and culturally rich frontiers: the Islamic heartlands of the Middle East and the dominions of the Song dynasty in South China. To this end, he summoned his brothers—Hulagu, the tactician and destroyer, and Kublai, the astute statesman with a deep knowledge of Chinese civilization.
The campaign was to be divided accordingly: Hulagu would ride westward into the Arab world; Kublai would move south into China. Mongke, as sovereign of the realm, would remain in the Mongol heartland to orchestrate imperial strategy.
This article traces the course of Hulagu’s campaign against one of the most enigmatic and feared sects of the medieval Islamic world—the Nizari Ismailis, known to the Latin West as the “Assassins.”
A Sect Amid Mountains and Myths
To reach Baghdad, Hulagu’s army had to first traverse the mountainous strongholds of the Nizari Ismailis, a Shi'a sect whose influence extended from eastern Afghanistan to the Levant. Though militarily modest in conventional terms, the Nizaris wielded disproportionate political power through fear, secrecy, and assassination.
From their impregnable castles—Alamut, the famed “Eagle’s Nest,” being the most iconic—they conducted a long-standing campaign of political subversion through targeted killings of Sunni caliphs, Seljuk viziers, and Crusader generals alike.
European chroniclers rendered them as the “Assassins,” attributing their name to the alleged ritual use of hashish (hence Hashshashin) and to tales of a drug-induced, cultic loyalty to their enigmatic leader, the “Old Man of the Mountain.” Whether apocryphal or exaggerated, these accounts underscored the existential threat the sect posed to centralized empires—an irritant in the eye of caliphs, sultans, and, eventually, Khans.
From Alliance to Annihilation
The Nizaris had previously aligned themselves with Genghis Khan during his thunderous campaign against the Khwarezmian Empire in the early 13th century. But with the Mongol withdrawal from Persia, the power vacuum was quickly filled by the resurgent Nizari network. By the time Hulagu reached Persia, the sect had regained control over a web of fortified castles and territories, operating in defiance of any centralized authority.
A failed assassination attempt on Mongke Khan in 1251—disguised as a delegation of homage from the Nizari Imam—further deepened the Mongol animosity. According to William of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan who visited the Mongol court in 1253, the Khan’s court was heavily guarded, a direct response to these perceived threats from the Assassins.
The Siege of the Mountains
By 1253, Hulagu’s march westward had begun. The Nizari Imam, recently killed in an internal power struggle, had been succeeded by his son—a young, reclusive figure reportedly debilitated by hashish addiction.
Hulagu wasted no time. Castle after castle fell under the relentless assault of Mongol siege craft, which included Chinese engineers, armored towers, catapults, and early gunpowder weaponry. The mountain fortresses that had once defied empires were no match for Hulagu’s technologically advanced and brutally efficient war machine.
When it became clear that resistance was futile, the Imam sued for peace. He sent emissaries bearing gifts and promises of submission. Hulagu, however, demanded unconditional surrender. By late 1256, the heartland of Nizari power—Alamut and Rudbar—was under siege.
The Mongols employed javelins tipped in burning pitch and rudimentary explosive charges to breach stone walls. Once the bastions were breached, the elite Mongol cavalry stormed the heights and dismantled centuries of Nizari autonomy in a matter of months.
The End of the Imamate
By November 1256, the young Imam capitulated fully. He ordered all remaining fortresses to surrender and their defenses dismantled. Hulagu paraded him from castle to castle to extract final surrenders. With the sect pacified, the Imam was dispatched eastward to appear before Mongke Khan.
After a long and perilous journey to Mongolia, the Imam was received coldly. Mongke, contemptuous of the Imam’s resistance and subterfuge, had no desire to grant mercy. He ordered the Imam to return to Persia—only to have him and his retinue summarily executed by their Mongol escort en route.
In the months that followed, Mongke issued orders for the mass extermination of the Nizari faithful. Contemporary estimates suggest that nearly 100,000 members of the sect were put to the sword.
Thus was extinguished the political and military power of the Assassins. Their intellectual legacy, preserved in fragments, would later re-emerge in more philosophical guises within Ismaili thought. But as a force of history, their chapter had ended.
The Road to Baghdad Lies Open
With the Nizari Ismailis crushed, Hulagu turned his attention to the ultimate prize—Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. In November 1257, the Mongol army began its advance. On January 29, 1258, the siege commenced.
Thirteen days later, the gates of Baghdad opened, and on February 10, the Mongols entered the city. What followed was not merely a conquest but a cataclysm. Libraries were burned, scholars slain, and the Tigris ran black with the ink of obliterated civilization.
But that is another story.
Brilliant
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