KAM�L AL-D�N'S BIOGRAPHY OF R�ŠID AL-D�N SIN�N

BY

BERNARD LEWIS

career of Rasid al-Din Sinan, grand master of the Assassins in THE– , coincides roughly in time with that of . He took command of the Syrian da'wa in or about 557/1162, and kept it until he died in 580/1103. During these thirty odd years he brought the Assassins in Syria to the peak of their power and fame, inspiring a terror which is reflected in both Muslim and the Frankish writings 1. Mention of the Assassins and their chief is not infrequent in these writings. Both Muslim and Christian chroniclers have occasion to describe the and attempted murders for which the sectaries were responsible, and sometimes preface their remarks with a few general observations on the and its chief. The Muslim sources give particular attention to the two unsuccessful attacks on Saladin, at Aleppo in 570/1174-5 and at ` in 57I/II76; Crusader sources are more concerned with the of Conrad de Montferrat in Tyre in 588/1192. Some other episodes also attract the attention of the chroniclers, such as Saladin's attack on in 572/II76, and the murder of Ibn al-'Agami in Aleppo in 573/1177. In general the sources speak of the Assassins only when they impinge on public attention by some act of violence. Otherwise they have little or nothing to say about the sectaries, their leaders, their purposes and their beliefs.

I. For a survey of the literature see B. LEWIS, The sources for the history of the Syrian Assassins, in Speculum, xxvii (1952), 475-89. Earlier discussions of Sinan in E. QUATREMÈRE,Mémoire historique sur les Ismaéliens, in Fund- gruben des Orients, iv (1814), 339-76; cf. DEFRÉMERY,Nouvelles recherches sur les Ismaéliens ou Bathiniens de Syrie, in JA, 5th series, v (1855), 5-31; S. Gu- YARD,Un grand maître des Assassins au temps de Saladin, reprinted from JA, 7th series, ix (1877), 324-489; W. IVANOW,R �shidal-Din Sin�n, in EI1. For more recent studies, see C. E. NOWELL,The Old Man of the Mountain, in Spe- culum, xxii (1948), 497-519; B. LEWIS, Saladin and the Assassins, in BSOAS, xv (1953), 239-45; idem, The Ism�'�litesand the Assassins, apud K. M. SETTON, ed., A history of the , vol. i, ed. M. W. BALDWIN,The first hundred years, Philadelphia 1955, 99-132; M. G. S. Hodgson, The order of Assassins, The Hague 1955, 185-209. 226

The Isma`ili sources, from which one might have hoped for fuller information concerning the inner history of the da'wa and the personalities of its chiefs, have proved disappointing. The literature of the Persian centre at , as preserved by the Nizaris in the East and as cited by the Persian historians Rasid al-Din and Guvay- ni, contains practically nothing about Syrian affairs, and does not even mention the name of Rasid al-Din Sinan. The Syrian Isma`ilis have preserved a fair number of works, some of which have recently been published by Isma`ili scholars, notably by `Arif Tamir and Mustafa Galib. These are, however, mostly doctrinal in content, and add little that is new to our knowledge of the history of the in Syria 1. The two most informative texts, concerning Sinan, were both published by Stanislas Guyard from manuscripts in Paris. The first is a series of fragments containing Sinan's religious teach- ings 2; the second is a hagiographic work, written by one Abu Firas 3, consisting of a collection of stories about the wonders accomplished by Sinan. Though containing a substratum of historic fact, the work is heavily overlaid with myths and marvels, of the type familiar in mandqtb literature, and is therefore of limited historical value. It remains, however, the only narrative source of Syrian Isma`ili prove- nance available to us 4. Spec?al interest therefore attaches to the biography of Sinan written by the Aleppine historian Kamal al-Din Abu I-Qasim 'Umar b. Ahmad Ibn al-`Adim-the only biography, apart from Abi Fi- ras's manäqib, that has so far come to light. On his way from Alam3t to the Ismä'm castles in Central Syria, Sinan passed through Aleppo, thereby qualifying for inclusion in Kamal al-Din's great biographical

I. Among the exceptions we may note: '�rif T�MIR,Sin �nR �šidal-D �naw Šayh al-Gabal, in Al-Ad�b,May 1953, 43-6; idem, Min ta'r�hal-Ism �'�liyy�n al-S�riyy�n,in Al-Hikma, July 1954, 10-13; idem, Sin�n wa-Sal�h al-D�n, Beirut 1956 (an historical novel); Mustaf�, G�LIB, Ta'v�h al-da'wa al- Ism�'�iliyya,Damascus n.d. (preface dated 1953); idem, A'l�m al-Ism�'�liyya, Beirut 1964. 2. S. GUYARD, Fragments relatifs à la doctrine des Ismaélis, in Notices et Extraits, xxii (1874), 177-428. 3. S. GUYARD, Un grand maître (cited above p. [I], n. I.) 4. An unpublished Ism�'�lnarrative� work, the Fus�l wa-ahb�r,is quoted by '�rif T�MIR,who says that it was written by the Syrian d�'�N �r al-D�n Ahmad in the 8th/14th century (Haq�qatIhw �n al-Saf�.. , in Al-Mašriq, li, 1957, 130 ff.). The of the Ism�'�l�ass, of the Š�'agenerally, in histor- ical literature is in marked contrast with the historiographic wealth of most Islamic societies. For a possible explanation, see B. LEWIS and P. M. HOLT, edd., Historians of the , London 1962, IO-II (cf. ibid 3).