Fake Faith, Paradise of the Assassins: The Fida'is and the Paradise
The teaching of the fida'is was done by Hassan himself, he
did it with a great deal of enjoyment. Their training was not a simple
one, neither were their tasks. They learned how to hide their killing
instruments, they learned how to kill very quickly, they learned to make
use of homing pigeons to send messages to Alamut, they learned special
codes for these messages. They also sometimes had to learn new languages or
dialects and how to be part of a certain community in order to watch
their prey long enough to make their plan. They also had to win the
trust of the community and to watch their prey's every move, to make a
plan that won't fail, and to choose the right moment to kill. Once even
two fida'is had to live for two months as Christian monks in order to be
able to kill one of their enemies.
All this cannot go with the use of drugs. Their work needed a very focused mind that was always alert, and this is the exact opposite of a drugged mind. Hasheesh results in seeing wrong distances and wrong sizes, so a person under the effect of hasheesh wouldn't be able to kill in the precise tactic they used. They were under another drug though, one that gave them reason to kill and stand where they were without even trying to run. This drug was called fake faith, and this is exactly why Hassan had chosen the ones who have huge reserve of faith. This is also why he chose ones with low tendency to learn, because education frees from all the fakeness.
Hassan taught his disciples a faith that is strong enough to face death while smiling, a faith that paradise was waiting for them and that this was where they'd go once their life was taken. One could understand why the "disciples" had the faith to kill and stand waiting to be killed if we know what Hassan had taught them.
Amin Maalouf describes Hassan's words in Samarkand as follows: "It is not enough to kill our enemies. We are not murderers but executioners. We must act in public as an example. By killing one man we terrorize a hundred thousand. However, it is not enough to execute and terrorize, we must also know how to die, for if, by killing, we discourage our enemies from taking any action against us, by dying in the most courageous fashion, we force the masses to admire us, and from their midst men will come and join us. Dying is more important than killing. We kill to defend ourselves, but we die to convert, and to conquer. Conquering is the aim we are seeking; defending ourselves is only a mean thereto."
Through these teachings, through brainwashing in the name of religion, or to be more precise, Hassan's idea of a religion, his fake faith created the strongest of believers. Hassan was also known to be very very strict when it came to art and sports, no one was allowed any of them. They were also not allowed any wine at a time when many Muslims did drink wine, and if anyone would protest this, they were to be killed immediately.
The killing machine that Hassan has created with his very own version of drugs had stayed working and unbeatable for 166 years, and was only defeated by the Moguls who have vandalized and burned everything and only a few books, chronicles and diaries had been saved to bring us this version of their history.
Just a few years before the Moguls the fourth Master had taken position. He was born a few years after Hassan had died and had never lived his time or brainwashing. This had made him hate the strictness they were living under and of course his feelings were shared by almost everyone who had not witnessed the time of Hassan Sabbah or his first successor. And so a few days after he had redeemed power he came up with another type of brainwashing. He gave a speech to all his people and told them that they have done well in their lives and had now gone to the afterlife. Since they were good people, they were thanked by Al Mahdi and are now to live in Paradise forever. There they could drink all the wine they wanted, were not allowed to pray because the time of prayers was over, could have all the women they wanted, and were to live a life of celebrations forever. There they lived a carefree life and that was when their killing missions decreased, yet nobody was able to defeat them because of their very strong fortress until the Moguls. Probably this Paradise was mixed with Hassan's Assassins and that's how they came up with the legend of the Paradise of the Assassins.
To be continued...
All this cannot go with the use of drugs. Their work needed a very focused mind that was always alert, and this is the exact opposite of a drugged mind. Hasheesh results in seeing wrong distances and wrong sizes, so a person under the effect of hasheesh wouldn't be able to kill in the precise tactic they used. They were under another drug though, one that gave them reason to kill and stand where they were without even trying to run. This drug was called fake faith, and this is exactly why Hassan had chosen the ones who have huge reserve of faith. This is also why he chose ones with low tendency to learn, because education frees from all the fakeness.
Hassan taught his disciples a faith that is strong enough to face death while smiling, a faith that paradise was waiting for them and that this was where they'd go once their life was taken. One could understand why the "disciples" had the faith to kill and stand waiting to be killed if we know what Hassan had taught them.
Amin Maalouf describes Hassan's words in Samarkand as follows: "It is not enough to kill our enemies. We are not murderers but executioners. We must act in public as an example. By killing one man we terrorize a hundred thousand. However, it is not enough to execute and terrorize, we must also know how to die, for if, by killing, we discourage our enemies from taking any action against us, by dying in the most courageous fashion, we force the masses to admire us, and from their midst men will come and join us. Dying is more important than killing. We kill to defend ourselves, but we die to convert, and to conquer. Conquering is the aim we are seeking; defending ourselves is only a mean thereto."
Through these teachings, through brainwashing in the name of religion, or to be more precise, Hassan's idea of a religion, his fake faith created the strongest of believers. Hassan was also known to be very very strict when it came to art and sports, no one was allowed any of them. They were also not allowed any wine at a time when many Muslims did drink wine, and if anyone would protest this, they were to be killed immediately.
The killing machine that Hassan has created with his very own version of drugs had stayed working and unbeatable for 166 years, and was only defeated by the Moguls who have vandalized and burned everything and only a few books, chronicles and diaries had been saved to bring us this version of their history.
Just a few years before the Moguls the fourth Master had taken position. He was born a few years after Hassan had died and had never lived his time or brainwashing. This had made him hate the strictness they were living under and of course his feelings were shared by almost everyone who had not witnessed the time of Hassan Sabbah or his first successor. And so a few days after he had redeemed power he came up with another type of brainwashing. He gave a speech to all his people and told them that they have done well in their lives and had now gone to the afterlife. Since they were good people, they were thanked by Al Mahdi and are now to live in Paradise forever. There they could drink all the wine they wanted, were not allowed to pray because the time of prayers was over, could have all the women they wanted, and were to live a life of celebrations forever. There they lived a carefree life and that was when their killing missions decreased, yet nobody was able to defeat them because of their very strong fortress until the Moguls. Probably this Paradise was mixed with Hassan's Assassins and that's how they came up with the legend of the Paradise of the Assassins.
To be continued...
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