How Far Back Do Suicide Attacks Go?

The Western public finds it difficult to understand the idea of the suicide assassin. "How do they get people to willingly do that?" is the question usually asked. The media often cite the promise of Paradise where beautiful virgins will serve such "martyrs". During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Iranian troops would often recruit large groups of young boys to go out over roads or fields suspected of being mined. Around their necks they carried keys which would open the gates of Paradise. The night before the September 11th attacks, Muhammad Atta, the alleged leader of the suicide pilots sent a message to the others that they would meet tomorrow in Paradise.

The idea of the suicide assassin in the Middle East goes back more than a thousand years. During the 11th Century, a Persian scholar of great wealth and charisma founded a fundamentalist Islamic sect called The Assassins. His name was Hasan I Sabah and he operated out of a mountain fortress called Alamut, in northern Persia, or what is today Iran.

Up to that time, Arabs had dominated Islam but by the mid-11th Century a tribe from the East called the Seljuk Turks had begun to take over. Hasan regarded them as enemies of the True Faith and he set out to make war against their leaders by assassination.

One of the few Western accounts of the Assassin sect comes from Marco Polo's book of travels. Polo visited Alamut several centuries later and wrote that Hasan began the practice of recruiting local youths to join his sect. He trained them and disciplined them as fierce fighters who could secretly stalk and kill a victim, even if the victim was well guarded. Then, instead of trying to escape, the assassin would stand his ground and be killed himself. Later, some historians claimed that the term assassin came from the Arab word hashish, which the killers may have taken just before they attacked their victim.

According to Marco Polo, Hasan built a breathtaking secret garden at Alamut, modeled after Muhammad's description of Paradise in The Koran. When it was time for one of his followers to be sent on a mission, Hasan would have him drugged and taken to the secret garden. When the youth woke up, he would find himself in the magnificent garden, surrounded by beautiful flowers and bountiful fruit, with waters of flowing milk and honey, and all served to him by beautiful virgins called houris.

After a day or so, the youth would be drugged again and taken to Hasan. When he awoke, Hasan would tell him that Allah had allowed him to spend some time in Paradise because he had a mission for him. After successfully killing his victim, the youth would then return to Paradise, forever.

The targets of the assassins were not always other Muslims. During the period that European crusaders had established a Latin Kingdom along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and some of their leaders were similarly targeted. England's King Edward I narrowly escaped assassination while on a crusade to the Middle East, before he became king. In 1197, a crusader leader named Henry of Champagne sought an alliance with the assassins and he visited one of the sect's fortresses. During the course of their discussion, the Grand Master in charge demonstrated the absolute obedience of his followers by ordering two of them to throw themselves off the ramparts of the fortress, which they did without hesitation. Henry quickly concluded the alliance.

Half a century later, a Mongol army led by Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded and conquered much of the region. They attacked and destroyed Alamut, burning all the sect's documents and records. Because of this, historians have had to rely on legends and stories to reconstruct a history of the sect. As a result, The Assassins have become even more mysterious that perhaps they really were. Nevertheless, the idea of suicide killers in the Middle East is still very much with us to this day.