They was the foundation of the dynasty of the Fatemite Caliphs of Egypt, who deduced their Ene from Ismail the son of Jaafer, and through him from Fatima the daughter of the Prophet. The secret doctrine had now, in a great measure, attained its object; it had placed its creature upon a throne, and had become the established system in Africa. But it contemplated farther triumphs, and its Dais still overfowed Asia, making proselytes to the claims of Ismail, in the hope of yet overturning the throne of the Caliphs at Bagdad. M. Von Hammer (if his authority, Macrisi, may be depended upon") gives, in this place, a most curions and interesting account of the structure and organization of what he terms the Lodge at Cairo, in which the members were, after a gradual progress through nine degrees, fully Instructed in the doctrines of iniquity and impiety. Immediately, he says, after the establishment of the throne of the Fatemites, history mentions the meetings, which were held every Monday and Wednesday in presence of the Dai-el-doat or Chief Missionary, and were attended by great numbers of both men and women, who had separate lodges. These assemblies were named Mejalis-al-hicmet, or the Societies of Wisdom, and the members attended attired in white. On these days the Dai-el-doat always waited on the Caliph, and, when it was possible, read something to him, but, at all events, got his signature on the sutude of the Lecture. When the lecture was finished, the scholars kissed his hand, and respectfully touched, with their foreheads the signature of the Caliph.

In the reign of the sixth Fatemite Caliph, the notorious Hakem-biemr-illah, the assembies and their place of meeting were placed upon a most extensive footing. A large lodge, named Dar-al-hicmet or the House of Wisdom, was erected, and abundantly provided with books, mathematical instruments, and profesBors of every description. Disputations were frequently held in presence of the caliph, in which the professors, divided according to the four faculties, Logic, Mathematics, Law, and Medicine, appeared in their robes of ceremony, which robes, it is curious to observe, were exactly the same in form as those now worn by the doctors in Oxford and Cambridge. A yearly sum of 275,000 ducats was appropriated to the support of this institution, in which were taught all branches of human science, and, in nine ascending degrees, the secret doctrines of the Ismailites. The first of these degrees the longest and most difficult-instilled into the mind of the pupil the most unlimited confidence in the wisdom of his instructor; it perplexed him by pointing out the absurdity and contradiction to reason of the text of the Koran, and excited his curiosity by hinting at the secret text which lay beneath the shell of

In the opinion of De Sacy M. Von Hammer has completely succeeded in developing the organization and principles of the Ismailites. De Sacy is, however, of opinion that the origiterus do not fully justify M. Von Hammer in ascribing to them, to the extent he does, the doctrines of atheism and the indifference of

moral actions.

the outward word: on which subject, however, he most steadily refused any satisfaction, until he had taken the oath to receive the secret doctrine with implicit faith and unconditional obedience. When he had done this, he was admitted to the second degree, which inculcated the acknowledgment of Imaums, appointed of God as those from whom all knowledge was derived. In the third was taught the number of the Imaums, which was seven. The fourth informed the pupil that since the creation of the world there had been seven divine lawgivers or speaking prophets, each of whom had seven assistants, who succeeded each other during the epoch of the speaking prophet, and, as they did not appear publicly, they were named the dumb (zainit). The last speaking prophet was Ismail, and the first of his dumb ministers was Mohammed the son of Ismail as, therefore, this last was not dead more than a century, the teacher had it in his power to declare whom he would, to those who had not passed this degree, to be the dumb prophet of the present age. In the fifth degree the pupil learned that each of the dumb prophets had twelve apostles to assist him in spreading the doctrine. The sixth taught that all positive religion was subordinate to philosophy. This degree was tedious, and not till the pupil had been well imbued with the wisdom of the philosophers was he admitted to the seventh, in which he passed from philosophy to mysticism, which was the doctrine of All is One, now held by the Soofees. In the eighth the doctrines of positive religion were once more brought forward; after what had preceded, they could not make any long stand, and the pupil was now fully instructed in the superfluousness of all prophets and divine teachers, the non-existence of heaven and hell, the indifference of actions, and thus prepared for the ninth and last degree, and to become the ready instrument of every project of ambition. To believe nothing and to dare every thing, was the sum and substance of this wisdom.

The claims of the Fatemite Caliph, and the secret doctrine of the Lodge at Cairo, were actively disseminated through Asia by the zeal of the Dais, and of their Refeek or Companions, persons initiated in one or more degrees of the secret doctrine, and attached to the Dais as assistants, which their name denotes. Among the converts and members of the Lodge then gained, was one who founded, some years after, the society which, during more than a century and a half, filled Asia with terror and dismay. This was the celebrated Hassan Ben Sabah, the founder of the Assassins or Eastern Ismailites, as writers name them, to distinguish them from their Egyptian or Western brethren.

Hassan was one of those characters that appear from time to time in the world, as if sent to operate some mighty change in the destinies of mankind. Endued with mental powers of the first order, conscious of his own superiority, filled with ambition the most immoderate, and possessed of the courage, patience, and foresight requisite for the accomplishment of his deep-laid plans, Hassan must, at any period of the world, have been a distinguished actor in its scenes; but no period more calculated for the display of his transcendant talents could

have occurred than the one in which his lot had been cast. He was the son of Ali, a strenuous Shea-ite, who resided at Rei. Ali was strongly suspected of entertaining heretical and impious opinions, and could hardly, by the most solemn oaths and protestations, obtain credit for his orthodoxy. He retired at length into a convent, and to clear himself as much as possible from the suspicions entertained against him, he sent his son to Nishaboor, to be educated by the Imaum Mowafek Nishabooree, the most illustrious Doctor of the Soonnaḥ, in the East; of whom it was said, that every one who studied the Koran and the Soonnah under him was certain to be fortunate in after-life. Here the young Hassan had for his fellow students Omar Khiam and Nizam-ul-Mulk, the former of whom became celebrated for poetry and philosophy, and the latter, under three successive monarchs of the house of Seljuk, filled the first posts of the empire.

Even at this early period the ambitious mind of Hassan, and his long-sighted views of future advancement and dignity, displayed themselves. He one day, as Nizam-ul-Mulk himself informs us, addressed his two companions, reminded them of the general opinion of the success of the Imaum's pupils, and proposed that they should enter into an agreement that in whichever of the three this opinion should be verified, he should share his fortune with the other two. Omar and Nizam readily assented, and the latter devoting himself to politics, soon attained the Viziership under Togrul, and Alp Arslan, the great Seljucides. During the reigns of Togrul and of Alp Arslan, Hassan remained in privacy and obscurity; but no sooner had Melek Shah, the successor of the latter, ascended the throne, than the descendant of Sabah appeared at court, and, in the severe terms which the Koran uses of breakers of their word, reminded the Vizier of the promise of his youth, and called upon him to perform it. Nizam received hia with honour, gave him rank and revenue, and introduced him to the intimacy of the Sultan. Hassan's object in waiting for the accession of Melek Shah had evidently been to supplant his friend Nizram, an object more easily attainable with a youthful prince than with an experienced monarch. He accordingly sought by every means, under the mask of bluntness and honesty, to gain an ascendency over the mind of the Sultan, and succeeded so far, that Melek Shah consulted him upon every affair of moment, and acted according to his advice. Nizam's credit and influence were visibly in the wane, for his rival sedulously conveyed to the ears of the sultan even the slightest errors of the Divan, and, by his artful insinuations, threw the entire blame on the prime Vizier. But, according to Nizam-ul-Mulk's account, the worst trick he played him was his undertaking to lay before the Sultan, within forty days, a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the Sovereign; a task, to accomplish which the Vizier had required ten times the space. The clerks of the treasury were all placed under Hassan, and Nizam-ul-Mulk acknowledges that he performed what he had undertaken within the given time; but, as he adds, that Hassan derived no advantage from it, but was, on the contrary, at the instant of

giving in the account, covered with disgrace and obliged to quit the Court, for which Nizam assigns no cause, we are obliged to find an explanation of it in the narrative of other writers. According to them, Nizam himself, trembling for his place, contrived secretly to abstract some of the leaves of his rival's accounts, and when Hassan presented himself before the Sultan in full assurance of a complete triumph, to his extreme mortification, the mutilated state of his papers, for which he could in no way account, drew down on him the highest displeasure of the Sultan. Nizam, indeed, confesses, with great naivete, that had not this occurred, he himself would have been obliged to follow the same course as Hassan.

The latter, inwardly meditating vengeance against the Sultan and the Vizier, retired to Rei, and from thence went to Isfahan, where he remained concealed in the house of the Reis Aboo'l Fazl, to escape the perquisitions of Nizam-ul-Mulk. While there he made the remarkable declaration, that if he had but two devoted friends, he would soon overthrow the Turk and the peasant, as he called Melek Shah and Nizam-ul-Mulk. The simple-hearted Reys believed him to be out of his mind, and began secretly to administer to him aromatic draughts to strengthen his brain. Hassan was soon aware of the opinion of his host, and resolved to leave him and proceed to Egypt, to the grand lodge of the Ismailites, of whose society he had long been a member. The account of his first connexion with that sect is given by Mirkhond in Hassan's own words, and as they enable us to form a clear idea of the character of the man, and show that like Mohammed, Cromwell, and almost every fanatic, he was sincere at first, whatever he might have become afterwards, we will lay them before our readers.

"From my childhood, even from the age of seven years, my only object was to attain to knowledge and capacity. I was, like my father, brought up in the doctrine of the twelve Imaums (Imamee), and I formed an acquaintance with the Ismailite Refeek, named Emireed-Dharab, with whom I knit the bond of friendship. My opinion was, that the doctrine of the Ismailites was like that of the philosophers, and that the sovereign of Egypt was a man who was initiated in it. As often as Emire spoke in support of his doctrine, I fell into a controversy with him, and many an argument on points of faith arose between us. I never gave way to the charges which Emire brought against my sect, though secretly they made a strong impression on my mind. Meanwhile Emire departed from me, and I fell into a severe sickness, during which time I frequently reproached myself that although I knew the doctrine of the Ismailites to be the true one, out of mere stiff-neckedness I hesitated to ac. knowledge it; and that if, which God avert, death should surprise me, I should die without having attained to the truth. At length I recovered from that sickness, and met with another Ismailite, named Aboo Nejm Zaraj, of whom I inquired concerning the truth of his doctrine. Aboo Nejm explained it to me in the most circumstantial manner, until I saw fully into the depths of it. At last I met a Dai call

ed Moomeem, whom the Sheikh Abd-al-melek | Bea Attash, the director of the missions of Irak, had authorized to execute this office. I besought him to accept my homage in the name of the Fatemite Caliph; he at first refused, because I had been in a higher rank than himself; but when I pressed him thereto out of all measure, he at length consented. When now the Sheikh Abd-al-melek came to Rei, and by his intercourse with me came to know me, my deportment was pleasing to him, and he immediately conferred on me the office of a Dai. He said to me, thou must go into Egypt, and become a partaker of the happiness of serving the Imaum Moustansar, the then reigning Caliph. When the Sheikh Abd-al-melek went from Rei to Isfahan I departed for Egypt."

Hassan, whose fame had preceded him, was received in Egypt with the highest honours; the Dai-al-doat and other distinguished personages were sent to the frontiers to meet him, and the Caliph assigned him a residence, and loaded him with favours. But happening to take an active part in the dispute concerning the succession, his enemies prevailed against him; he was thrown into prison, and afterwards forced on board a ship bound for the coast of Africa. A storm drove the vessel to the coast of Syria, where Hassan disembarked; he then passed some years in travelling through different countries of the East, zealously spreading his doctrines, and acquiring proselytes. He had observed that during the space of two hundred years that had elapsed since Abdallah first introduced the secret doctrine into Islam, though the missionaries had been indefatigable, and the disciples numerous, except in the instance of the establishment of the Fatemite dynasty in Egypt, no temporal dominion, the attainment of which was the leading object of the society, had been acquired. He saw moreover that the Seljucides, as protectors of the phantom of a Caliph who sat at Bagdad, had risen to the highest power; and he conceived that as he was now strengthened by numerous disciples, he might, as the champion of the rights of the descendants of Ismail, take his rank with princes, when possessed of dominion and power. To attain this object, all he required was some strong position, from which as a centre he might gradually extend his possessions; and he fixed his eye upon the hill-fort of Alamoot, (that is-the Vulture's Nest, so named from its lofty and impregnable site,) situated in the district of Roodbar, to the north of Kasveen. Alamoot was gained partly by force and partly by stratagem; he first sent thither one of his most trusty Dais, who converted a great number of the inhabitants, and with their aid expelled the governor. Historians say, that he employed the same stratagem that Dido had used to gain the soil on which the built Carthage, but stories of that kind are common in the East; and Sir John Malcolm informs us, that the person with whom he read this piece of history told him, that it was in this manner the English obtained Calcutta of the poor Emperor of Delhi.

In possession of a strong fortress, Hassan turned his mind to the organization of that band of followers whose daggers were to spread the dread and the terror of his power throughout

Asia. Experience and reflection had shown him that the many could never be governed by the few, without the salutary curb of religion and morality; that a system of impiety, though it might serve to overturn, was not calculated to maintain and support a throne; and his object was now to establish a fixed and lasting dominion. Though as an adept, initiated in the highest degree of the lodge at Cairo, he had been long satisfied of the nothingness of all religion, he determined to maintain among his followers the religion of Islam in all its rigour. The most exact and minute observance of even its most trivial ordinances was to be exacted from those who, generally unknown to themselves, were banded for its destruction; and the veil of mystery, within which few were permitted to enter, shrouded the secret doctrine from the eyes of the major part of the society. The claims of Ismail, the purity of religion, were ostensibly advanced; but the rise of Hassan Sabah, and the downfall of all religion, were the real objects of those who directed the machinery.

The Ismailite doctrine had hitherto been disseminated by missionaries and companions alone. Heads without hands were of no avail in the eyes of Hassan; it was necessary to have a third class, which, ignorant of the secret doctrine, would be the blind and willing instruments of the designs of their superiors. This class were named the Fedavee or Devoted, were clothed in white, with red bonnets or girdles, and armed with daggers; these were the men who, reckless of their lives, executed the bloody mandates of the Sheikh-el-Jebel, the title assumed by Hassan. As a proof of the fanaticism that Hassan contrived to instil into his followers, we give the following instance In the year 1126, Kasim-ed-devlet Absoncor, the brave prince of Mosul, was, as he entered the mosque, attacked by eight assassins disguised as dervises; he killed three, and the rest, with the exception of one young man, were massacred by the people; but the prince had received his death wound. When the news spread that Kasim-ed-devlet had fallen by the daggers of the assassins, the mother of the young man who had escaped painted and adorned herself, rejoicing that her son had been found worthy to offer up his life in support of the good cause; but when he came back the only survivor, she cut off her hair and blackened her face, through grief that he had not shared the death of glory. "Such," observes M. Hammer," was the Spartanism of the As

sassins."

A display of the means by which the chief of the Assassins succeeded in infusing this spirit of strong faith and devotion into his followers forms an interesting chapter in the history of man. It might seem incredible, did not experience abundantly prove it, that the human mind could ever be brought to believe, or act on the most unfounded and irrational opinions; but those who reflect on the follies of the disciples of the various fanatics and impostors who have deluded mankind, will cease to be surprised at the blind devotion of the Fedavee. Even in our own days the chief of the Wahabees contrived to instil into his followers the persuasion that he could dispose of the man