Alamut

Favourite Quotes

“Nothing is true, everything is permitted” - The Supreme Ismaili Motto¹

“Omnia in numero et mensura” - “All things in number and measure”²

“A jackal starving in the desert is happier than a well-fed lion in a cage” p. 61

“When a woman starts thinking, she becomes dangerous” p. 264

“Study, get to know the world. Be afraid of nothing. Cast aside all your prejudices. Let nothing be too lofty or too base for you. Explore everything. Be brave.” p. 338

“A person can spend his whole life between four walls. If he doesn’t think or feel that he’s a prisoner, then he’s not a prisoner. But then there are people for whom the whole planet is a prison, who see the infinite expanse of the universe, the millions of stars and galaxies that remain forever inaccessible to them. And that awareness makes them the greatest prisoners of time and space.” p. 377

“Is there anything that makes a person braver than friendship? Is there anything more touching than love? And is there anything more exalted than the truth?” - Afterword

Short Summary

• Takes place during the time of the Assassins sect in the middle east. Follows the story of Ibn Tahir (Avani), Halima, and the rest of their friends.
• The castle of Alamut is an indoctrination camp led by Ibn Sabbah. They take teenage boys and convince them that they need to die for their cause to enter heaven. In Alamut there is a majestic looking place where Halima and the other girls live where they seduce the boys.
• The boys, once indoctrinated with Ibn Sabbah’s teachings, will do anything for him

Long Summary

Chapter 1

• Halima, a young slave girl, is bought by an unknown person and taken on a long and intricate journey to a mysterious location full of gardens and other women dressed in beautiful clothing. Halima was worried she was being taken to a prison or some place where she’ll be hurt, but she is relieved when she reaches her destination.
• This mysterious place also had a castle.
• The leader of the women is Apama, an Indian woman, older than the rest of the girls.
• Miriam is the first person to greet Halima and acts as her protector
• Sara and Zainab are Halima’s companions
• Miriam and Apama are the only one’s who know Sayyiduna personally. Most of the other girls have never even seen him. He is their master.
• A gazelle and Ahriman, the leopard, are friends. Halima is shocked that these two animals can be friends in this world when “the Prophet said that Allah was reserving that miracle for the inhabitants of paradise”
  • Here is the first allusion to this place being similar to paradise.
• Their Quran and poetry teacher is Adi, an African Eunuch who is very close to Sayyiduna.
• Their dance teacher is Asad, an African Eunuch.
• The girls have a strict schedule of lots of different lessons and designated eating times. They are NOT allowed to eat outside this time.
• Hamza, Telha, and Sohal were the three eunuchs working in the kitchen led by Apama
• Moad and Mustafa were the two eunuch garden keepers
• So there are 7 total eunuchs working in this place
• Sara says that Miriam and Sayyiduna are like husband and wife, not literally but that’s how close they are.
• Sara, Fatima, Jada, and Safiya were the first ones to arrive at this place. Miriam, although very close to Sayyiduna, came later. Apama came before all of them.
• Even Apama has to answer to Miriam. Although Apama seems like shes the leader figure.
• Apama teaches a class on the service of love
• Fatima and Zulaika teach a class on music and singing
• Sara really likes Halima, in a lesbian way

Chapter 2

• We meet the character Avani. He’s the grandson of Tahir, a former Ismaili leader. Avani’s father tells him to seek the castle in Alamut to avenge Tahir.
• Tahir was beheaded by the Seljuks many years ago. He is considered a martyr and hero by the Ismailis.
• Avani joins a class of many other young boys, all under 20. He quickly becomes friends with Sulaiman.
• Yusuf is the biggest of the boys, sort of a leader figure.
• Even the boys who’ve been there for over a year have never seen Sayyiduna.
• These boys are all fedayeen in training. The fedayeen are an elite group of soldiers trained to give their life to the cause.
• The elders/teachers are called “Dai”. These are fedayeen soldiers who survived and are now teaching recruits.
• Dai Abdul Malik teaches will-power class, military class
• Dai Ibrahim teaches algebra, dogma, grammar, and philosophy
• Dai Abu Soraka teaches Arabic grammar, history of the Prophet, poetry
• These boys are used to harsh punishments. Ex pg 43 Obeida is ordered to flog himself for lying.
• Avani (Ibn Tahir) is a natural. He can hold his breath until he faints which takes a lot of will power. He is very good at poetry.
• Ranking of the dai’s highest to lowest: Ibrahim > Abdul Malik > Abu Soraka

Chapter 3

• Halima is quickly loved by all. She would get whatever she wanted. Even Apama liked her, which is strange considering she hates all the other girls.
• Halima visits the farm with Adi. The farm is located in this mysterious place but is on a separate island so they must take a boat.
• Miriam finally finds out that Halima and Sara have been inappropriate with each other. She slaps Sara and orders her to move her sleeping stuff to a windowless chamber down the hall. She orders Halima to sleep with herself for the time being.
• Miriam is a Christian.
• Miriam tells her story to Halima about how her father, a merchant in Aleppo, lost his entire wealth and was forced to sell her to a rich Jew. He become her husband. She hated him because he would boast to others about Miriam’s virtues, modesty, physical features, etc. One day Miriam receives a letter from an unknown “sheikh Muhammad”. She falls in love with him. With the help of a maid working for the Jew, she runs away with the sheikh. The Jew is furious and goes after her along with many of his people. They catch up and kill the sheikh. Miriam is brought back to the Jew who is on his deathbed. She is punished. After the Jew dies, she is sold as a slave to Sayyiduna.
• Halima catches Sara and the eunuch Mustafa lying down together in the garden “doing things that Apama usually talked about in her lessons”, i.e. sexual things. They do not see Halima and Halima keeps it a secret.

Chapter 4

• Sayyiduna, whose real name is Hasan ibn Ali, was a student of a Sunni scholar named Muafiq Edin. His fellow student was Omar Khayyam.
• Ibn Tahir learned poetry quickly and his works became known in Alamut, even Sayyiduna loved his poetry.
• Ibn Tahir, Sulaiman, and Yusuf became inseparable friends.
• The fedayeen are prohibited from sexual acts and marriage. Punishment for marriage is a painful death preceded by torture.
• The fedayeen students shared their stories of how they’ve joined the cause.
• The dai’s have a big gathering where the dai’s around the middle east come to visit. Dai Abu Ali is the highest ranking dai, only second to Sayyiduna himself. Sayyiduna doesn’t attend this gathering and all communication comes through Abu Ali
• Sayyiduna’s two daughters are in the care of Dai Abu Soraka, while Sayyiduna’s only son is in serving as a foot soldier in the castle of Dai Husein Alkeini.

Chapter 5

• Abul Fazel, the former mayor (reis) of Isfahan arrives at Alamut to speak to Ibn Sabbah. Abul Fazel is greatly respected in Alamut because he kept Ibn Sabbah hidden in his house for four months while the Grand Vizier Nizam al-Mulk was hunting him.
• It is revealed that the Ismaili army under Ibn Sabbah is a total of 1500 soldiers, with 300 being in Alamut
• Abul Fazel came to inform him that the Sultan has dispatched an army of 30,000 soldiers to take back Alamut and that Grand Vizier Nizam al-Mulk has been removed, but is tasked with killing all of the Ismailis
• Everyone at the castle of Alamut are preparing for a fight. They are sending their women and children away while the men remain in the castle.
• Abul Fazel gave Ibn Hasan some of Omar Khayyam’s poetry as a gift.

Chapter 6 - One of the best chapters

• Ibn Sabbah went down a make-shift elevator from his tower. This took him to some unknown area where he met with Adi. He told Adi to get Miriam.
  • The mysterious forest where the girls are is located in the same compound as the castle.
• He made Miriam to recite Omar Khayyam’s poetry.
• After poetry, he told Miriam his life story… his father was a closeted Shia while Ibn Sabbah himself was a truth seeker. He was never satisfied with Sunni or Shia doctrine, but eventually came across an Ismaili teacher who sparked his curiosity. This Ismaili teacher, after ‘testing’ Ibn Sabbah revealed the true doctrine of the Ismaili, which is that “the doctrine of Ali and Mahdi is just bait for the masses of believers…”
  • Religion is essentially a tool to control the masses.
  • “The truth is unknowable. Therefore we believe in nothing and have no limits on what we can do.” p. 123, said by the Ismaili teacher to Ibn Hasan
• Ibn Sabbah continues his life story… after this encounter with the Ismaili teacher, his father gets concerned and sends him to Muafiq Edin, a Sunni scholar whom he learns under. His classmates are Omar Khayyam and Nizam al-Mulk. He revealed to his classmates that he’s an Ismaili and convinces them of it. He tells them we have to rise up against the barbarians. They all make an agreement to climb up the social ladder as quickly as possible in order to gain influence, and the first one to succeed should help the other two.
• Ibn Sabbah’s beliefs are that “truth is unattainable to us, it doesn’t exist for us.” He made his mission to free everyone and open up mankind’s eyes to the lies they’ve been told.
• Ibn Sabbah reveals his plan to Miriam, i.e. his plan for why he has the girls in the island and training them in a specific way. He commands Miriam to teach the girls to behave as if they’re in paradise. He then leaves.
• Ibn Sabbah meets with Apama. He tells her the gardens will be having visitors.

Chapter 7

• The boys had their big examination to see if they are worthy of becoming fedayeen. This test consists of sword fighting, archery, spear fighting, dogma, poetry, willpower, history, etc.
• Dai Husein Alkeini’s castle has been besieged. He sent a raven to let Ibn Sabbah know.
• The boys all passed the test and are now fedayeen.
• Ibn Sabbah visits Miriam and Apama and tells them the plan. He orders them to command the girls to tell the visitors (the boys) who will be coming tomorrow that they are houris in paradise.

Chapter 8

• The boys are on a hill with the army scouting for the Sultan’s army to arrive
• Ibn Tahir is contemplating that maybe Sayyiduna doesn’t even exist, or is dead, because no one in his class, and in the entire castle has even seen him. He’s also contemplating about how nice it would be to finally arrive in paradise.
• Right before the enemy arrives, Dai Buzurg Ummid arrived. He is a grand Dai, right beside Dai Abu Ali. These two Dai’s are the highest ranking Dais.
• The battle starts. The Ismailis win. They lost 26 men in the battle, while the Sultan lost 112 men and his commander, who the Ismailis beheaded.
• Ibn Sabbah finally comes down and talks to everyone to congratulate them.

Chapter 9

• Miriam and Apama revealed to the girls their task (making the lanterns) and their purpose for being here. They don’t seem to react positively.
• Ibn Sabbah finally revealed his real plan regarding the fedayeen and the garden/paradise to Abu Ali and Buzurg Ummid. He also showed and explained them the drug and how it works. Finally, he shows them the ‘paradise’ garden that he’s built through a window in the tower.
• Ibn Sabbah, Abu Ali, Buzurg Ummid dress up as kings in fancy clothes, and go down the elevator to visit the paradise

Chapter 10

• Ibn Sabbah and his two grand Dai’s visited the garden and met the girls. He gave a little speech to them.
• He split them into 3 groups, with each group having a leader: Fatima, Zuleika, and Miriam. These 3 girls had to choose the rest to be part of their group to lead the harems. Miriam was upset that she was chosen, she assumed she would be excluded from the harems for the fedayeen because she loves Ibn Sabbah and thought she was exclusively for him.
• Abu Ali and Buzurg Ummid spoke privately about what they saw and had second thoughts about Ibn Sabbah’s plans, but still believed in him.
• Ibn Sabbah has chosen Yusuf, Sulaiman, and Ibn Tahir to be the first fedayeen to go into the ‘paradise’.
• He drugged the 3 boys and sent them to the eunuchs to take them to paradise.

Chapter 11

• Fatima’s group has been assigned to Sulaiman
• Zuleika’s group has been assigned to Yusuf
• Miriam’s group has been assigned to Ibn Tahir. Ibn Sabbah specifically asked for this.
• Ibn Sabbah tells his 2 grand dai’s the story of how he became a prophet… After he was banished from Egypt he was on a ship destined to Africa which he didn’t want to go to. The ship was in a middle of a bad storm, so he bribed the captain to turn around and go to Syria and use the storm as an excuse. The people on the ship were crying and worried they were going to die. Ibn Sabbah told them they will be safe and land in Syria. Once that did happen, they were astonished on how he could prophesy such a thing. So they wanted to become his followers.
  • he came to the realization that faith is a strong force, and all you need is “to know a little bit more than the ones who are supposed to believe” p. 200
• Sulaiman, who went to Fatima’s group, had a proclivity towards Halima. Halima was hesitant at first but soon embraced it.
• In Zuleika’s group, she has really taken the charge and doesn’t allow any of the other girls to even come near Yusuf. She openly expresses her jealously when Yusuf is talking to any other girl.
• A eunuch comes to Ibn Sabbah and tells him to come to the garden immediately because something is wrong with Ibn Tahir.

Chapter 12

• Ibn Tahir, immediately upon waking, is doubtful of where he is. He leaves the tent with Miriam and is thinking he’s dreaming. Eventually he succumbs to the fact that he’s in paradise.
• Ibn Tahir falls in love with Miriam. The two spend some time alone after Miriam orders the other girls to leave.
• Apama orders the other girls to go back and not leave the two alone.
• Miriam is ordered to leave and see Ibn Sabbah who has waiting outside. Apama ratted on her, but Ibn Sabbah isn’t concerned and says Miriam has her own approach/view on this
• After the fedayeen went back to sleep, the eunuchs brought them back the Alamut

Chapter 13

• Ibn Sabbah talks to all 3 fedayeen when they wake up. They all believe they were in paradise by the grace of Ibn Sabbah. Sulaiman took a bracelet from Halima before he left which Ibn Sabbah found. He told him that he’ll give the bracelet back when it’s time to go back to the paradise.
• The 3 fedayeen tell the rest of their classmates everything that happened in paradise. They don’t believe them at first, but later believe.
• Ibn Sabbah goes to the garden and asks who the bracelet belongs to. No one admits, but Halima starts tearing up and shaking, so it becomes obvious. He spares her this time, but tells the girls if this happens again, they will die. Miriam thanks him for the mercy.
• News goes around Alamut that 3 fedayeen went to paradise. The dai’s are shocked and confused by this (not the grand dais, rather the normal dais). The soldiers are amazed at Ibn Sabbah’s power bestowed to him by Allah.
• Ibn Tahir, with the help of Naim, uses candle wax to create an impression of Miriam’s bite marks on his body. He says he’ll guard this wax like the relics of the Prophet.
• Miriam and Ibn Sabbah meet up to talk. Miriam begs Ibn Sabbah to promise her to be merciful to Ibn Tahir going forward. Ibn Sabbah said he cannot make such promises.

Chapter 14

• The fedayeen are now instructors teaching the new class of fedayeen recruits.
• Ibn Tahir, Sulaiman, and Yusuf are having withdrawal symptoms and are desperate for an assignment that takes them to paradise.
• The 3 fedayeen are now famous in Alamut for having went to paradise. They are celebrities now, which Ibn Tahir dislikes.
• Sulaiman goes to talk to Abu Ali and tells him he can’t stand this anymore and needs to go back to paradise. Abu Ali conveys the message to Ibn Sabbah who is happy about it, because it means his plan is working.
• Sulaiman, at night time, molests Naim, thinking Naim is Halima. Naim yells out.
• Ibn Sabbah gives an assignment to Ibn Tahir: to study Al-Ghazali’s book, then go to Baghdad and pretend to be his student. He tells Tahir to keep this a secret.
• a messenger arrived from Khuzestan telling Ibn Sabbah that Husein Alkeini (Dai at another castle) was murdered by Hosein, which is Ibn Sabbah’s own son. Ibn Sabbah collapsed.

Chapter 15

• Ibn Sabbah plans on executing his son.
• Ibn Sabbah sends Ibn Tahir on his mission. He is to kill the grand vizier, Nizam al-Mulk with a poison dagger while posing as one of Ghazali’s students.
• Before leaving, Ibn Tahir destroyed the wax cast of Miriam’s bite
• Ibn Tahir met with the vizier and stabbed him in the throat with the sharp needle. He got arrested. The blow wasn’t fatal, but it was poison so the Vizier is slowly dying.
• The Vizier talks to Ibn Tahir and asks him why he did that. Eventually, he demonstrated to ibn Tahir that the ‘paradise’ he went to was just a garden in Alamut and the houris were bought slaves. Ibn Tahir regrets stabbing the vizier and is remorseful. He finally realizes he’s been duped!
• The Vizier asks Ibn Tahir if he wants to amend for his crime, to which the latter says yes. The Vizier asks him to go back to Alamut and kill Ibn Sabbah. Ibn Tahir gladly agrees, to the displeasure of the Vizier’s entourage who wanted to see Ibn Tahir get punished.
• The next day, the Vizier dies from his wounds.

Chapter 16

• The Sultan’s soldiers have arrived at Alamut and are surrounding it. Alamut has enough resources to survive a siege for a year.
• The Sultan’s messengers went inside Alamut to convey a message to Ibn Sabbah. Ibn Sabbah told them to submit to the true prophet himself, that he carries the keys to paradise. He proved it by telling them that Yusuf and Sulaiman went to paradise. He then gave the pellet (drug) to Yusuf and Sulaiman. He told Yusuf to go to the tower and jump off and Sulaiman to stab himself in the heart, and that they will go to heaven. They did that, much to the horror of Sultan’s messengers and all of Alamut’s soldiers.
• The messengers returned back to the Emir of the army and told him what happened. He was shocked and told the messengers to keep silent about what they saw.
• Abu Ali and Buzurg Ummid consider Ibn Sabbah to be quite mad with crazy ideas. Ibn Sabbah tells them they are his successors.

Chapter 17

• After Ibn Sabbah orders Yusuf and Sulaiman to kill themselves, Abu Soraka is very shocked and disturbed, and doesn’t know how to feel about it.
• Ibn Sabbah calls upon Obeida, Jafar, and Abdurahman. They will be sent to paradise soon.
• Halima is still in love with Sulaiman and believes he will come again. Miriam tells the girls that a new batch of 3 boys will be coming soon.
• The 3 boys are fed wine and a pellet, but Obeida pretends to eat it and instead hides it in his coat. He does this so he can find out the truth about this ‘paradise’.
• The boys arrive. Obeida is sent to the same tent where Halima is. She is expecting/hoping for Sulaiman, but it’s not him. She becomes very upset and runs off. She jumps into the river and Ahriman (the leopard) jumps in to save her, but the current takes them both. They both die.
• The other girls quickly wipe their tears because another tells them that Obeida has awoken (he was never asleep in the first place, only pretending) and is doubting they are houris.
• Miriam and Ibn Sabbah are in a tent together. She asks him what the 3 original fedayeen are doing now. He tells her Yusuf and Sulaiman killed themselves by his command. He tells the full story. She is shocked and horrified. He says that if there truly is a divine power like Allah, then a sign would’ve happened when he ordered them to kill themselves, but nothing happened.
• One of the girls comes rushing to Ibn Sabbah and Miriam and tells them that Halima died and Obeida doesn’t believe he’s in paradise. Ibn Sabbah orders his eunuchs to kill Obeida and bury him, and bring the other boys back.
• The girls are mourning for Halima. Miriam orders them to sleep. After, she goes to take a bath and slits her wrists in the tub. The next morning Fatima found her dead, screamed, and fainted.
• A soldier from the Sultan’s army went to the river with his horse and finds Halima’s naked dead body along with Ahriman. He notifies his captain who orders them to bury them both side by side.

Chapter 18 - One of the best chapters

• Ibn Vakas, one of the fedayeen has established a black market trade between Alamut and the Sultan’s army. He found out that the Sultan’s army is short on supplies and have lost half their men, with the rest wanting to retreat.
• The emir of the army found out the Vizier has been murdered. He remembered Ibn Sabbah’s message from several days ago that in 6-12 days something will happen to the Vizier. He is shocked and worried.
• the soldiers operating the catapults from the sultan’s army have fled due to hunger.
• after a meeting with his officers, the emir decided to retreat completely. Alamut is not besieged anymore.
• Ibn Sabbah is getting worried about his plan. He thinks its getting out of control as it’s killing people who it’s not intended to, referring to Miriam’s suicide. He has become even more withdrawn from his people.
• Ibn Sabbah is notified about the Viziers murder. He orders that from this day on everyone must revere Ibn Tahir as the greatest martyr for the cause.
• Ibn Tahir returns to the castle. Ibn Sabbah orders that he’s tied up and brought to him. Tahir asks him that before he kills him, tell him how he was able to come up with such a dirty plan.
  • Ibn Sabbah gives his answer on pg 335-338. This dialogue is AMAZING.
• Ibn Tahir understands Ibn Sabbah’s perspective. He lets Tahir go, and tells him to go study, get to know the world, explore everything, etc. After he finishes and there’s nothing left to draw counsel from, he should return to Alamut, and he’ll be at the summit of Araf. p. 338
• “Ibn Tahir the feday had died, and the philosopher Avani had been born.” p. 339
• The grand dai’s come to Ibn Sabbah and told him that Ibn Tahir just rode out of the castle (they thought he died). He said that must have been someone else as Tahir died for the Ismaili cause. He also says to them “By the way, something pleasant has happened to me, and I’ve been meaning to tell you: I have a son.” p. 339
  • Wow. This really hit me… He’s referring to Ibn Tahir of course.
• Ibn Vakas is executed as the murderer of the Vizier. They needed someone to execute as they lost Ibn Tahir.
• Ibn Tahir, or rather, Avani, arrives in India.

Chapter 19

• The new Vizier, Taj al-Mulk is supposedly Ibn Sabbah’s friend. But he sends another army to attack Alamut as he sees Sabbah as a threat.
• Ibn Sabbah sends a letter to the Sultan with demands: give me back my castles that I held before the Vizier attacked. Give me 50k gold per year to maintain my army. In return, I pledge not to acquire any new strongholds, and will defend the northern border against barbarians.
• The Sultan is insulted and sends a messenger to Sabbah demanding that he abandon all his castles and surrender. Ibn Sabbah imprisons the messenger.
• Ibn Sabbah summons Jafar, one of the fedayeen. His task is to imitate the Sultan’s messenger and the doctor will make him look like him. Then, he is to see the Sultan and assassinate him.
• Hosein, Ibn Sabbah’s son, who killed the grand dai of another castle is brought to Alamut. Ibn Sabbah signs his death sentence, which is a hand chopping then beheading.

Chapter 20

• Hosein, Ibn Sabbah’s son, is executed
• Jafar successfully assassinates the sultan, but is killed in the process.
• The sultan’s youngest son, 4 year old Muhammad, is proclaimed the new Sultan, to the dismay of the Sultan’s oldest son Barkiarok.

Chapter 21

• Barkiarok and Ibn Sabbah sign an alliance deal: Ibn Sabbah will help Barkiarok to become Sultan, and Barkiarok will pay Sabbah a yearly tax.
• The armies of Barkiarok and Muhammad go to war. Taj al-Mulk, Muhammad’s vizier is captured and executed.
• The middle east and Iran is in chaos. Lots of smaller regions have declared independence and wars are everywhere.
• Ibn Sabbah makes a speech to his people in Alamut. He says this is the last time anyone will ever see him. He officially declares independence from the Egyptian caliph. He assigns new roles to his Dais and orders that they conquer other castles and strongholds.

Analysis

Notes and Quotes

Freedom

• Halima and the eunuch Adi were talking about the animals in the garden. ” ‘How beautiful all this is!’ Halima exclaimed. ‘Yes it’s pretty’, Adi said dully. ‘But freedom is far more beautiful’. Halima was puzzled. ‘Freedom, you said? Aren’t we living in freedom here?’ ‘You don’t understand because you’re a woman. I’m telling you, a jackal starving in the desert is happier than a well-fed lion in a cage’ ” p. 61
• “A person can spend his whole life between four walls. If he doesn’t think or feel that he’s a prisoner, then he’s not a prisoner. But then there are people for whom the whole planet is a prison, who see the infinite expanse of the universe, the millions of stars and galaxies that remain forever inaccessible to them. And that awareness makes them the greatest prisoners of time and space.” p. 377
  • this re-iterates a central theme in this book: the importance of perception. Perception is what dictates everything in life. Even the very concept of freedom is not ‘true’. Our senses are faulty, so our perception is not reliable. Therefore are we truly free? Ultimately, if you feel you’re free, then you’re free. The same way if you feel like you’re in heaven, then you are.

Faith

• Ibn Sabbah says “I’m going to show the world what kind of miracles faith can work” - p. 109
  • I don’t think he means he has faith, but the faith his people and fedayeen have… the ‘fake faith’
• Ibn Sabbah says “then I tried to open just the brighter individuals’ eyes. Many of them listened to me carefully. But when I would finish, they would reply that they had had similar doubts themselves, but that it seemed more practical to them to hold onto something solid than to grope their way through eternal uncertainty and endless negation. Not just simple folk from the masses, even the more exalted minds preferred a tangible lie to an ungraspable truth.” - p. 126
• “People only keep believing in it because they’re too lazy to seize onto anything new” - p. 127
  • faith is EASY. Search for the truth is HARD. Why do you think the magi and priests of pagan times were venerated? Because they were on the ever-lasting pursuit of truth. They took psychedelics to try and unlock this truth. They never had faith. Faith is fundamentally an Abrahamic concept.
  • So Ibn Sabbah embarked on a mission to “test human blindness to its utmost limits” - p. 127-128. It was simply all an experiment for him. He is going to take advantage of the concept of faith and see how far it takes him. Reminds me of law 27 Play On People’s Need To Believe To Create A Cultlike Following
• “(The masses are) afraid of uncertainty, which is why they prefer a lie that promises something tangible to even the most exalted truth if it doesn’t give them anything to hold on to.” p. 127
  • people prefer comfort. That’s what faith is, a source of comfort. One could say even a lie since many people don’t truly believe it, they just choose to believe it because it’s easy.
• Regarding faith: “You just need to know a little bit more than the ones who are supposed to believe. Then it’s easy to work miracles” - p. 200
  • context: Ibn Sabbah is telling the story of how he became a prophet to his grand Dais. He became a prophet by travelling on a ship to Syria. The ship went through a storm and Ibn Sabbah was the only calm person. He told the people (who happened to be Franks) that Allah has told him that they’ll arrive safely. They were shocked when his ‘prophecy’ came to pass.
  • it was at this moment that he realized what a powerful force ‘faith’ is and how easy it is to awaken in people.

Nihilism

• Ibn Sabbah talking to Miriam, “There’s been many times when you’ve sworn to me that after all that life has dealt you, it was no longer possible for you to believe in anything. I replied that both life and my studies had led me to the same conclusion. I asked you, ‘What is a person permitted, once he’s realized that truth is unattainable and consequently doesn’t exist for him?’ Do you remember your answer?… I do Ibn Sabbah. I said something like this: ‘If a person realized that everything people call happiness, love and joy was just a miscalculation based on a false premise, he’d feel a horrible emptiness inside. The only thing that could rouse him from his paralysis would be to gamble with his own fate and the fate of others. The person capable of that would be permitted anything’ ” - p. 120

Ismaili Secret Teachings/Doctrine

• the refiq speaking to a young Ibn Sabbah: “The doctrine of Ali and Mahdi is just bait for the masses of believers who hate Baghdad and venerate the name of the Prophet’s son in law… the Quran is the product of a muddled brain. The truth is unknowable. Therefore we believe in nothing and have no limits on what we can do” - p. 123
  • everybody claims their own way is the truth, and they swear by it. Every religion claims it is the sole truth, etc. The teachings of the Ismaili’s posits that truth is unattainable by us, it doesn’t exist for us.
  • Ibn Sabbah’s response to this was to learn about everything, learn all the sciences, languages, etc, in other words, try to at least attempt to learn the truth - p. 125
• when it comes to the supreme doctrine (nothing is real, everything is permitted), this is considered the mysterious esoteric truth of Ismailism. Only the highest can know it. But Ibn Sabbah isn’t concerned if anyone learns of it because he says that “Most of them won’t understand it anyway” p. 168
• Ibn Sabbah’s divisions of people - p. 201
  • there are those who know truth is unattainable. They are the leaders.
  • then there those who are the opposite. The ones who must be fed lies and fairytales by the leaders
  • the leaders do this because they are trying to achieve some goal, and the latter category of people simply cannot understand that goal
• page 376 talks about the levels of belief in the Ismaili system. Sort of like the levels of initiation in the various ‘mystery’ religions of the past
  • the highest level (level 5) is learning the supreme motto: Nothing is real, everything is permitted
  • right below that level is the understanding that the Quran doesn’t contain the ultimate mysteries and that those are equally distributed amongst all the faiths (perennialism)
  • and there are 3 levels below that, the lowest are the fairy tales for the simple-minded believer

Ibn Sabbah’s Character

• Ibn Sabbah’s mind and heart
  • when he visited the first Ismaili teacher who taught him the orthodox teaching, he tried to accept the teachings as truth but his heart had rejected it
    • it’s because it didn’t fulfill his curiosity, his longing for truth
  • when he visited the refiq who exposed the true teachings, his didn’t immediately understand it so his mind/reason had rejected it, but his heart accepted it
  • this is on page 124. Need to copy full quote
  • ” ‘I can see into your hearts. You would like to believe, but you can’t. Why is that, Ibn Tahir?’ ‘You know everything and see everything Sayyiduna. It’s hard to believe in something that our mind can’t grasp. The spirit is willing, but the intellect resists’ ” - p. 191
• on page 123 when Sabbah as a kid, he was shocked to hear the Ismaili’s were deceiving people… many years later, he’s employing those same tricks
• he accurately implements Law 16 Use Absence To Increase Respect And Honor
  • on page 149, Ibn Tahir even starts to doubt that he even exists
• He wanted to see himself in his son, but he was disappointed
  • “it was a joy to look at (my son). ‘I’ll see my own youth in him’, I thought. I took him into my house and… how can I make you understand my disappointment? Where was that passion for finding the truth, where was that higher calling that shook my soul when I was his age… To begin with I told him, ‘The Koran is a book with seven seals’, His response was ‘It’s not up to me to unseal them’ ” - p. 167
  • he goes on to reveal the ultimate Ismaili truth: nothing is real, everything is permitted. His son responded saying that he discovered that at age 14 (in a condescending type of way). Safe to say Ibn Sabbah does NOT like his son
• Ibn Sabbah does have an emotional side, as much as he tries to conceal it
  • “Hasan lowered his eyes. He could almost feel his heart drop. now he realized why he had always been reluctant to get to know the fedayeen better. p. 278
  • context: Ibn Sabbah gave Ibn Tahir an assignment and Ibn Tahir gladly agreed because he wants to return to paradise. Ibn Tahir said “Oh… Sayyiduna!” then Ibn Sabbah said the above quote
  • this shows that Ibn Sabbah is getting an attachment to Ibn Tahir
• Ibn Sabbah’s worldview was that of the Ismaili motto, and ultimately his plan, which was his purpose
  • as opposed to Omar Khayyam who “drinking win, a beautiful girl serving him while he writes poems and laughs at the whole world. He was free to contemplate and perceive. To enjoy perfect tranquility. At this instant he envied him. ‘Yes, he drew the best lot of the three of us’ ” - p. 241
  • in an earlier passage when Ibn Sabbah was talking to his grand Dais, he mentioned how he would’ve loved to be his the Fedayeen’s shoes, experiencing ‘heaven’ and being in a state of blissful ignorance… as they say: ignorance is bliss
  • he is a victim of his intellect
• “I’m neither cruel nor merciful. I’m just carrying out my plan.” - p. 265
  • said by Ibn Sabbah to Mariam
  • really goes to show Ibn Sabbah’s worldview and opinions. He doesn’t believe in morality so obviously he doesn’t think anything he does is cruel or merciful. It’s all simply about his plan
• “He collapsed onto his bed and tried to go to sleep, but he couldn’t. Bu day he was afraid of nothing. Now he saw Suleiman’s face, down to the tiniest details. Yes, he had seemed to be happy. And yet, in the next instant the life was extinguished within him. Great God! What a horrible experiment!” - p. 323
  • As Tolstoy says, where there is life, there is happiness
  • Ibn Sabbah realizes his entire experiment is terrible.
  • it’s very clear Ibn Sabbah is experiencing cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, he tells Mariam he’s simply following his plan and there’s no morality ascribed to it, on the other hand he recognizes the cruelty of his plan
• “Am I a beast for destroying him? Once begun, the building has to be finished. If your heart is an obstacle, tell it to be silent, because all great things are great in spite of human beings.” - p. 357
  • Ibn Sabbah said this to himself, contemplating after signing his son’s death warrant
  • Ibn Sabbah seems to have a very grim and dark view of the world. He rejects feelings of the heart.

Ibn Sabbah and Ibn Tahir Relationship / Similarities

• Ibn Sabbah similarities with Ibn Tahir
  • page 192: Ibn Tahir first thought after taking the drug was ‘what if I was poisoned?’ this was exactly Ibn Sabbah’s first thought on page 172
    • Sulaiman also thinks this, so maybe this is nothing…
• When Ibn Sabbah was a kid he visited the first Ismaili teacher who taught him the orthodox teaching, he tried to accept the teachings as truth but his heart had rejected it
  • it’s because it didn’t fulfill his curiosity, his longing for truth
  • when he visited the refiq who exposed the true teachings, his didn’t immediately understand it so his mind/reason had rejected it, but his heart accepted it
  • ” ‘I can see into your hearts. You would like to believe, but you can’t. Why is that, Ibn Tahir?’ ‘You know everything and see everything Sayyiduna. It’s hard to believe in something that our mind can’t grasp. The spirit is willing, but the intellect resists’ ” - p. 191
  • as shown in the quote above, Ibn Tahir’s spirit/heart is willing to accept
• Ibn Tahir’s character
  • page 228. Upon waking up in ‘heaven’, he immediately requests to investigate where he is. He refuses to bath and eat first. Sulaiman and Yusuf didn’t have this reaction, they believed they were in heaven right away
  • on page 229 is is asking lots of questions to Mariam about the nature of their ‘heaven’. He is very inquisitive, just like Ibn Sabbah himself, which is why he viewed him as a son
• “If he figured things out on his own? What you mean is, if he’s already half-grasped my plan? Then he’d understand me. He’d be a son of my own spirit in that case. No. No. He’d see me as a fraud. He’d proclaim to the whole world that I’m a cheat. How could he understand at his age what it’s taken me a whole lifetime to see?” - p. 265
  • Context: Mariam asked him what if Ibn Tahir figured out things on his own (the plan) and Ibn Sabbah replied with the above
  • this is very interesting because later on Ibn Sabbah does reveal the plan, and Ibn Tahir DOES understand it. He didn’t need a lifetime. This is also a likely reason why Ibn Sabbah likes him so much. He sees genuine intellect and curiosity in Ibn Tahir.
• Ibn Sabbah tells his dais: “Something pleasant has happened to me, and I’ve been meaning to tell you: I have a son” - p. 339
• “Maybe he’s my physical offspring, but he’s never been my spiritual son… there is somebody after all who will be able to assume my legacy… Ibn Tahir” - p. 350
  • Ibn Sabbah needed someone on his level to assume his legacy. That person is Ibn Tahir
• “He had become one of us. My son, my younger brother… I relive my youth in (his) process. I worry for him. In my mind I see his eyes being opened, I see him making discoveries… how powerfully I feel with him!” - p. 350
  • Ibn Sabbah talking about Ibn Tahir

Ibn Sabbah’s Plan

• Ethnic pride
  • the Ismaili doctrine and Ibn Sabbah’s motivation is partially based on ethnic/origin pride
  • “Don’t you see we’ve become slaves of the Turks? - p. 123
  • “do you want us, the descendants of the Khosrows, of the kings of Iran, of Rustam, Farhad, and Firdausi, to be the hirelings of those horse thieves from Turkestan?… the only shame is in groveling before foreigners and bowing down to barbarians!” - p. 125
  • Ibn Sabbah’s entire plan was to take down the Seljuk Empire it seems. p. 369-370
• Inspiration of the fake paradise trick
  • he recalled the story of Muhammad and his companions. The companions were promised paradise as a reward for jihad. This is why they did ANYTHING Muhammad asked of them. Ibn Sabbah was simply recreating this level of faith in his followers, this is specifically the goal of the fedayeen. PROVE to them that Ibn Sabbah has the keys to paradise then they’ll do ANYTHING he says
  • seeing is believing, as they say! This ties into the discussions on perception
• Experiment on human nature
  • “Tonight you’ll join me for an experiment in altering human nature” - p. 176
  • this is just to show that Ibn Sabbah is really simply undertaking a grand experiment
• the fedayeen, once they experience the fake paradise, will long for it again so they will sacrifice their life for the cause. But why do they long for it? Many reasons:
  • They’ve never experienced that before. Remember, a condition to become a fedayeen is that you’re a virgin, so never been with a woman. It’s a new experience for them
  • The hashish becomes addictive, and the hashish is associated with the fake paradise. So they want the hashish/paradise again
  • the fake paradise is obviously convincing: beautiful gardens, beautiful girls, the best wines and food, etc
• Regret
  • page 328. Ibn Sabbah seems to have feeling of regrets over his plan. It’s killing people not intended to die, like Mariam
  • he wishes Omar Khayyam were here. He knew Omar would not have approved of his action, but would’ve understood them, and that’s what he needed most. This is an important point because later on Ibn Tahir understood his plan and that’s exactly what Ibn Sabbah needed to hear in order to relax and ease out
• Revealing the truth behind the plan
  • “Do you think the overwhelming majority of people care about the truth? Far from it!. They want to be left alone, and they want fair tales to feed their hungry imaginations… if this is what humankind is like, then exploit its weaknesses to achieve your higher goals, which will benefit them too, even though they don’t understand that. I appealed to the stupidity and gullibility of people. To their passion for pleasure, their selfish desires.” - p. 336
    • Ibn Sabbah revealing the behind-the-scenes of his plan to Ibn Tahir
  • Ibn Sabbah reveals everything to Ibn Tahir, and the latter fully understands it all. He vows to learn everything he can, to study the sciences, study with the most famous scholars in the world, explore the libraries, etc
    • Ibn Tahir embarks on his journey to climb Al-Araf (see quote about that)
    • Ibn Sabbah’s final advice: “Get far away from here, son. Study, get to know the world. be afraid of nothing. Cast aside your prejudices. Let nothing be too lofty or too base for you. Explore everything. Be brave. When nothing remains for you to draw council from, come back here. I may not be here anymore. But my people will be. You’ll be welcome. I’ll see to it. When that happens, you’ll be at the summit of Araf.” - p. 338
  • “Ibn Tahir the feday had died, and the philosopher Avani had been born.” - p. 339

Knowledge

• “Ultimate knowledge is impossible, because our senses lie to us. But they’re the only mediator between the things that surround us and our thoughts, our intellect.” p. 127
  • this is why “nothing is true”. You cannot discern truth if your means of discernment is fundamentally faulty
• “Because only a woman can turn a male into a whole man. She confers knowledge on him, makes it possible for him to mature. He loses his spiritual innocence together with his physical innocence. This is why everything drives a boy toward that fateful event.” p. 176
  • reminds me of Adam and Eve. Eve was the one to eat from the apple, thus causing the knowledge of good and evil to be conferred upon herself and Adam. So she was the one to confer knowledge on him. It’s symbolic.
• “Why is it that higher intellects are always the ones so hopelessly dogged about discovering the secrets of natural phenomena? Why is it that wise men are always so passionately committed to science and racking their brains about the universe? Epicurus said that a wise man could enjoy perfect happiness if he didn’t have to be afraid of unknown heavenly phenomena and the mystery of death. To subdue or at least explain that fear, he devoted himself to science and the exploration of nature” - p. 214
  • from online: The greatest destroyer of happiness, thinks Epicurus, is anxiety about the future, especially fear of the gods and fear of death. - https://iep.utm.edu/epicur/
  • so basically, in order for wise men or anyone with intellect to be content with life, they need to be on a journey of truth-seeking so they lose their fear of ‘heavenly phenomena’ and the mystery of death / after-life
    • knowledge leads to inner-salvation / contentment. That’s one way of looking at it.
  • Fear of unknown heavenly phenomena: Epicurus believed in the existence of the gods, but he rejected the idea of an interventionist deity who meddles in human affairs or subjects them to punishment in an afterlife. He argued that the gods, if they exist, live in a state of perfect bliss, unconcerned with human affairs. Therefore, fearing divine punishment or the wrath of the gods was unnecessary. A wise person, according to Epicurus, would not be troubled by fear of supernatural consequences or cosmic events beyond human control.
    • The search for esoteric knowledge may lead to the conclusion of Deus Otiosus
  • Fear of the mystery of death: Epicurus held that death is the cessation of consciousness and sensation, and therefore, it should not be feared. He argued that since death means the end of both pleasure and pain, it cannot be inherently bad. Consequently, a wise person who understands and accepts the natural process of death would not be plagued by the fear of it
• It seems that you can take truth-seeking to the extreme, which Ibn Sabbah rejected - p. 215
  • the ones searching for the truth, if they don’t impose limits, can get lost in the dark.
  • so it’s a spectrum I think
    • The ‘dumb’ people who are fed fairytales
    • those like Ibn Sabbah who know truth is unattainable but have set limits for themselves (the universe is huge after all, you should set your limit to this earth)
    • those who don’t set any limits and who are searching for truths that go beyond the world, which Ibn Sabbah doesn’t believe in (after all, the truth is unattainable). They cannot tolerate uncertainty
  • it’s this last category that can easily turn into the first category. Because these ‘fairytales’, i.e. religions, do provide some answers on ‘universal truths’ so it may fulfill the yearnings of the people of this last category. It provides certainty, and both category 1 and 3 CANNOT handle uncertainty

Meritocracy Above All

• when Buzurg Ummid reminded Ibn Sabbah about his son being his natural heir, Ibn Sabbah replied “My institution was founded on reason, not on idiotic prejudices. Son! Son! What son? Do you expect me to dash my beautiful plan to pieces to leave it to some idiot whom dumb luck made my son? I prefer to follow the example of the Roman Church, which puts only its most capable in charge. Realms built on blood and kin soon go into decline. The institution of Rome has been standing for a thousand years!” - p. 166-167

Reaction from the Ismaili Commanders

• even Ibn Sabbah’s own commanders thought he was crazy but still went along
  • chapter 9 covers this.
  • on page 177 Buzurg Ummid was planning on sending his son to become a fedayeen but after hearing the plan he changed his mind
  • on page 184 the say that they think Ibn Sabbah is not right in his head
  • so why did they stick with him? Page 184-185 explains
    • Abu Ali has nothing else in his life. The Ismaili cause is all he has left
    • Buzurg Ummid’s entire success is due to the Ismaili cause. He also isn’t a natural leader / lacks creativity, so taking orders from someone is where he flourishes
    • overall, they’re in too deep to leave. “If he perishes, we’ll perish with him” p. 185
  • on page 200 Buzurg Ummid says “I have no hesitation about deceiving an enemy. But I don’t like to trick a friend” referring to the Fedayeen
    • Ibn Sabbah, when he was a kid was angry at the Ismailis for deceiving people (p. 123), but now he does the same and his grand Dais are noticing it
• Abu Ali says “It’s completely incomprehensible to me how you were able to come up with the idea for this plan. The only explanation I can think of is that you must have been inspired by some spirit. But not by Allah. Ibn Sabbah replies “Oh, for sure it wasn’t Allah. More like our old friend Omar Khayyam” - p. 197
• The grand Dais are simply shocked seeing the 3 fedayeen in heaven
  • “As Allah is Allah, Ibn Sabbah is insane - p. 244
  • on page 244 they conspire to kill Ibn Sabbah

Perception

• “I know Hasan. He’s a philosopher. And, as such, he knows that the quest for pleasure is the first and foremost purpose of life… What else is there besides what we perceive with our senses? That alone is the truth and that’s why it’s wise to follow your passions.” - p. 186
• “Protagoras said that man was the measure of everything. What he perceives, is; what he doesn’t perceive, is not.” p. 201
  • about the Fedayeen. Who cares if they’re being deceived, what’s important is they do NOT know they’re being deceived. Whatever they perceive, is.
• Ibn Sabbah’s opinion on the senses - p. 202
  • this was said in response to the grand Dai’s objections on deceiving the fedayeen
  • he believes humans are victims of the delusions of their own senses
  • so ‘tricking’ the fedayeen don’t matter, they are simply be deluded by their senses. Ibn Sabbah didn’t give them their senses, God did. In his words “In that sense, I would be no worse than that supposed being above us” - p. 202
  • human were given undependable senses by God
  • if our senses lie, then our knowledge cannot be accurate
  • so the Fedayeen, via their senses, are truly experiencing heaven. That’s what they think and believe, that is now in their ‘knowledge’
  • once you realize this, that your senses are faulty, that you’re surrounded by uncertainty and obscurity, and that you’re the victim of delusion, you come to the conclusion that delusion is simply a part of life you must come to terms with
  • in other words, nothing matters. Nothing is real. The world is meaningless. The “universe is a dumping ground heaped up without any plan” - p. 202
• discussion on perception from page 213
  • perception is everything. A man could have a treasure that is hidden, and his whole life he goes by thinking he’s a rich man. What if it was stolen and he lost his wealth? He wouldn’t know (unless he checked, which he doesn’t cause it’s hidden). So he’ll still die a rich man!
  • the point is neither facts nor things decide our happiness/unhappiness, rather we are dependent on our perception of the thing
  • this really goes to show that sometimes our happiness or our grief are so insignificant or unjustified. All it takes it changing perception to alter your emotional state
• “the paradise a person sees as paradise really is paradise for him. And that his pleasures there are real pleasures.” p. 337
  • perception is everything

Power

• “the power of any institution is predicated on followers who have been deceived.” p. 200
  • the underlying assumption here is that the institution is one of falsehood, or at the least the leaders don’t truly believe in it, therefore by imposing it on their followers, they are deceiving them
• Ibn Sabbah’s worldview seems to be centered around power. Power is the only thing worth pursuing.
  • There are two types of people: followers and leaders
  • the leaders must pursue power.

God

• Ibn Sabbah’s views on God - p. 214
  • God is simply the being that has knowledge that humans don’t have, he’s omniscient, and he conceals it from humans
    • on top of that, God could have his own plans with any individual, similar to how a child plays with their toys and exerts their own will fully over their toy
  • this is exactly what Ibn Sabbah is doing to the Fedayeen; he’s playing God
    • even Abu Ali says “your philosophizing could be abbreviated to this assertion: you’re secretly hounded by the fact that you’re not Allah” - p. 214
• Ibn Sabbah’s further views on God
  • “What I’ve begun, I have to finish. But when I gave the fedayeen the command, I had to shudder. Something inside me said, ‘if there’s a power above us, it won’t permit this. Either the sun will go out or the earth will shake…’ I’m telling you, I was trembling in my heart, like a child trembles before ghosts. I expected at least some little sign. It’s the truth, if just the slightest thing had stirred, if just then a cloud, for instance, had suddenly blocked out the un, of it here had been a gust of wind, I would have reconsidered. Even after it was over, I was expecting a blow… this is what I thought: either there is no power above us, or else it’s supremely indifferent to everything that happens down here. Or, it’s favorably inclined toward what I’m doing. It was then I realized that somewhere secretly I still believed in a divinity. But that divinity bore no resemblance to the one of my youth. It as like the world itself, evolving in thousands of contradictions, yet firmly fettered to three dimensions. limitless within its limits. Vast chaos inside a glass beaker. A terrible, grimacing dragon. And I knew at once that I had been serving it all my life.” - p. 321 - 322
• Related to the above quote
  • “We know nothing for certain, he thought. The stars above us are silent. We’ve been abandoned to our hunches, and we give in to illusions. The god who rules us is terrible” - p. 323
  • Ibn Sabbah says this after contemplating about his experiment

Other

• “The madness of great men works wonders” - p. 185
• “When a woman starts thinking, she becomes dangerous” p. 264
  • this is never really explained so I don’t quite know what it means exactly
  • on page 377, Apama says that the girls “don’t think very much” and Hassan says that this is good because if they do, they might think they are in prison. Maybe that’s what it means?
  • my interpretation: as it said elsewhere in the book, woman turn boys into men. Therefore, a ‘thinking’ woman can turn boys into monsters (in either a good or bad way). As the famous saying goes: behind every great man is an even greater woman. A woman can make or break a man
• “The Emir’s army would be overcome with such a fury that they’d lose any vestige of fear they might have. But it’s that sense of fear that we have to magnify if we’re going to come out of this the victors.” - p. 302
  • context: Abu Ali asked if Ibn Sabbah was going to kill the Emir’s messengers, Ibn Sabbah replied with the above
  • Ibn Sabbah understand psychological warfare very well, especially the power of fear
  • so how does he cultivate fear in the messengers? He orders Yusuf and Sulaiman to kill themselves in front of the messengers. The messengers are shocked and when they return to camp they even start to have some doubts about everything
• “Better a live dog than a dead king… Dog or king, they’ll both have to die. Better to go as a king” - p. 311
• why did Mariam kill herself?
  • she believed at one point, then stopped believing due to how cruel the world is
  • she went down a path of nihilism, until she found her purpose with Ibn Sabbah
  • but when the fruits of that purpose ripened (Halima killing herself), she realized that she made a big mistake. At this point nothing bound her to life anymore. So she took her own life.
  • It’s important to note that Mariam was truly good. She was always good. She would constantly call out Ibn Sabbah for his crazy plans. But she was either too naïve or too afraid to do anything about it, or maybe she felt like she had nothing to live for outside of Ibn Sabbah?

Al-Araf

• “That wall (Al-Araf) is the destination of those who have fought for a higher purpose against the will of their parents, and fallen with sword in hand. They can’t go to paradise, and they don’t deserve hell. It’s their lot to look in both direction. To know! Yes, al-Araf is a symbol for those who have their eyes open and who have the courage to act in accordance with their knowledge. Look. When you believed, you were in heaven. Now that you’ve come to see and deny, you’ve descended into hell. But on Araf there’s no place for either joy or disillusionment. Al-Araf is the balance of good and evil, and the path that leads to it is long and steep. Few have the opportunity to see it. Even fewer dare to tread it, because you’re alone on Araf. It’s what separates you from other people. To endure up here, you have to steel your heart.” p. 337
  • Al-Araf is essentially the place where you see evil, recognize it, even in yourself, but choose not to pursue it. This is the realization that JP always talks about that majority of people don’t understand. The realization that we have evil. That we could’ve easily been in Hitler’s place and done those crimes.
  • Fighting for, or being on the pursuit of the higher ideal can often times conflict with established ideals or customs (that’s what your parents represent)
  • so it’s kind of like this:
    • in heaven: this is when you’re a child. You live a life of happiness. You live under your parent’s care. You don’t have your own ideals, you simply follow your parents
    • in Al-Araf: this is the process of stepping out of your parents shadow. You have to LOOK at hell, i.e. the chaos within you and in the world. Once you leave your parents house, figuratively speaking, you encounter all kinds of dangers
      • you may also come into conflict with your ‘past life’, i.e. the life with your parents. You might have a period of moral conflict. This is what Al-Araf represents.
    • in hell: the danger in the world and the chaos within individuals
  • Al-Araf is lonely because every individual must take this journey on their own. Once you leave your heavenly abode of your parents house, you are on your own and must carve out your own path.

Main Idea of the Book

• one of the main lessons from this book is the idea of perception
  • the argument per Ibn Sabbah is as follows:
    • our senses are faulty → therefore our knowledge cannot be accurate → therefore we’re all victims of delusion, which is a natural part of life → therefore the world is meaningless and nothing matters
      • the last conclusion is represented in the motto nothing is real, everything is permitted
  • Ibn Sabbah’s conclusion leads to nihilism and a life centered around pursuing power at the expense of others. The human/emotion element is completely removed.
  • you can take another conclusion too:
    • our senses are faulty → therefore our knowledge cannot be accurate → therefore we’re all victims of delusion, which is a natural part of life → therefore the world is a mystery and we should strive to unlock them
  • it could be that the only way to live a happy or content life is to be on the journey of truth-seeking to unlock the mysteries of life
  • maybe the reason the ancients took psychedelics was because using psychedelics your senses were in a state of perfection, i.e. they weren’t faulty at that moment and you can actually see truth for what it is?
  • this is continued in Essay on Alamut
• Another main lesson, one that is not as deep as the above is that any ideology, whether religious, nationalistic, etc, can be exploited in dramatic and dangerous way. Islam was simply the example given in this book
• The author himself said in a commentary written later “Is there anything that makes a person braver than friendship? Is there anything more touching than love? And is there anything more exalted than the truth?
  • this is one of the lessons of this book. That despite the inhuman methods implemented by Ibn Sabbah on his subjects, the sense of solidarity and friendship between the Fedayeen and the girls never dies, Ibn Tahir and his friends are eager to learn the truth (and Ibn Tahir never gives up on his search for truth), and Ibn Tahir is heartbroken to find out Mariam’s love for him was fake

Footnotes

1. this quote is connected the the next one. If ‘nothing is true, everything is permitted’ stands as a symbol of the license granted to the Ismaili elite, then the unrelated subsidiary motto “omnia in numero et mensura” has a cautionary significance. All things in moderation, nothing too much. Skepticism and rationality are important assets, but overdependence on them at the expensive of compassion leads to tragedy, like in the case of Ibn Sabbah. He took rationality to the extreme, and because of that many people suffered, including himself ↩

2. This quote reflects the idea that order, harmony, and understanding can be found through quantification and proportion. ‘Everything in moderation’. It has philosophical and mathematical implications too. It means that the universe operates on discernible patterns and principles that can be understood by numerical relationships and measurements. ↩