In the endless gallery of religiously induced nonsense, there are some pearls that resist time and occupy a special place in the risk of human creativity. One such story is the one about the `Old Man of the Mountain`, the man who, unlike the holy scriptures that only promise in vain - really built Paradise!
And on earth no less!!
The place was in the vicinity of the Alamut fortress, which is located in present-day Iran, and at that time was only one of several breakaway territories with certain symptoms of statehood. The time was medieval, fun was guaranteed, the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century, the time of the beginning of the Crusades in the wider region, a period of division among a sect of Shiite Islam called the Ismailis, from whose faction known as the Nizari Ismailis the aforementioned `Old Man of the Mountain`, Hasan-al-Sabah, also came.
A man with a mission from Allah to spread the word of his sect, Hassan went far beyond his initial task, to an extent that is difficult to define from today's perspective. Mystic, founder of a club of assassins, creator of the policy in the region, alpha and omega, of everything, a semi-mythical figure about whom the famous wanderers Marco Polo and Mohammed Ibn-Batuta wrote. Hassan's originality consists mainly in the fact that he came up with the idea of building Paradise, Jannah, more or less as it was described in the Quran. But this was not an end in itself but only a means to provide a fanatically loyal group of special agents who would faithfully carry out orders. The training of a small formation of agents was a dire necessity for the survival of the pseudo-state due to the lack of enough people to organize an army. Therefore, small groups of well-trained and equipped Fedayeen who would strike with surgical precision at the very nervous system of the opponent (the supreme authority, the financial and military elite) were necessary.
But how to ensure the loyalty of those people, who, no matter how trained and practiced, were still only people, inclined to earthly pleasures, money and status? This dilemma did not give Hassan peace until he remembered that no earthly pleasure could be compared to what Paradise offers. And for that purpose, at a super-secret location, he built a magnificent oasis that abounded with the best food and drinks, the highest quality clothing and footwear that flourished in the Orient, where Sherbet and Honey flowed from the fountains, and the branches of the trees were heavy with ripe fruits, the place had perfect service and, of course, a large group of beautiful Houris, women who were ready to satisfy all of a man's needs, from the most banal to those that even the man himself would not want to admit to himself.
As much as this idea was the result of Hassan's genius, it was also caused by the consumption of Hashish and Opium, two substances that have had a particularly stimulating effect on the imagination throughout the centuries...After the hard and thorough training, the candidate was called to Sabah where he was given Sherbet and Hashish. After falling gently into sleep, the candidate woke up in Paradise! The simple young guys from the Persian and Assyrian wolf-folk suddenly found themselves in a completely perfect place that was more fantastic in reality than they themselves would ever dare to dream, where no desire remained unsatisfied. Deprived of all care and discomfort - they remained in Paradise for a while, after which they suddenly woke up again in the fortress of Alamut, again surrounded by everyday life...
Suddenly deprived of the pleasures of paradise, the candidates would do absolutely anything to find themselves there again, the desire for Paradise remained engraved in their minds forever, stronger than any instinct and every urge. As such, they were perfect agents, disciplined and motivated to infiltrate the courts of enemy caliphs, sheikhs and imams, kings and emperors, wherever Hassan's plans reached. Many rich and crowned heads who refused to pay the annual `fee` for Hassan, especially the hated Seljuk Turks - woke up with a final warning in the form of a knife stuck in their pillow. Some paid immediately, some were killed, but after a while the word about the Assassins began to instill fear and panic so that the ``fee'' was paid without a problem.
Some rulers tried to put an end to the Assassin sect by force, but it ended unsuccessfully, with heavy defeats at the hands of the guys who would defeat anyone just to return to paradise. The Assassins gained disproportionate influence in the region considering their small numbers and small territory, thanks to the existence of paradise... something similar would happen if Luxembourg were a major factor in Europe today. But Luxembourg doesn't have its own paradise, and neither does Brussels...Unlike today's Islamic fundamentalists-suicides who "for the life of them" believe that after death they will find themselves in paradise, an unhealthy mix of despair, cheap mysticism and modest intelligence - the Assassins occasionally found themselves in a very real paradise and never committed suicide, but fought to the last drop of blood in the hope of once again entering the paradise of this world.
It is not known exactly how long Paradise existed, it is speculated that it was a century and a half, during which time generations of Fedayeen burned and burned James Bond style throughout the region and beyond, their services began to be used by Sunnis, Christians and Jews, and after the initial clashes with the Templars - they not only made a truce with them but also became allies! The `old man of the mountain` himself, Hassan-al-Sabah, died in 1124 and the `project` lasted until the middle of the 13th century when finally Alamut and the other fortresses fell under the onslaught of the maniacal barbarian steppe hordes known collectively as the Mongols. The savage creatures were on a quest to conquer the world, a military superpower that even the Fedayeen could not stand against. Although they once managed to return Alamut under Assassin control, the Mongols were simply... too many in number. After a failed assassination attempt on the then Mongol Khan, the Assassins fled the region, leaving the territory at the mercy of the Mongol invasion.
What happened to the paradise is unknown, since its location was never discovered, but it is not difficult to assume that without a constant stream of gold to finance such a project - the paradise was simply eaten away by the teeth of time, although one small legend remains that defies time in all its ingenious remoteness. The Nizari Ismailis exist as a Shiite sect to this day (the Aga Khan dynasty of billionaires and jet-setters are their members) and are perhaps the most progressive Islamic denomination at the moment. The term Assassin, derived from Hashish(ini), modernly speaking, hashish addicts or hash addicts - as a synonym for murderer/assassin found its way into many world languages thanks to this very sect. That is the modest legacy this cult has left to the world...
(Roger Mortis, 096)
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