ENTER THE TURKS 131The Assassins were organized as the ultimate secret society. Out in the
world, they gave no indication of their identity or their real beliefs. No one
knew, therefore, how many Assassins there were or which of the people in
the bazaar, or the mosque, or anywhere else was actually an Assassin. Re-
cruits went through intensive indoctrination and training, but once ac-
cepted into the sect, each member had a rank reflecting his level of
knowledge. Initiates moved from stage to stage as they presumably
plumbed ever deeper levels of meaning in the Qur'an, until they reached
the foundation upon which all was built, whereupon they were admitted
to Sabbah's innermost circle.
Although they crafted their plots in utmost secrecy, the Assassins killed
with utmost publicity: their object was not really to remove this or that
person from power but to make people throughout the civilized world be-
lieve that the Assassins could kill any person, anytime, anywhere. Sabbah
wanted people to worry that anyone they knew-their best friend, their
most trusted servant, even their spouse-might actually be an Assassin. In
this way, he hoped to control the policies of men who, unlike himself, did
hold territory, did possess resources, and did command troops.
The agents who did the murders for him were called Fedayeen, which
means "sacrificers." When they plotted a public assassination, they knew
they would be caught and killed within moments of completing their
deed, but they made no effort to evade this outcome. Indeed, dying was a
key element of the ritual they were enacting: they were suicide knifers. By
embracing death, they let the authorities know that not even the threat of
execution could intimidate them.
The Assassins added to the anxiety of a world already in turmoil. Sun-
nis were struggling with Shi'i. The Abbasid khalifate in Baghdad was
wrestling with the Fatimid khalifate in Cairo. Nearly a century of Turkish
invasions had brutalized society. And now this cult of killers extending its
secret tendrils throughout the Middle East injected society with a persis-
tent underlying nightmare.
The Assassins announced themselves with a series of ever more spectac-
ular assassinations. They killed Seljuk officials and well-known Sunni cler-
ics. They killed two of the khalifas. As often as possible, they carried out
their assassination in the biggest mosques during Friday prayer, when they
could be sure of an audience.