HAVOC 143During the first century of the Franj invasions, every time the Muslims
began moving toward unity, the Assassins murdered some key figure and
triggered turmoil anew.
In 1113 CE the governor of Mosul called a conference of Muslim lead-
ers to organize a unified campaign against the Franj. Just before the meet-
ings began, however, a mendicant approached the governor on his way to
the mosque, pretended to beg for alms, then suddenly plunged a knife in
his chest. So much for the unity campaign.
In 1124, Assassin agents murdered the second most influential cleric
preaching the new jihad. The next year, a group of supposed Sufis attacked
and killed another such preacher, the most influential proponent of jihad,
the first of this era to revive the call.
In 1126, the Assassins killed al-Borsoki, the powerful king of Aleppo
and Mosul who, by uniting these two major cities, had forged the poten-
tial core of a united Muslim state in Syria. Borsoki had even taken the pre-
caution of wearing armor under his clothes-he knew that Assassins were
lurking about. But as fake Sufis attacked him, one of them cried, ''Aim for
his head!" They knew about his armor. Borsoki died of neck wounds. His
son immediately took command and might have saved the nascent state,
but Assassins killed him too, and four rival claimants to the throne
plunged this part of Syria back into war.
Murders of this sort happened an astounding number of times during
the early Crusades. Some of the murders were not proven to have been the
work of the Assassins, but once the terrorist narrative had been reified, the
terrorists didn't need to commit all the terrorist acts. They could claim any
murder that bore their stamp and use it to forward their cause. Apparently,
they kept detailed records of their work, but because they were so very se-
cretive, no outsiders had access to these records at the time, and when the
cult was finally destroyed by the Mongols in 1256, it was destroyed so
thoroughly its records were almost all erased from history. Therefore no
one now knows how many of the murders attributed to Assassins were ac-
tually committed by them. Rumors and whispers tell us they cast a grim
shadow over their times but we will never know the scope of their impact
on the Crusades: the records are gone.
What finally turned the tide against the Franj was a series of Muslim
leaders, each of whom was greater than the one before. The first of them