The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

There's a temptation to see this reissue of Professor Bernard Lewis's well-respected and authoritative text as a cynical attempt to cash in on the present interest and paranoia about the Islamic world. However this would be doing Professor Lewis a great injustice. Indeed in his introduction to this new edition, the Professor makes it very clear that this volume is in no way a history of Islam. Nor should any reader be tempted to make links between the 'Heyssessini' and the modern Muslim faith, in which violence and terror have no role. Rather, Lewis's aim is to examine the origins, history and beliefs of this ancient and mysterious sect, to show how such a radical group managed to manipulate its followers and how it used violence as a tool to fulfil its leaders' political aims and ambitions. In fact if there is any polemic in this volume at all, it is to demonstrate how 'of all the lessons to be learnt from the [history of the] assassins, perhaps the most important is their final and total failure'. First published in 1963, The Assassins unfolds a deep and complex tale of a secret, fanatical 'brotherhood' who terrorized Christian and Muslim mediaeval society alike. But there is more to Lewis's story than one of terror and bloodshed. For the group that gave birth to the word 'assassin' were formed by complex political and religious conflicts: they were a product of, and reaction to, their times. This is a fascinating glimpse into an extraordinary and unsettling world. (Kirkus UK)

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