Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam - Softcover

Lewis, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465004989 ISBN 13: 9780465004980

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

The Assassins This book contains the story of an extremist Islamic sect in the 11th and 12th centuries whose terrorist methods gave the English language a new word - assassin. Full description

About this title

Book Description:

The history of an extremist Islamic sect in the 11th-12th centuries whose terrorist methods gave the English language a new word: assassin.

From the Back Cover:

'Assassin' is now a common noun in most European languages, but it first came to the West from Arabic around the time of the Crusades, when it was the name given to a secretive Islamic sect feared by the Crusaders and the Muslim establishment alike. Here Bernard Lewis traces the origins of the Assassin sect in the Shi'ite branch of Islam and chronicles both their doctrines and the life of their enigmatic founder, the legendary 'Old Man of the Mountain'. The Assassins were the first group to make planned, systematic, and long-term use of murder as a political weapon, and their ideals and methods have since found many imitators. The Assassins is the most comprehensive, readable, and authoritative account of history's first terrorists.

'Learned, lucid and elegant¿with great skill [Lewis] disentangles truth from legend' Economist

'Professor Lewis has succeeded with his usual carefulness, probity and skill' Times Literary Supplement
PHOENIX PRESS
NON-FICTION/HISTORY
UK £6.99
B format
isbn: 184212 451X

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0465004989
• ISBN 13: 9780465004980
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 191