ASSASSINS AND TEMPLARS

An Islamic sect and a Christian military order who shared a willingness to die.

Tibble, author of The Crusader Strategy: Defending the Holy Land, sets his scene in the Middle East in 1100, a disturbed time for many Islamic regimes when, out of the blue, the Crusaders appeared. After a bloody decade, four Christian “Crusader states” emerged that carried on but shrank over the next two centuries. Tibble reminds readers that neither of the two religions was monolithic and that Islam remains divided primarily into Shia and Sunni denominations. The assassins arose in Shiite Persia shortly before Crusaders arrived. Persia had recently been conquered by Sunni Turks, so there was no shortage of unhappy believers, and a charismatic leader founded a Shiite sect convinced that they were God’s chosen people. A fringe movement, it lacked numbers but developed an effective tactic. Believing that eternal rewards awaited those who eliminated the enemies of God, members regularly murdered those who stood in their way. This made a spectacular impression, and they enjoyed modest success, surviving until the Mongol invasion two centuries later. Drawing a parallel, the author introduces a concurrent Christian military order, the Knights Templar. Having conquered the Holy Land, most Crusaders returned home. When those who remained had difficulty fending off attacks from surrounding Islamic states, a few pious knights formed a brotherhood dedicated to protecting pilgrims. Attracting followers and money from Europe, the Knights Templar grew from a military order willing to die serving Christ into a wealthy organization whose influence rivaled that of European monarchs. Two centuries later, when the tide had turned against the Crusaders, Philip IV of France, always short of money, confiscated its wealth and executed most of its leaders. With no deep lessons to deliver, Tibble’s final chapter discusses the bestselling sci-fi fantasy video game Assassin’s Creed, which is not historically accurate but ingenious.

Bloody medieval geopolitics in the service of God.