DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0052
_________________________„_______ ry
52
in fact he is only to he taken as an authority from a Suni point of
view.
The Judge. But the facts stated in the passage just read are
very strong proofs of an. open revolt against Mahommadanism 1
Mr. Howard : Against the ceremonial law. The revolt was like
that of Christianity which released people from the legal burdens of
Judaism. No doubt the course taken by Hassan and his followers,
of smiting the enemies of their religion with the dagger, is abhorrent
to modern European notions, but what I say is, that Von Hammer
should have exercised more critical judgment and more insight,
He should have endeavoured to understand these fanatics, and not
centented himself with repeating the injustice of their contemporaries.
J will give an example to show his want of liberality, where his
prejudices are involved. One of the Assassin princes or chiefs was
Jelaleddin, who after that temporary schism of Hassan bin Mahomed,
brought bis people back again ■ to the profession of Islam, and was
thought a great deal of by his contemporary sovereigns, as a devout
and respectable potentate. Von Hammer however, passes the
following judgment on him (page 54):—
" Although no murder stains the histoi-y of Jelaleddin's reign, and
so far as his conduct was in full accordance with his system, the his-
torian is, nevertheless, compelled not only to question the purity of
his motives, but also the sincerity of his return to the doctrines of
Islamism. Two circumstances place this in a vory suspicious light.
In the first place, the just mentioned refusal to deliver up the murderer
who had sought within the walls of Alamut, the usual sanctuary of
impiety, unless in return for the cession of a village ; secondly in the
burning of the books when Jelaleddin pretended to celebrate an auto
da fe of the works and rubrics of former grand masters, in order to
convince the deputies from Kaswin, of the truth of his conversion.
In this however, it is probable that he consumed the works of the
dogmatists and fathers of Islamism, while the great library of free
thinking and immorality, together with the metaphysical and theolo-
gical works of Hassan Sabah, the founder, were preserved, though
secretly, and only, as we shall see below, devoted to the flames on the
fall of Alamut and dissolution of the order.
"It is therefore more than probable, that Jelaleddin's conversion of
the Ismailites to Islamism, so loudly proclaimed abroad, and his public
52
in fact he is only to he taken as an authority from a Suni point of
view.
The Judge. But the facts stated in the passage just read are
very strong proofs of an. open revolt against Mahommadanism 1
Mr. Howard : Against the ceremonial law. The revolt was like
that of Christianity which released people from the legal burdens of
Judaism. No doubt the course taken by Hassan and his followers,
of smiting the enemies of their religion with the dagger, is abhorrent
to modern European notions, but what I say is, that Von Hammer
should have exercised more critical judgment and more insight,
He should have endeavoured to understand these fanatics, and not
centented himself with repeating the injustice of their contemporaries.
J will give an example to show his want of liberality, where his
prejudices are involved. One of the Assassin princes or chiefs was
Jelaleddin, who after that temporary schism of Hassan bin Mahomed,
brought bis people back again ■ to the profession of Islam, and was
thought a great deal of by his contemporary sovereigns, as a devout
and respectable potentate. Von Hammer however, passes the
following judgment on him (page 54):—
" Although no murder stains the histoi-y of Jelaleddin's reign, and
so far as his conduct was in full accordance with his system, the his-
torian is, nevertheless, compelled not only to question the purity of
his motives, but also the sincerity of his return to the doctrines of
Islamism. Two circumstances place this in a vory suspicious light.
In the first place, the just mentioned refusal to deliver up the murderer
who had sought within the walls of Alamut, the usual sanctuary of
impiety, unless in return for the cession of a village ; secondly in the
burning of the books when Jelaleddin pretended to celebrate an auto
da fe of the works and rubrics of former grand masters, in order to
convince the deputies from Kaswin, of the truth of his conversion.
In this however, it is probable that he consumed the works of the
dogmatists and fathers of Islamism, while the great library of free
thinking and immorality, together with the metaphysical and theolo-
gical works of Hassan Sabah, the founder, were preserved, though
secretly, and only, as we shall see below, devoted to the flames on the
fall of Alamut and dissolution of the order.
"It is therefore more than probable, that Jelaleddin's conversion of
the Ismailites to Islamism, so loudly proclaimed abroad, and his public