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Alamut (Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
  "Eagle's Nest", often appearing in the folk etymological form Qal‘atu l-Mut "the Castle of Death" in Arabic) was once a mountain fortress located in the central Alborz Mountains
Alborz

Alborz , also written as Alburz or Elburz, is a mountain range in northern Iran stretching from the borders of Armenia in the northwest to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and ending in the east at the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan....
 south of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
 close to Gazor Khan near Qazvin Province
Qazvin Province

Qazvin is one of the 30 provinces of Iran of Iran. It is in the north-west of the country, and its center is Qazvin . The province was created in 1996 out of part of Zanjan Province and includes 20 cities: Qazvin, Takestan, Abyek, Bou'in-Zahra, Eqhbalieh, Mohammadieh, Alvand, Esfarvarin, Mahmood Abad Nemooneh, Khoram Dasht, Zi? Ab...
, about 100 km from present-day Tehran
Tehran

Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia....
 in Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
. Only ruins remain of this fortress today.

Origins
Alamut lies on the peak known as Alah Amut.






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Alamut (Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
  "Eagle's Nest", often appearing in the folk etymological form Qal‘atu l-Mut "the Castle of Death" in Arabic) was once a mountain fortress located in the central Alborz Mountains
Alborz

Alborz , also written as Alburz or Elburz, is a mountain range in northern Iran stretching from the borders of Armenia in the northwest to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and ending in the east at the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan....
 south of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
 close to Gazor Khan near Qazvin Province
Qazvin Province

Qazvin is one of the 30 provinces of Iran of Iran. It is in the north-west of the country, and its center is Qazvin . The province was created in 1996 out of part of Zanjan Province and includes 20 cities: Qazvin, Takestan, Abyek, Bou'in-Zahra, Eqhbalieh, Mohammadieh, Alvand, Esfarvarin, Mahmood Abad Nemooneh, Khoram Dasht, Zi? Ab...
, about 100 km from present-day Tehran
Tehran

Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia....
 in Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
. Only ruins remain of this fortress today.

Origins


Alamut lies on the peak known as Alah Amut. Among suggested etymologies are "Eagle's Nest" (according to Sar Guzasht-i Sayyidna) and "Eagle's Teaching" (according to "Kamil fit-Tarikh" of Ibn Athir
Ibn Athir

Ibn Athir is the family name of three brothers, all famous in Arabian literature, born at Jazirat ibn Umar in Cizre nowadays in south-eastern Turkey....
).

According to Hamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi

Hamdollah Mostowfi , was an Iranian historian, geographer and epic poet.Mostowfi is the author of Nozhat ol-Gholub , Zafar-Nameh , and the Tarikh e Gozideh ....
, the first fortress was built in 840
840

Events...
 at an elevation of 2100m. It was built in a way that had only one passable artificial entrance that wound its way around the cliff face (the one natural approach, a steep gravel slope, was too dangerous to use); thus making conquering the fortress extremely difficult. The fort had an unusual system of water supply. The top was extremely narrow and long — perhaps 400 meters long, and no more than 30 meters wide in any place and usually less.

In 1090 the fortress was infiltrated and occupied by the powerful Hashshashin
Hashshashin

The Hashshashin from which the word Assassinations is thought to originate, was the Persian Empire derived designation of the Nizari branch of the Ismailism Shia Islam during the Middle Ages....
s, a faction of Nizari
Nizari

The Nizari officially the "Shi?a Imami Isma?ili Tariqah" are a path of Shia Islam Islam, emphasizing social justice, pluralism , and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam....
 Isma‘ili
Ismaili

Ismailism is a branch of the Islam, and is the second largest part of the Shia Islam community, after the mainstream Twelvers . The Ismaili get their name from their acceptance of Ismail bin Jafar as the divinely appointed spiritual successor to Jafar al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelvers, who accept Musa al-Kazim, younger bro...
 Shi‘a Islam
Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
 known to the West as "the Assassins", and was then fabled for its gardens and libraries. The ruins of 23 other fortresses remain in the vicinity.

Commanders (1090-1256)

  • Hasan-i Sabbah (1090–1124)
  • Buzurg-Ummid (1124–1138)
  • Muhammad I of Alamut (1138–1162)
  • Hassan II of Alamut (1162–1166)
  • Muhammad II of Alamut (1166–1210)
  • Hassan III of Alamut (1210–1221)
  • Mohammed III (1221–1255)
  • Ruknud-Din Khurshah (1255–1256)


The fortress was destroyed on December 15, 1256 by Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan, also known as Hulagu, H?leg? or Hulegu , was a Mongols ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia. Son of Tolui and the Kerait princess Sorghaghtani Beki, he was a grandson of Genghis Khan, and the brother of Arik Boke, M?ngke Khan and Kublai Khan....
 as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia. The fortress itself was impregnable, but Ruknud-Din Khurshah surrendered it without a real fight, in the vain hope that Hulagu would be merciful.

In 2004, an earthquake further damaged the already crumbling walls of the fort.

In popular culture


  • Slovenia
    Slovenia

    Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
    n novelist Vladimir Bartol
    Vladimir Bartol

    Vladimir Bartol was a Slovenian language writer, most famous for his novel Alamut . Alamut was published in 1938 and translated into numerous languages, becoming the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world....
    's novel Alamut
    Alamut (1938 novel)

    Alamut is a novel by Vladimir Bartol, first published in 1938 in Slovene language, dealing with the story of Hassan-i Sabbah and the Hashshashin, and named after their Alamut fortress....
     stands as a canonical work of Slovene literature, and has been translated into most major literary languages.


  • Judith Tarr
    Judith Tarr

    Judith Tarr is an United States author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A....
     wrote a series of novels
    Alamut series

    The Alamut series consists of the two fantasy books Alamut and The Dagger and the Cross by Judith Tarr. The series is set in the same universe as The Hound and the Falcon, which was written first, but the Alamut series describes events which occurred before the events in The Hound and the Falcon....
     centered on Alamut.


  • In White Wolf Game Studio's original World of Darkness storyline, Alamut is the primary base of operations for the Assamite
    Assamite

    The Assamites, in a role-playing-game context, are a clan of fiction vampires, from White Wolf, Inc.'s Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games....
     vampire clan. In a carefully hidden underground city, the clan's elders direct the global movements of these vampiric assassins. The mountain fortress also serves as a training grounds for neonate vampires.


  • The eight track off the heavy metal
    Heavy metal music

    Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
     album Sons of the Jackal
    Sons of the Jackal

    Sons of the Jackal is a 2007 album by thrash metal/death metal band Legion of the Damned . Lyrical themes on the album include horror motifs, the devastation of nuclear war and occult and religious ideas and actions....
     by Dutch band Legion of the Damned
    Legion of the Damned (band)

    Legion of the Damned is a thrash metal/death metal band from the Netherlands. The band was formed in 2004 following the demise of Occult and the departure of former singer Rachel Heyzer....
     Atomicide references Alamut as the source of the nuclear destruction in the song.


  • In his story "The Walking Drum", Louis L'Amour
    Louis L'Amour

    Louis L'Amour was an United States author. L'Amour's books, primarily Western fiction , remain popular, and most have gone through multiple printings....
     uses Alamut as the setting for the rescue of Kerbouchard's father.


  • Alamut is listed as one of the 6 Templar meeting places in Umberto Eco
    Umberto Eco

    Umberto Eco is an Italy medievalist, Semiotics, philosopher, Literary criticism and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory....
    's novel, Foucault's Pendulum
    Foucault's Pendulum

    Foucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italy novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later....
    .


  • Alamut is mentioned in Pelevin's "P5" novel.


  • Alamut is mentioned in Amin Maalouf's Samarkand.


  • Alamut and Hassan-i-Sabbah are both described vividly in William S. Burrough's The_Western_Lands
    The Western Lands

    The Western Lands by William S. Burroughs, published in 1987, is a novel which is the final part of the trilogy that begins with Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads....


See also

  • Iranian architecture
    Iranian architecture

    Architecture in "Greater Iran" has a continuous history from at least 5000BCE to the present, with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Syria to North India and the borders of China, from the Caucasus to Zanzibar....
  • List of Iranian national heroes
  • Hassan-i-Sabah
    Hassan-i-Sabah

    Hassan-i Sabbah was a Persian Nizari Ismaili missionary who converted a community in the late 11th century in the heart of the Alborz Mountains of northern Iran....
  • Alamut
    Alamut (1938 novel)

    Alamut is a novel by Vladimir Bartol, first published in 1938 in Slovene language, dealing with the story of Hassan-i Sabbah and the Hashshashin, and named after their Alamut fortress....
    , 1938 novel by Vladimir Bartol
    Vladimir Bartol

    Vladimir Bartol was a Slovenian language writer, most famous for his novel Alamut . Alamut was published in 1938 and translated into numerous languages, becoming the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world....


External links

  • (Retrieved February 23, 2005)
  • The Crusades Wiki