War and Game

VALLEYS OF THE ASSASSINS The castles of the Isma’ili Assassins lay in the remote mountain valleys of northern Iran. Away from trade routes and major cities they had maintained their independence against all comers for almost two centuries when Hülegü destroyed them in a single season’s campaigning in 1256. It was a triumph for Mongol siegecraft.

The end of the European campaign in 1241 was not the end of Mongol expansion in the West. Memories of the conquests of Genghis Khan were still very much alive and at the Kuriltay In 1251 the Great Khan Mongke (1251-9) despatched two of his brothers on major wars of conquest. Kubilai was sent to China to conquer the southern Sung and Hülegü was sent to Iran. Hülegü’s expedition was a far cry from the impetuous campaigns of Genghis’s time. His army was probably larger than the one Genghis had led to the conquest of Iran. It included contributions from many Mongol princes, including Batu, who still held court on the Volga steppes. There were also Chinese siege engineers and shooters of naft. His progress was stately and fairly slow. Pasture on both sides of the route was reserved for the army, boulders and thorns were cleared from the roads, bridges and ferries arranged. It was also something of a social occasion and he stopped off to stay with-the princess Orqina, widow of Genghis’s son Chaghatay (d. 1242) who now ruled over her husband’s followers. There was tiger hunting in the bush along the Oxus river and magnificent feasts in huge tents organized by the Mongol governor of Iran, Arghun Aqa.

But there was also a military objective. Hülegü’s first aim was to take the castles of the Isma’ili Assassins. Since the time of the Crusades and Marco Polo, the legendary Assassins have fascinated outside observers. The Isma’ilis had begun as a radical Shi’ite sect in the tenth century: At the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth century members of the sect in Syria and Iran had been driven from the cities and taken refuge in the mountains of northern Syria and northern Iran. In Iran they had established a series of castles on rugged peaks in remote areas: Alamut and Maymun-Diz north of Qazvin were the most famous. They defended themselves not by maintaining large armies but by the remoteness of their situation and the use of suicide assassins to dispose of enemy leaders. The story went that the Master of the Assassins would attract young men to a remote castle. They would be drugged and when they woke up would find themselves in a garden where they were offered all the joys of paradise as described in the Quran. When, exhausted by their pleasures, they fell asleep, they awoke to find themselves on some bleak and stony mountain side. The Master then suggested to them that if they were to carry out a mission, which would inevitably result in their own death, they would enjoy the pleasures they had tasted so briefly for all eternity: Perhaps sadly, the story as it has come down to us is certainly a fabrication put about by their enemies, but the Isma’ili Assassins did use political murder and they did inspire fear and loathing among their opponents.

The reality was that by the 1250s they were much tamer than they had been a century before, yet they still resisted Mongol rule in Iran: as such they had to be exterminated. Hülegü’s campaign reveals the Mongol genius for siegecraft. When he arrived in Iran in the spring of 1256, Hülegü demanded that the Master of the Assassins, Rukn aI-Din, should surrender his castles. This was met with a polite refusal. A diplomatic game of cat and mouse now ensued as Hülegü made his military preparations. As the Mongol army approached the mountains around Alamut, Rukn aI-Din played for time, hoping the winter snows would come in time to save him. He sent hostages and 300 men to serve as hashar to demolish the outlying castles. But he still hoped to hang on to Alamut with its magnificent fortifications and the library built up over previous centuries. Hülegü knew he had a struggle on his hands. Supplies were collected from all over north-western Iran, for winter was near and there would be no pasture to be had in these craggy mountains. Flour and animals for transport and slaughter were assembled. On 8 November Hülegü found himself overlooking the castle at Maymun-Diz. The next day he rode around looking for the weak points. He then held a council of war. Many of his commanders were in favour of retreat, given the problems of supply and the deteriorating weather, but a minority, including Kit-Buga, one of his most experienced generals, urged him to press on. He set about making trebuchets, cutting down the great trees which previous generations of Isma’ilis had planted on the surrounding hills. Relays of men were established to transport the beams up to the castle. The defenders in turn set up trebuchets on their ramparts to rain stones ‘like falling leaves’ on their assailants. As usual, the Mongol attackers responded with clouds of arrows. Chinese siege engineers had constructed a sort of giant crossbow called a kaman-i gav (ox’s bow) which is said to have been able to shoot arrows up to 2,500 paces. If this is true, then the range must have been at least 2,000 yards, significantly longer than the recorded range of any other pre-gunpowder artillery. However, the historian Juvayni, who was present at the siege, may have got carried away with the excitement of the new technology.

The historian describes the effect of the bombardment:

As for the trebuchets which had been set up it was as though their poles were made of pine trees a hundred years old [that is, they were very strong]. The first stones which were discharged from them broke the defenders’ trebuchet and many were crushed under it. Fear of the quarrels from the crossbows overcame them so that they were in a complete panic and tried to make shields out of veils [which is to say that they did their best to defend themselves with very inadequate equipment]. Some who were standing on towers crept in their terror like mice into holes or fled like lizards into the crannies of the rocks. Some were left wounded and some lifeless and all that they struggled feebly like mere women.