Baybars and the Fall of the Syrian Assassins - Medievalists.net

"The Nizaris had survived in part because of their position on a warring frontier. They had been irritating but, as a buffer state against the Franks, they fulfilled a useful function for their much bigger Sunni neighbours. Now even that usefulness was gone. As the Franks were forced back to their last enclaves on the coast, the Assassins looked increasingly anomalous - a Shi'ite nuisance in the midst of victorious Sunni orthodoxy."

"The Assassins' fate increasingly lay in the hands of a ruthless killer who was dedicated to the destruction of anyone who threatened himself or Sunni Islam - this included the Mongols, the crusaders and, most ominously for the Nizaris, heretics. Tellingly, soon after his bloody accession Baybars was reported to have assigned the future income from the Assassins' lands to one of his generals, the lord of neighbouring Hama, as a bribe to gain his support."

"By the time that a new Old Man of the Mountain, Najm al-Din, took over as leader of the Assassins in 1261-1262, the military situation reflected their political weakness. Khariba had been lost and their network of fortifications in the Jabal Bahra seems to have been reduced to only eight castles - Kahf, Masyaf and Qadmus, alongside Ullayqa, Qulay'a, Khawabi, Rusafa and Maniqa."

For 150 years, the Assassins survived in Syria through intimidation and violence, but Baybars' reign fundamentally altered their position. Previously useful as a buffer against Frankish crusaders, the Assassins became increasingly anomalous once Baybars pushed the Franks to coastal enclaves. Baybars, a ruthless ruler dedicated to eliminating threats to Sunni Islam, viewed the Nizari Shi'ites as heretics requiring destruction. He assigned their lands as bribes to secure support for his agenda. By 1261-1262, under new leader Najm al-Din, the Assassins' military weakness was evident, their fortress network reduced to eight castles. Baybars' contemptuous writings reveal his determination to eliminate them entirely.

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