Alamut

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

“The most blinkered reading of Alamut,” writes translator Michael Biggins in his afterword to this edition, “might reinforce some stereotypical notions of the Middle East as the exclusive home of fanatics and unquestioning fundamentalists… But careful readers should come away from Alamut with something very different.”

In publishing this book, we aim to undermine hateful stereotypes, not reinforce them. What we celebrate in Alamut is the ways in which the author reveals how any ideology can be manipulated by a charismatic leader and morph individual beliefs into fanaticism. Alamut can be seen as an argument against systems of belief that eliminate one’s ability to act and think morally. The key conclusions of Hassan ibn Sabbah’s story are not that Islam or religion inherently predisposes one towards terrorism, but that any ideology, whether religious, nationalistic, or otherwise, can be exploited in dramatic and dangerous ways. Indeed, Alamut was written in response to the European political climate of 1938, as totalitarian forces gathered power over the continent.

We hope that the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations of these characters are not taken as a representation of Islam or as any sort of proof that Islam condones violence or suicide bombing. Doctrines presented in this book, including the supreme Ismaili motto of “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” do not correspond to the beliefs of the majority of Muslims throughout the ages, but rather to a relatively small sect.

It is in this spirit we offer our edition of this book. We hope you’ll read and appreciate it as such.