16. The Medieval Killers Who Terrorized the Middle East
Long before modern Islamic radicals, there was the medieval Order of Assassins, a politico-religious cult led by a shadowy figure known as “The Old Man of the Mountain”. The first European account of the group was written in 1167 by a Spanish rabbi, Benjamin of Tudela, who described a shadowy sect, hidden in mountain fortresses, and terrifyingly ruthless. For decades afterward, travelers and Crusaders brought back to Europe sensational tales that titillated and terrified, of expert murderers, thoroughly trained since childhood in the arts of deceit and stealth.
So dedicated were those killers to their leader, the accounts went on, that they were more than eager to sacrifice their lives in order to carry out his slightest whims. Despised as heretics by most fellow Muslims, relatively few, and geographically dispersed, the Assassins nonetheless punched far above their weight. The order and its highly indoctrinated, even fanatical, killers wielded considerable power and influence throughout the Middle East, and managed to terrorize the region for generations in the Middle Ages.
Also Read: Deadliest Assassin Groups in History.