al-ḥasan b. al-Sabbah

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al-Ḥasan b. al-Sabbah (d. 1124 (AH 518)). Founder of the Nizārīs (popularly known as Assassins). Very little is known of his early life. His followers captured the strong mountain fortress of Alamūt in 1091 (AH 483) and established it as a power centre of the Assassin movement. He did not introduce assassination as a religious duty, for it had already been practised by other sects; nor is it clear that he even advocated this. But from him derived a movement which gained considerable strength, and which terrorized parts of the Muslim world, until Alamūt was captured and destroyed by the Mughals in the 13th cent.