Until recently, the Ismaiilis were judged almost exclusively on the basis of hostile Muslim and European sources. This volume, the result of some of the most recent scholarship in the area and written by leading contemporary authorities in the field, sheds a new and more realistic light on their history.

The Ismaili Muslims, who belong to the Shia branch of Islam, live in over 25 different countries around the world, mainly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Their history has typically been linked to the history of the various countries in which they live, but the worldwide community is united under Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader and 49th Imam of the Ismaili Muslims. Few fields of Islamic studies have witnessed as drastic a change as Ismaili studies, due in part to the recent discovery of numerous historical texts, and author Farhad Daftary makes extensive use of these new...

For hundreds of years Westerners have been fascinated by stories of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain stronghold at Alamut in Northern Iran. The legends first emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Crusaders in Syria came into contact with the Nazari Isma'ilis, one of the communities of Shi'ite Islam who, at the behest of their leader Hassan Sabaa (mythologized as the ""Old Man of the Mountain""), engaged in dangerous missions to kill their enemies. Elaborated over the years, the tales culminated in Marco Polo's claim that the ""Old Man"" controlled the...

Educated in Iran, Europe and the United States, Dr Farhad Daftary received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971. He has held different academic positions, and since 1988 he has been affiliated with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, where he is Co-Director and Head of Department of Academic Research and Publications.