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Secret societies of the middle ages [by T. Keightley].
Secret societies of the middle ages - by T. Keightley Author:Thomas Keightley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: not comprehend the long-sighted views of Hassan, began to fancy thai disappointment had deranged the intellect of his friend, and, believing that reasoning would... more » in such a case be useless, commenced giving him at his meals aromatic drinks and dishes prepared with saffron, in order to relieve his brain. Hassan perceived what his kind host was about, and resolved to leave him. Aboo-'l-Fazl in vain employed all his eloquence to induce him to prolong his visit; Hassan departed, and shortly afterwards set out for Egypt. Twenty years afterwards, when Hassan had accomplished all he had projected, when the sultan and the vizir were both dead, and the society of the Assassins was fully organized, the reis Aboo-'l-Fazl, who was one of his most zealous partisans, visited him at his hill-fort of Alamoot. " Well reis," said Hassan, " which of us was the madman ? did you or I stand most in need of the aromatic drinks and the dishes prepared with saffron which you used to have served up at Isfahan ? You see that I kept my word as soon as I had found two trusty friends." When Hassan left Isfahan, in the year 1078, the khalif Mostanscr, a man of some energy, occupied the throne of Egypt, and considerable exertions were made by the missionaries of the society at Cairo to gain proselytes throughout Asia. Among these proselytes was Hassan Sabah, and the following account of his conversion, which has fortunately been preserved in his own words, is interesting, as affording a proof that, like Cromwell, and, as we have supposed, Mohammed, and all who have attained to temporal power by means of religion, he commenced in sincerity, and was deceived himself before he deceived others. " From my childhood," says he, " even from the age of seven years, my sole endeavour was to acquire knowledge and c...« less