Alamut

  “That’s a good one!” Abu Ali said angrily. “Earlier you said that faith in the beyond faded after the Prophet’s death, and now you’re proposing to build our brotherhood on it. The devil take it, because I sure won’t!”

  Hasan roared with laughter. It pleased him whenever he was able to make his assistant angry about something.

  “Well, what do you think, Abu Ali, my friend,” he asked, “what would be needed to incite in our recruits such faith in the delights of heaven that they would be stark raving determined to die, so they could partake of them as soon as possible?”

  “Open the gate to paradise and show it to them,” Abu Ali replied irritably. “Let them get a taste of it. After all, you teach that you have the key. I’d gladly die then too.”

  “I’ve brought you just where I wanted you to be!” Hasan exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “Come follow me, men! I’m going to show you the key that opens the gate to paradise.”

  He bounded over to the wall as though he were twenty years old and drew aside the carpet that hid the passageway leading to the top of the tower.

  “Let’s go!” he called out and led them to the upper platform.

  The grand dais looked at each other behind his back. Abu Ali pointed to his forehead and arched his brows questioningly. Buzurg Ummid raised a hand to signal patience.

  They came out onto the terrace. This was the first time even Abu Ali had been here. It was a regular observatory. A large tablet lay on the ground. The paths of the earth and the other planets around the sun and the course of the moon and the zodiac had been charted on it. Smaller tablets were densely covered with equations. Geometric figures—circles, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas—were drawn on some of them. Strewn all around were rulers and scales of all kinds and sizes, astrolabes, compasses and other trigonometric equipment. A sundial had been drawn on the ground in the middle of the platform, the position of its hour hand calculated precisely. A small shed had been set up for all this equipment in case of bad weather. Next to the shed was a kind of flower bed with a glass cover that had been lifted up. Nothing grew in it except for some weed on long stalks that resembled nothing so much as an upended broom.

  The grand dais took all this in quickly. Then the top of the tower opposite them drew their attention. A huge, black, mace-bearing guard stood on top if it, motionless as a statue.

  The sun warmed the platform, but a pleasant mountain breeze cooled the air and brought the fresh smell of snow.

  “You’d think we were up in the mountains,” Buzurg Ummid said, deeply inhaling the cool air.

  “Don’t tell us you’ve set up this nest so you can gaze into heaven more easily,” Abu Ali laughed. “So is this the key that opens the gate to heaven?”

  “Precisely, from this observatory I can look into paradise,” Hasan replied with a knowing smile. “But the key that opens its gate is in that flower bed over there.”

  He approached it and pointed to the plants growing in it.

  The grand dais followed behind him. They looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “Hasan, Hasan,” Abu Ali said. “When are you thinking of letting up on all the jokes? Bear in mind that all three of us are getting on in years. A little more seriousness wouldn’t hurt. I won’t deny, today has been a great day and a little practical joke never hurt anyone. But you’ve been toying with us all morning!”

  Hasan looked him steadily in the eyes.

  “This is the key that opens the gate to heavenly delights,” he said emphatically.

  “That weed?”

  “Yes. End of joke.”

  He pointed to some pillows next to the shed and invited them to sit down with him.

  “The herb that I just showed you is Indian hemp, and its sap contains some quite unusual characteristics. Just what those are, I’ll explain to you now. In Kabul I was once one of many guests of a wealthy Indian prince. The banquet lasted all night. As morning approached and the guests were leaving, the prince kept a few of us behind and led us to a special room that was draped in carpets from floor to ceiling. A few lamps glimmered dimly in the corners, leaving the room half-dark. ‘I’ve prepared something special for you, friends,’ he said. ‘Would you like to see landscapes and far-off cities that none of you has ever seen? I’ll take you there. Look! In this little box I have a magic vehicle from the Thousand and One Nights.’ He unlocked a gilt box and showed us some little balls that resembled ordinary pieces of candy. ‘Take one and eat it,’ he offered. One after the other, we did as he said. At first, when I had the ball in my mouth, I thought I was eating candy and the prince was playing a joke on us. But when the outer surface melted, I got a bitter taste in my mouth. ‘I just hope it isn’t poison,’ I thought. And in fact, a kind of dizziness started to come over me. Suddenly I noticed something very strange. The colors on the carpets were starting to become much more vivid. At this point I’d stopped thinking about poison. All my attention was focused on the unusual color phenomenon on the wall, when I noticed that even the images on the carpets had begun to change. Just a minute before I’d seen a black-bearded man sitting surrounded by odalisques. But he suddenly disappeared, and the odalisques started to dance. ‘But this is impossible, this is just a picture,’ I said to myself. When I looked closer, I saw that the odalisques were in fact depicted as dancing, but that they were completely motionless. ‘But this can’t be a picture,’ I thought. The bodies were so plastic and the pink of their skin was so vivid that I couldn’t accept that it was an illusion. In the process I completely forgot that there were several other men around me. I was so engrossed in this unusual phenomenon on the wall. The colors became more and more vivid, and people detached themselves from the wall and came staggering out into the middle of the room. There they danced and tumbled, while I began feeling warmer and more pleasant inside. ‘Maybe I’m the magician who’s causing all these changes,’ it suddenly occurred to me. As a test, I silently ordered my objects to assume new positions. My order was carried out in an instant. A feeling of infinite personal power came over me. I saw myself as a magnificent king who controlled space and the objects in it and was independent of time and the laws of the universe. I was simply amazed that I’d never before discovered these wonderful powers of mine. ‘I wonder if I’m any less powerful than Allah?’ I said to myself. I swam in enjoyment of this miraculous omnipotence. Strangely physical and plastic cubes that were dazzlingly illuminated in the most garish colors started accumulating in front of my eyes. It took my breath away when I saw they were building a city bigger and more magnificent than Cairo, more elegant than Baghdad and mightier than Alexandria. Powerful minarets shot into the sky, and gold, silver, yellow, red and green cupolas arched over the roofs. My soul bathed in magnificence and bliss. ‘Yes, now you really are Allah,’ something in me said. God! Ruler of the universe! The images before me started to break up. I sensed that I had already experienced some climax and that I was returning to normality. A terror of losing so much delight came over me. With all my might I tried to stay at my earlier high. But my limbs felt weak, the colors in the pictures were fading, my head was growing heavy, and suddenly I lost consciousness. I woke up dizzy and with a feeling of enormous disgust. I recalled the images I had seen and the feelings I’d experienced. Had I been awake? Or had I dreamt them? I couldn’t tell. I had been aware of everything as though I’d been awake. But if I’d been awake, could I have seen things that weren’t there? My head was splitting. A servant brought me cold milk. It was only then that I realized I wasn’t alone in the room. The other guests were lying around me. They were groaning and their cheeks had a strange pallor. I straightened myself up and quietly slipped out of the house …”

  The grand dais hung on his lips, motionless all this time. When he paused for a moment, Abu Ali asked him, “And do you know what was in those balls that gave them such a marvelous power?”

  “Listen,” Hasan continued. “Toward evening of that same day a strange sense of unease came over me. I coul
dn’t stay in one spot, or figure out what it was I was missing, and suddenly I found myself in our prince’s house. The master welcomed me with a smile, as though he’d been expecting me. ‘The other guests are here too,’ he told me. ‘You see, anyone who has ever had one of those balls craves to re-experience again and again the delights that he felt the first time. And if he does it again, he gradually becomes a slave to the narcotic, succumbing to it so badly that without it he’d have to die. I want to warn you about that, so I’m not going to give you any new balls or even reveal to you what they contain.’ Within a few days my sense of unease subsided. But my curiosity had been piqued, and I swore I would find out what substance was in those little balls. Luck favored me. Back then the most beautiful odalisque in Kabul was a certain Apama. I think I’ve already told you about her, and there may be a surprise in store for you on that account.”

  Hasan smiled enigmatically. He continued.

  “I was an enterprising, hot-blooded fellow and didn’t know of a thing or a power that could hold me back if I had a passion. The prince had acquired Apama, and it was at his place that I won her heart. We would meet in his gardens late at night and enjoy the delights of paradise in forbidden embraces. In no time she had completely ensnared her master. Once, when I told her about the curiosity that had been tormenting me, she wrung the secret from him. The substance in those little balls is called hashish, or hashash, and it’s produced precisely from the Indian hemp you see in that flower bed.”

  They held close to the shed, which was protecting them from the heat of the sun. When Hasan had finished, all three of them remained silent for a while. Abu Ali wrinkled his brow and stared at the ground. Buzurg Ummid gazed out at the mountainside. At last he spoke.

  “I’m beginning to see what you’re actually aiming at. I suppose that you plan to use the sap of this plant to incite wild fervor in our believers, awaken in them a passion for renewed pleasure, and in this way enslave their will.”

  “And you expect some particular benefit from that?” Abu Ali grumbled. “By taking away their ashash, or whatever it’s called, you expect to influence their personalities in a way that sends them rushing into death? I’m sorry, that strikes me as a miscalculation. Even if they couldn’t live without this narcotic, there’s no law that says they have to sacrifice themselves the way you want. At your age you really could have spared yourself this little experiment. That you would expect them to believe that those little balls take them to paradise is beyond my comprehension. So instead, let’s discuss like grown men how we’re going to move against the sultan’s huge army, which is drawing closer every day.”

  “I second everything you’ve said,” Hasan said with a sly smile. “Concerning the might of the enemy that’s approaching, we have two choices. Either we can quickly throw a caravan together and try to escape to Africa, as the wise Muzaffar advised us, or we can rely on a miracle. As you know, I’ve decided in favor of the miracle. But there’s still time to reconsider.”

  “By Mohammed’s beard!” Abu Ali shouted. “With you an honest Muslim never knows where he stands. I’d like to hear you speak directly for once.”

  “Fine, I’ll give it a try. Didn’t I mention to you a while ago that I not only have the key to paradise up here, but that I can also watch what’s going on in paradise? You already know what’s on this side of the tower. But haven’t you ever had the urge to see what’s on that side? Go ahead, step up to the battlements.”

  The grand dais hurried quickly to the edge of the terrace. They leaned out over the battlements so they could look down. They were struck dumb with astonishment. They saw beneath them, as on a huge map, lovely groves and gardens in full blossom. Two arms of the river embraced them in a huge arc. Canals cut through and divided them, so that they were surrounded by water on all sides, like islands. Pebble-strewn paths shone white across them. Amid stands of cypresses, glass-covered pavilions glinted like crystal palaces. Round fish ponds with fountains were set inside them. Running around one of these were little creatures that seemed as buoyant as butterflies.

  “A miracle, a real miracle,” Buzurg Ummid whispered at last.

  “The poet of the Thousand and One Nights would be envious,” Abu Ali agreed.

  Hasan rose and joined them. A satisfied expression came across his face.

  “Imagine that you were with me at that prince’s house in Kabul,” he said. “You’ve swallowed the balls of hashish, you’ve experienced alongside of me all those wonderful delights of the spirit that I described to you, and now you’ve lost consciousness. Then you wake up, and you’re no longer in the dark room where you fell asleep. Instead you’re in these gardens below, surrounded by beautiful maidens ready to serve you in precisely the ways described in the Koran. What would you think?”

  “You’re incredible, ibn Sabbah!” Abu Ali exclaimed. “If I were young and inexperienced, by the beard of the martyr Ali, I’d think I’d really wandered into the gardens of paradise.”

  “But how and when did you create all of this?” Buzurg Ummid asked.

  “The kings of Daylam who built Alamut also laid the foundations of these gardens. The castle’s later owners neglected them. They vanished in an overgrowth of grasses and vines. Apparently my predecessor, the noble Mehdi, didn’t even know how to get to them. But I had heard some rumors about them, and since the notion of using gardens like this had long since occurred to me, I put all my effort into getting the castle. Then I measured and calculated everything myself. I drew up a precise plan, and when the eunuchs came from Egypt, I carried it out with them. So, piece by piece I created this paradise. Apart from the eunuchs and me, the two of you are the only ones in the castle who know about it.”

  “Aren’t you afraid the eunuchs could betray you?” Buzurg Ummid asked.

  “You don’t know them, these eunuchs of mine,” Hasan replied. “They talk to no one but me. Their commander, Captain Ali, is blindly faithful to me. Besides that, each of them knows that if he blurted anything out, it would be his death sentence. I depend on them.”

  “Don’t you think that the victims your paradise is meant for will see through your deception?”

  Abu Ali gave Hasan a cunning glance.

  “That’s why I’ve chosen youths who haven’t yet tasted love with a woman. There’s no one more gullible than a boy like that. Because only a woman can turn a male into a whole man. She confers knowledge on him, makes it possible for him to mature. He loses his spiritual innocence together with his physical innocence. This is why everything drives a boy toward that fateful event. Blinded by this unfamiliar passion, he’s ready to believe in anything just to attain his goal.”

  “And who are these youths?”

  Hasan smiled. He looked at him without responding.

  “The fedayeen?”

  “Your words.”

  A chilly silence fell over the tower. The grand dais gazed down into the gardens. Hasan watched them with a kind of indulgent scorn.

  “Can’t you speak?” he asked. “Yesterday we lost twenty-six of our men in battle with the sultan’s vanguard. If we take on the main force of his army, we’re all finished. All I need is several heroes who will make the kings and rulers of the whole world tremble. I summoned you today to show you how these men are going to be trained. Tonight you’ll join me for an experiment in altering human nature. Abu Ali, you know the fedayeen. Name the three of them who are most different from each other in terms of their abilities and character. We first have to test what kind of person is most useful to our purposes. Three gardens are waiting for their visitors.”

  Abu Ali looked at Hasan and went pale.

  “How do you mean, ibn Sabbah?”

  “Bring me three fedayeen with completely different personalities.”

  Abu Ali stared at him, unable to get a word out.

  “I’ll help you. Who was the stalwart who attacked the Turks first?”

  “Suleiman.”

  “Who is the strongest in the group?”
r />   “Yusuf.”

  “Ibn Tahir will make three. I’m particularly curious about him. If he doesn’t see through it, nobody will.”

  Buzurg Ummid broke out in a cold sweat. He recalled wanting to send his son Mohammed to the school for fedayeen as a way of demonstrating his unwavering trust in Hasan. Now he only wanted to get him as far away from Alamut as possible. He would send him to Syria or Egypt.

  Hasan looked at them askance with concealed derision.

  “Have you got a bone stuck in your throats?” he said. “Don’t get scared prematurely. I’ll provide you with such an argument for my actions that you’ll be the envy of any classical lover of wisdom. Now to my wardrobe! We’re going to deck ourselves out and go visit my paradise like real kings.”

  He led them into a smaller space next to his room. Two eunuchs had laid out clothes. Hasan retained one of them and told the other to go give the inhabitants of the gardens a sign that Sayyiduna was approaching.

  Wordlessly and with the help of the eunuch, the three of them changed clothes. They pulled on cloaks of heavy white brocade. Hasan draped a scarlet cape around his shoulders, and the grand dais put on blue ones. The capes were edged in precious white fur. Hasan set a gold tiara with various embedded jewels on his head. The grand dais put on turbans, with gold, conical caps in the middle. Hasan put on gold sandals, his companions, silver ones. They strapped on long, curved sabers with intricately carved handles. Then they returned to the commander’s room.

  “By the beard of the martyr Ali,” Abu Ali exclaimed when they were alone. “Decked out like this I could actually start believing I was a king.”