Here are excerpts from a book “Beware the Dragon: China: 1000 years of bloodshed” by Erik Durschmied. The gifted journalist has reconstructed the reign of terror, religious terror by an Islamist group in eleventh to thirteen centuries in Persia. It has striking similarities with the ascension of terrorism in Pakistan.

Hulagu Khan, a ferocious Mongol ruler, in Spring 1256, came upon a foe, unseen but no less dangerous a sect of religious fanatics who boasted a burning desire for self-sacrifice as the bringer of death in a sacred cause. Terrorists there had been before, but never this type of robotic killer, the creation of an evil genius, practitioner of psychological warfare and brainwashing. Hassan al-Sabbah, “The Man of the Mountain”, leader of the Hachchachin. In 1090 this Islamic zealot preached his gospel of hate in the mountaineous regions of Persia. He sermonised that every faithful man must prepare his path to messianic redemption by an act of subservient sacrifice. What better way to achieve eternal bliss than by turning into a suicidal terrorist? This bigoted Ismaili managed to stir such religious fervour that his fidayeen (devotees) gladly offered him their lives in self-destructive missions. His followers prostrated themselves before him and swore to obey his every command, however deranged, that would bring upheaval and chaos.”You do my will, and obey any of my orders. Never shall you question my wisdom, because I’m the enlightened of Allah”.

With his overpowering charisma Hassan al-Sabbah mystified countless youngsters, who otherwise faced a bleak future in the abject poverty of their mountain villages. Susceptible to the Imam’s promise of a martyr’s place in paradise, complete with the affections of kohl-eyed virgins, they came to see this exceedinly dangerous man as the incarnation of God on Earth. To the senses of followers, myth, fantasy and reality converged, creating violent imagery. So Hassan al-Sabbah converted his embryonic monsters into fanatically religious terrorists. All came from the radical Shia Muslims, who considered anyone outside their faction to be without faith; and Allah decreed that faithfulness must be punished by unprecedented severity.

Hassan al-Sabbah established an entirely new kind of warfare: fear by terrorism. A devilish sect was born. At its leader’s death, the sect morphoed from a hierarchial organisation into a multi-headed hydra, with independently operating cells spreading terror throughout Persia and Mesopotamia.

Kurshah, a successor to the notorious Hassan al-Sabbah, entered into an unholy alliance with ruthless and ambitious Hulagu. But soon Hulagu saw no place in his future plans for a religious zealot. The bond between two equally ruthless characters was broken. Within the month Kurshah dispatched a killer to demonstrate his power to strike whomever he selected for terminal punishment. The man in ragged clothes uttered a stifled scream when a Mongol grabbed him by the hair and twisted his head. He stared at a number of leathery faces. Soon he admitted that he was not who he pretended to be, an outcast, but a man with a sacred mission; his life had no more meaning, since he could no longer fulfil his mission, which was to kill the Khan of the Mongols. Hulagu had the assassin slow-roasted over an open fire. The devout died screaming; with his last breath he praised the name of Allah and asked his master’s forgiveness for having failed him. To Hulagu this attempt on his life signalled a need to eliminate the danger, according to the ancient wisdom: “Kill him before he kills you.”

Kurshah’s lookouts had informed him of the approach of :a great column of horseman” (Mongols). The Assassins Grand Master decided to demonstrate the magis powers which had been bestowed on him by the Almighty and show his deep contempt for the Mongol horde. “Stand fast, and with Allah by your side, we shall meet in Paradise.”

Soon, the Assassins subscribed to an extreme suicidal model, based on a twisted interpretation of Muslim law, and the mistaken, if deeply held, belief in a never-ending jihad. With the Mongols their luck came to an end. The evil spread by a callous master of terrorism was outmatched when he met up with an even greater master of brutality. No prisoners were taken, no leaders were tried and no one was left to tell a story.

An evil sect died, but its legacy carried on, and its ghost has haunted the world ever since. A primeval outcrop from a dark period of the human mind, motivated by an extreme, religious terrorism and cursed by a violent past, had perished. But as an old terror disappeared, so a new terror arose from it, for terror never dies.