The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis
1995; University of California; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1557-0290
Autores Tópico(s)Families in Therapy and Culture
ResumoREVIEWS F A R H A D D A F T A R Y , The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis Tauris & C o . L t d : L o n d o n , 1994) 213 p p . ( I . B. Farhad Daftary's The Assassin Legends offers the reader a brief yet provocative h i s t o r y of the h i s t o r y o f the N i z a r i Isma'iSis, an i m p o r tant Shi'a m i n o r i t y sect whose exotic and sinister presence as t h e Assassins i n t h e c u l t u r a l i m a g i n a t i o n o f the West extends f r o m the t i m e o f the first crusades t o the nineteenth c e n t u r y and b e y o n d . B y tracing the s h i f t i n g triangular relations between Sunni M u s l i m s , Isma'ilis, and the C h r i s t i a n West as t h e y evolve t h r o u g h eight centu ries o f i n t e r c u l t u r a l and intertextual contact, conflict, and collabora t i o n , Daftary charts the e v o l u t i o n and dissemination o f a series o f ' b l a c k ' legends that feature the p o l i t i c a l l y significant Persian and Syrian I s m a ' i l i M u s l i m c o m m u n i t i e s . D r a w i n g o n the findings o f m o d e r n Islamic studies (the pioneering w o r k o f W l a d i m i r I v a n o w , Marshall G . H o d g s o n , Bernard Lewis, N o r m a n D a n i e l , R. W . South ern, and others) and p r e v i o u s l y unpublished, untranslated, and untapped I s m a ' i l i texts, Daftary outlines a h i s t o r y o f d i s t o r t i o n and m y s t i f i c a t i o n , and critiques the collaborative i n v e n t i o n o f a t r a d i t i o n o f t e r r o r that continues t o s u r r o u n d , albeit t o a far lesser extent, even modern-day Isma'ilis, w h o today account f o r about t e n percent o f the entire M u s l i m society o f a r o u n d one b i l l i o n persons (2). I n The Assassins, published i n 1968, Bernard L e w i s proposes that the I s m a ' i l i Shi'as m a y w e l l be the first terrorists. L e w i s cites a modern a u t h o r i t y t o explain: T e r r o r i s m . . . i s carried o n b y a n a r r o w l y l i m i t e d o r g a n i z a t i o n and is inspired b y a sustained p r o g r a m of large-scale objectives i n the name o f w h i c h t e r r o r is practised. W i t h m i n i m a l semantic t w e a k i n g , such definitions can indict under their r u b r i c t o o excessive a n u m b e r o f practices, policies, and i n s t i t u tions t h a n is comfortable f o r certain ideological interests. Neverthe less, i t emerges that the w o r d assassin t o o is forged o u t o f the same durable and (for those whose p o l i t i c a l vocabularies demand it) useful semiotic alloy i n Western culture as ' t e r r o r i s m . ' L i t t l e , i n effect, has changed i n o u r understanding o f the t e r m since its coinage i n the twelfth to century. Assassin, according to the Compact Oxford D i c t i o n a r y o f t h e English Language, describes one w h o undertakes p u t another t o death b y treacherous violence. T h e d i c t i o n a r y adds that the t e r m retains so m u c h o f its original a p p l i c a t i o n as t o be Bernard Lewis, The Assassins: a Radical Sect in Islam (Octagon B o o k , a division o f Farrar, Straus, and G i r o u x r N e w Y o r k , 1980), p . 129-130.
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