Merkaba Press

But though Greek and even Hindu influence is evident in the remains, still, on the whole, the art of the period was thoroughly national

The Persia of Sassanian times was essentially a land of city folk.

The Persian court was the most luxurious of the time. Its splendor culminated apparently with Khusru II., whose harem of three thousand concubines and ten thousand slave women is the largest mentioned in history. The power of the kings was absolute and unlimited. But their tyranny, which frequently degenerated into fearful cruelty, was felt only by the upper classes, the nobles, and courtiers. The mass of the people, especially after Khusru I., were content and, for the age, well governed.

The result of this conversion en masse has been that Persia has never, unlike the Ottoman empire, been confronted with the problem of a great body of unbelievers among her subjects. That vital source of weakness to Turkey has been spared her more fortunate neighbor.

He soon joined the fanatic sect of the Ismailites, a branch of the Alid heresy organized into a sort of hierarchy, only the upper grades of which held the full secrets of the sect. Hassan saw in this organization an opportunity to raise himself again to power. Establishing his seat at the Castle of Alamut (the Eagles’ Nest) in the mountains of northern Persia he soon drew about him hundreds of Ismailites whom he proceeded to organize into a brotherhood of murder. The neophytes were taught absolute obedience and complete self-surrender and then sent out as messengers to strike down the enemies of the order, nerved on by promises of the joys of Paradise if they fell. Hassan is even said to have given them a foretaste of this bliss by drugging them with hashish (whence some derive the name of the sect) and conveying them to a beautiful garden, where for a few days they

enjoyed all the pleasures of the Moslem Paradise.

The power of this terrible sect spread through Persia and Syria till the Old Man of the Mountains (Sheikh al Jebal), as the chief of the order was called, ruled over a hundred castles. The murders committed by the Assassins were often aimless and indeed the order resembled in many ways the militant anarchists of to-day. Despite the terror they spread throughout the East the sovereigns of the day found them too useful as instruments of revenge to attempt to suppress the scourge and they continued to flourish till the general catastrophe of the Mongol conquest.

The private life of Abbas forms the dark side of his character. He was by nature cruel and often treacherous.

ous. A fearful tyrant

in his own family, he was seized with jealousy of his own sons, who were universally beloved; one of them he put to death, two others he caused to be blinded. Yet Abbas was capable of being an agreeable and even captivating companion. He was a lover of good cheer, drank wine despite the prohibition of the Koran, and was somewhat of a wit. On settling a colony of Christians in the province of Mazanderan he remarked that as its chief products were wine and hogs they would consider themselves in Paradise. He died in 1628 at his favorite palace of Ferrahabad, aged seventy years.