Taj ad-Dīn Abū l-Futūh

Taj ad-Dīn Abū l-Futūh ibn Muhammad ( Arabic تاج الدين أبو الفتوح بن محمد, DMG Tāǧ ad-Dīn Abū l-Futūḥ ibn Muḥammad ; † probably after 1250) was head of the Nizari Ismailites in Syria , the Assassins , in 1239/1240 and again in 1249 , with the main seat at Masyaf Castle . Like all the other leaders of this Ismaili sect, he was called "the old man from the mountain".

The Arab chronicler Ibn Wasil reported for the year 637 / 1239-40 that a Persian from Alamut named Taj al-Din was serving as a mukaddam with the Ismailis of Masyaf. Furthermore, Taj al-Din is mentioned by his full name in an inscription in Masyaf, dated to Dhu'l-Qa'da 646 / February-March 1249, when he ordered the construction of a wall around the village attached to the castle, including the erection of the South gates.

In all likelihood, Taj al-Din was the "old man from the mountains" who belonged to King Louis IX. of France had established diplomatic contact in May 1250 after arriving in Acre the month before after his failed crusade in Egypt ( Sixth Crusade ) . The crusade writer Jean de Joinville reported that the Assassins moved from Louis IX. hoped for an exemption from the tribute payments they had to pay to the orders of the Hospitallers and the Templars . The mere murder of the grand masters of these orders would not lead to the desired goal, according to the opinion of the "old man from the mountains", since the orders would immediately put new leaders with the same powers at their head. At the same time, Louis IX. pay an annual tribute to the assassins himself in exchange for his life. Joinville described the subliminal threat of the three emissaries, in that one of them carried three knives with him, which to Louis IX. had been handed out as a declaration of war, he would not have received the messenger. Another messenger carried a coarse cloth with him, which he would have offered the king as a shroud if he did not comply with the demands of the "old man from the mountain".

Ultimately, however, Louis IX. after a consultation with the order grandmasters, refused to be impressed by the threats and rejected the demands; the assassins continued to pay tributes to the orders. At the same time, Ludwig IX. to be given ample gifts from the "old man from the mountains" within a fortnight so that the threats can be forgotten. From this a diplomatic exchange developed, about which Joinville reported that the king sent the Dominican Yves the Bretons to Masyaf as a negotiator. Brother Yves mastered the Arabic language ("Saracen") and was commissioned, among other things, to convert the "old man from the mountains" to the Christian faith; this mission attempt was unsuccessful. Later the "old man from the mountains" sent to Ludwig IX. another messenger who carried a “Danish ax” decorated with silver. Holding this up to the king, the messenger shouted: "Give way to him who bears the death of kings in his hands!"

As early as 1236, the chronicler Guillaume de Nangis had reported that the "old man from the mountains" had sent a death squad ( Fida'i ) to Europe to kill Louis IX. to murder. But the "old man" had changed his mind in time through divine influence and sent a second mission, which intercepted the first before its goal and thus saved the life of the king. The truthfulness of this story is rated as low.

literature

• Nasseh Ahmad Mirza: Syrian Ismailism. The Ever Living Line of the Imamate. Curzon, Richmond, Surrey, 1997. pp. 43f.
• Farhad Daftary : The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Jacques Le Goff : Saint Louis. Gallimard, Paris 1996.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ibn Wasil, Mufarrig al-kurub fi ahbar bani Ayyub , Paris, ms. ar. 1702, fol. 333b
2. ^ Daftary, p. 241
3. ↑ Joinville , III, §4, ed. by Ethel Wedgwood (1906)
4. ↑ Joinville , III, §4, ed. by Ethel Wedgwood (1906)
5. ↑ Guillaume de Nangis, Vita Ludovici IX , pp. 254f.