Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mahdi Najaf Zadeh ¹
• Maryam Mokhtari ²
• Salman Ahmadvand ³
• Iman Ahmadvand ⁴

¹ Assistant Professor of Political Science ,Firdausi University Of Mashhad

² Assistant Professor of Social Science, Yasuj University

³ M.A in Social Science, Yasuj University

⁴ M.A in political Science, University of Tehran

Abstract

IsmailiNizari sect, led by Hassan Sabbah, is the founder of “assassination” in its classic sense since neither prior to the emergence of this sect nor in the Iranian historical milieu in the middle decades have we witnessed a movement utilizing terror simultaneously as a strategic and a defense mechanism, in a highly systematic way, to achieve its goals.The present study, using a qualitative approach and related historical documents, deals with assassination in Ismailia sect. It also adopts an inductive approach to analyze the effective factors in the function of this movementsociologically. In this study, causal and intervening conditions leading to formation of assassinationphenomenon in Ismailia sect were identified. Causal factors include the idea of forming a true government by Hassan Sabah, his hostilities towards Nizam al-Mulk, and political conflicts in the Seljuk government. The intervening factors included alternative modern discourse, the crisis of legitimacy, mountingsuppressions, and the decline of the Fatimid's government.The present paper is based on Smelser's theory of Quadruple Explanations, and focuses on the waysa collective behavior turns into a social movement, and the mechanism through which a value-based movement emerges. It also offers the idea that fuzzy distinction between the political and religious powers leads to the emergence of a social movement with religious literature, with an eye to finding the causal and intervening conditions that created the phenomenon of assassination in Ismailisect. This article concludes that in the historical tug of war for power, the two factors (causal and intervening) led to the production and reproduction of terror in Ismaili sect.

Keywords

• Ismailians
• Hassan Sabah
• Assassination
• Seljuqs
• Social context