Mythologized throughout the centuries- from Marco Polo to Freya Stark, and, in modern times by the game company Ubisoft, the Assassins, lacking in numbers, employed asymmetrical warfare to their advantage, calculating their attacks for the maximum psychological and political impact.
Whilst their assassinations were frequently done publicly and in crowded spaces, another method was to leave a dagger with a note under the pillows of powerful political figures, suggesting a breach in their security.
How many of these stories were real and how many were falsely attributed?
This piece will make its way under someone's pillow tonight (perhaps check OpenSea's hidden folder:)) with the story gradually unfolding over the next few days.
Part 2:
'Gott ist tot', Nietzsche's most famous quote replaces the earlier artwork. The line 'Nothing is True,Everything is Permitted', was attributed by Nietzsche to the assassins. There is no surviving literature with this quotation in either Arabic or Farsi. The provenance of this quote, therefore, can only be traced back to Nietzsche, who had in turn, most likely read it from Betty Bouthoul's 'Le grand maître des assassins', the only source directly attributing the above quote to the leader of the Assassin's Hassan Sabbah's last words.
"Souviens-toi... souviens-toi: rien n'est vrai, tout est permis..." A la fin de la nuit Hassan mourut (Bouthoul, p. 196)