UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

CENTER FOR ARAB STUDIES

ROMANO-ARABICA
XVIII

Geographies of Arab and Muslim Identity through

the Eyes of Travelers

editura universităţii din bucureşti ®

2018
Editors:
George Grigore (University of Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected])
Laura Sitaru (University of Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected])

Associate Editors:
Gabriel Bițunã (University of Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected])
Ovidiu Pietrãreanu (University of Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected])

Editor in charge of this issue

Laura Sitaru (University of Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected])

Cover design (World map, by Abu Zaid Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, d. 934)
Dennis Ionițã

Blind peer reviewed

Editorial and Advisory Board:
Jordi Aguadé (University of Cadiz, Spain)
Montaser Amein (Taif University, KSA)
Andrei A. Avram (University of Bucharest, Romania)
Ramzi Baalbaki (American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
Ioana Feodorov (Institute for South-East European Studies, Bucharest, Romania)
István T. Kristó-Nagy (University of Exeter, UK)
Pierre Larcher (Aix-Marseille University, France)
Jérôme Lentin (INALCO, Paris, France)
Giuliano Mion (“Gabriele d’Annunzio” University, Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
Luminiţa Munteanu (University of Bucharest, Romania)
Bilal Orfali (American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
Stephan Procházka (University of Vienna, Austria)
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin (Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey)
Shabo Talay (Free University of Berlin, Germany)
Irina Vainovski-Mihai (“Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania)
Ángeles Vicente (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
John O. Voll (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA)

Published by:
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ISSN 1582-6953
 Contents

Note ............................................................................................................................ 5
I. GEOGRAPHIES OF ARAB AND MUSLIM IDENTITY THROUGH THE
EYES OF TRAVELERS
Mahmoud Al-Ashiri. Eyes on Slavs, Eyes on Self; a Reading through "Eastern
Inflamed Gardens; a Journey to the Slavs’ Countries” ................................... 9
Basilius Bawardi. Discovering the Local: Khalīl Al-Khūrī's wayy. ’Iḏan lastu bi-
’ifranǧiyy (Alas, I’m not a Foreigner) 1859-1861, and Literary
Geographical Writing ...................................................................................... 15
Rosalind Buckton-Tucker. Journeys Ancient and Modern: The Writings of Ibn
Battutah and Tim Mackintosh-Smith ............................................................... 25
Paula Carolina De Andrade Carvalho. Abdullah & Richard f. Burton: Islam and
Otherness in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah
(1855-56) ......................................................................................................... 35
Andra Ramona Dodiță. Al-Ğāhiẓ’s Ar-radd ‘alā n-naṣārā: Fictional External
Geography Supporting Domestic Agendas? .................................................... 45
George Grigore. The Image of Mardin in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s Riḥla .................................. 53
Csilla Gyöngyösi. Strangers in Islam: Shaping the Otherness ................................. 61
Ștefan Ionete. Il Milione and the Old Man of the Mountain ..................................... 71
Rasha Alkhatib. Representations of the Self and the Other in Three Arabic Rihlas
of the 17th Century. .......................................................................................... 77
Luminița Munteanu. L’europe de Zeyneb Hanoum : Les désillusions
« occidentales » d’une rêveuse « orientale » ................................................... 89
Aldo Nicosia. Amrīkā Šīkā Bīkā and the Reinvention of Romania ........................... 105
Yulia Petrova. Some Peculiarities of Paul of Aleppo’s Writing Style as Found in
His Travel Account .......................................................................................... 113
Ovidiu Pietrăreanu. The Character of Barzawayh in an Anonymous Syriac
Translation of Ibn Al-Muqaffac’s Kalīla and Dimna ....................................... 125
Michele Pisano. Defining a Modern Arab Image of Italy through the Travel
Memoires of ‘Isā ’Ibrahim Al-Nā‘Ūrī .............................................................. 145
Yousef Sh’hadeh. A Journey of Ġāda As-Sammān or how the Body Becomes a
Suitcase ............................................................................................................ 155
Daniele Sicari. Familiarity and Otherness in Late-Ottoman Travel Accounts in
Palestine .......................................................................................................... 165
Laura Sitaru. Le voyageur musulman medieval et la frontiere ................................. 175
Ivan V. Sivkov. The Western Constitutional Principles of XIX Century in the Eyes
of Arab Scholar and Traveler, Rifā‘a Rāfi‘ al-Ṭahṭāwī, based on “Taḫlīṣ al-
ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz aw al-dīwān al-nafīs bi-Īwān Bārīs".................................. 185
Silvia-Alexandra Ștefan. Morofilia and Epic Representations of “The Noble
Moor” in Guerras civiles de Granada (1595) by Ginés Pérez De Hita,
“Translator” of Aben Hamín ........................................................................... 197
Boris Stojkovski & Nebojša Kartalija. The Other and the Self in the Travel
Accounts of Southern Hungary and Serbia in the Works of Al-Idrīsī and Abū
Ḥāmid Al-Ġarnāṭī ............................................................................................ 207
Mustafa Switat. Arab Travelers about Poland. The Image of Ibrāhīm Ibn Ya‘qūb
and the Image of the Slavs. .............................................................................. 217
Samia Touati. The Wanderings of Abū Al-Ḥasan Al-Šāḏilī (d. 1258) According to
Ibn ‘Aṭā’ Allāh’s Laṭā’if al-minan and Ibn Al-Ṣabbāġ’s Durrat al-asrār. ........ 227

II: BOOK REVIEWS

‫أﻣﯿﺮة اﻟﺰﯾﻦ‬. 2016. ‫ اﻟﻤﺆﺳﺴﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﻟﻠﺪراﺳﺎت واﻟﻨﺸﺮ‬:‫ ﺑﯿﺮوت‬.‫اﻹﺑﺪاع واﻟﻤﻘﺪس‬. (Mahmoud Al-
Ashiri). ............................................................................................................ 241
Andreas Fink. 2017. Der arabische Dialekt von Hasankeyf am Tigris (Osttürkei).
Geschichte – Grammatik – Texte – Glossar. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag. (Gabriel Bițună) ................................................................................. 245
Mehmet Șayır. 2017. Mardin Arapça Dialekti. Istanbul: Akdem Yayınları.
(Gabriel Bițună). ............................................................................................. 247
 NOTE
The 18th issue of Romano-Arabica Journal contains a selection of papers presented at the
international conference organized on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Arabic
Department, University of Bucharest, on the 15th and the 16th of September 2017, entitled
Geographies of Arab and Muslim identity through the eyes of travelers.
Arabs’ and Muslims’ interest for travel is closely related to their preoccupation for
geography and, consequently, to the extension of Islamic territorial domain. Since the
Umayyad era, Muslims are gradually developing a naval force and simultaneously a
category of scholars studying geography and its related sciences. The genre of travel
accounts represents the consequence in the literary field of the constantly developing
interest in geography. Therefore, exploring territories and peoples largely contributed to
the process of self-representation along with the representation of the other.
Between reality and imagination, travel accounts are precious testimonies about the
way in which identities are fluctuating within the very same cultural area and beyond it.
The frontiers between the familiar and the unknown are continuously moving, shaping
various in-groupness and out-groupness constructions. The goals of the conference were
to explore travel accounts written by Arabs and Muslims and to map out the diversity of
representations within the field of identities from different perspectives: cultural,
historical, linguistic and social.
The papers included in the current issue of Romano-Arabica Journal approach
relevant topics to the genre of travel literature in the Arab and Islamic world (the
experience of contrast and its role in self-representation; imaginary geographies and
Muslim travelers; linguistic, behavioral and environmental exotic identities in Arabic
travel literature; theoretical speculations concerning the otherness; the emergence of
enduring stereotypes concerning the other; reinterpreting legends and revisiting old travel
patterns etc.).

Laura Sitaru, coordinator of the current issue

Organizer of the international conference
Geographies of Arab and Muslim identity through the eyes of travelers
Bucharest, September 15-16, 2017
 IL MILIONE AND THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

ȘTEFAN IONETE

University of Bucharest

Abstract. The Travels of Marco Polo, and, especially, his descriptions of China and the Mongol Empire
were, for a long time a work that captured the imagination of the European public regarding the people and
cultures of Asia and considered a reference for this geographical space. However, his writings also helped
establish as truth legends such as the secret religious “Order of the Assassins” and their mysterious leader,
“The Old Man of the Mountain”, myth that had already appeared during the Crusades. For many years the
story went unchallenged as little information was available about who “The Assassins” really were. The
current study focuses on Marco Polo’s travel to Persia, more exactly to Alamūt, the headquarter of the Nizārī
state, founded by Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, and on his account as the main resource. In addition, based on the most
recent research I proposed a few answers to questions regarding the origin of terms used by Marco Polo and
to shed light on the legend of the Assassins.
Keywords: Marco Polo; Assassins; Ismā‛īlī, Nizārī; Persia; Alamūt; Iran.

Reading the Travels of Marco Polo and his depiction of Persia, one cannot miss the
accounts of the Old Man of Mountain, his castle and the practices of his followers. Thus,
a few questions arise from his story: who are the mulehet, who is the “Old Man of the
Mountain” and what is the origin of his name and who are the Assassins? Throughout this
article I will try to give answers to all these questions.
Marco Polo’s account starts as follows:

“Mention shall now be made of the old man of the mountain. The district in which
his residence lay obtained the name of Mulehet, signifying in the language of the
Saracens, the place of heretics, and his people that of Mulehetites, or holders of
heretical tenets” 1 (Komroff, 1926: 53).

The term mulehet comes from the Arabic word malāḥida, meaning “heretics”,
name by which a branch of Shi’a Islam, the Ismā‛īlīs, was referred to by outsiders. The
origin of the Ismā‛īlīs is traced back to Ismā‛īl, son of Ja‛far al-Ṣādiq (Corbin, 1975:
520). Ismā‛īl was elected by his father, Ja‛far al-Ṣādiq, as his successor in the role of
imām; however, he died before his father. After the death of al-Ṣādiq his supporters were
split into three main groups: the Nāwūsīya, who believed that Ja‛far al-Ṣādiq was the
expected Mahdī, the followers of Mūsa al-Kāzim, another son of Ja‛far and half-brother

1 Throughout the text, for fragments of Marco Polo’s Travels, I used the 1926 edition of Manuel
Komroff, revised from Marsden’s translation of 1854, chapters 23-23, pages 53-56.
 ȘTEFAN IONETE

of Ismā‛īl, group that would later become the most prominent of the Shi’as, Iṯnā‛aššariyya
or, the Twelvers, and, finally, the supporters of the claim of Ismā‛īl and of his son,
Muḥammad (Lewis, 1940: 31-32).
The history of the Ismā‛īlīs can be split in three major periods: the pre-Fāṭimid
period, between 148/765, the emerging of the movement up until 297/909, the year of the
establishment of the Fāṭimid Caliphate; the second period which is the rule of the Fāṭimid
Caliphate between 297/909 until 487/1094, and, the third period, after 487/1094, year that
was marked by a major split within the Ismā‛īlīs, caused by the power struggle between
al-Musta‛li and the legitimate heir to the Imāmate, the prince Nizār who was dethroned
by the former (Corbin, 1975: 522).
The pre-Fāṭimid period represents the time of the incubation of the Ismā‛īlī belief
system and is the period with the least reliable information. This fact can be attributed to
the hostile environment in which both the Ismā‛īliyya and the Iṯnā‛aššariyya communities
lived, both of them being persecuted by the ‛Abbāsid rulers, thus, their members being
forced to practice taqiyya in order to survive (Daftary, 2007: 87). The term taqiyya “fear”,
“prudence”, represents, in Shi’a Islam the practice of dissimulation, the hiding of one’s
belief and religion, in times of oppression or persecution, which, literally means that one
adheres to the practices and beliefs of the majority in public, in this case, the Sunni, while
remaining Shi’ite on the inside. The taqiyya is seen as a balance to the practice of šahada,
“martyrdom” (Gleave, 2004: 678-679).
During this period, the Ismā‛īlī movement spread across a vast geographical area,
reaching from North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east and to Yemen in the
south (Daftary 2005: 22). At first, most of the adepts were from a rural or Bedouin
background, however, as the movement grew and continued its expansion also within
urban populations. By the end of the 9th, around 280/890, the Ismā‛īlīs were centralized
and the missions, da‛wa, were directed from the city of Salamiya, in modern day Syria
(Daftary, 2007: 115-116).
In 286/899 a major split of the Ismā‛īlī community took place. One of the
missionaries, da‛ī, named Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ, didn’t accept the claims of ‛Abd Allah, the
new ruler of the movement from Salamiya, who had declared himself Imām instead of
accepting Muḥammad ibn Ismā‛īl as the hidden Mahdi (Daftary, 2007: 116-117). The
Qarmaṭis flourished in Yemen, Syria, Mesopotamia and Baḥrain and continued to
challenge the other Ismā‛īlīs, who established the Fāṭimid caliphate in Cairo.
The establishment of the Fāṭimid Caliphate in North Africa represented an
important turning point in both the history of the Ismā‛īlīs and of the Shi’a in general for
it was the first time a state was ruled by an imām and caliph, state which became a
challenge to the ‛Abbāsids and the Sunnis. The founder and first imām-caliph of the new
state was ‛Abd Allah al-Mahdi who conquered the capital city of the Aġlabids, Raqqada,
which lies in today’s Tunisia. The new ruler was immediately recognized by the Kutama
Berbers (Daftary, 2005: 64).
Of importance to the current study is the schism of 487/1094, which occurred
after the death of the Fāṭimid caliph, al-Mustanṣir, who named his son, Nizār, as his
successor. However, the power struggle between Nizār and his half-brother, al-
Musta‛lī, lead to the break-up of the Isma‛īlīs and the emergence of the Nizārīs in Syria
and Persia (Daftary, 2007: 241-242).

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 IL MILIONE AND THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

The term mulehet, from Marco Polo’s account designates, thus, the Nizārī state of
Alamūt, established by Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, an Isma‛īlī da‛ī who pursued his mission in his
native Persia. In the year 1090 he managed to take control of the Alamūt fortress, in the
vicinity of the city of Qazvīn and started directing his mission, da‛wa, from there
(Hodgson, 1955: 47-50).
The Nizārī state of Alamūt lasted for a period of 166 years, between 483/1090,
from the taking of the fortress, and 1256 when it was captured by the Mongolians. During
this period, Alamūt had eight rulers: the first three (Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, Kiyā Buzurg-Ummīd
and Muḥammad ibn Buzurg-Ummīd) referred to themselves as da‛ī and ḥuǧǧa “proof”
while the last five (Ḥasan II, Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥasan, ‛Alā’ al-Dīn
Muḥammad and Rukn al-Dīn Kurshāh) were imāms.
The first rulers of Alamūt were ḥuǧǧa, a term that was used in reference to a leader
who was just below the imām in the spiritual hierarchy, however, in Ḥasan-i Sabbāḥ
reinterpreted the term to add a new meaning and dimension: “custodian of the Isma'ili
mission until the imam should reappear at which time he would point out the imam to the
faithful” (Hodgson, 1968: 438). The death of Nizār was a moment of impasse for what
was to become the Nizārī Ismā‛īlīs as he had not appointed anyone to become his
successor. Thus, Ḥasan-i Sabbāḥ became the only link with the true imām as his supreme
ḥuǧǧa “proof” and prophesized his reoccurrence as qā’im “the figure who, at the end of
the world, would cap the series of imāms and complete their work, bringing perfect
justice and truth” (Hodgson, 1955: 66-67).
In 559/1164, Ḥasan II, the son of Muḥammad ibn Buzurg-Ummīd, two years after
his ascension to the throne of Alamūt, declared himself more than just da‛ī and ḥuǧǧa,
adding the title of caliph and later linking this position to that of the Fāṭimid ruler al-
Mustanṣir, who was also an imām. In this way, Ḥasan II proclaimed the qiyāma
“resurrection” with him being the long expected imām and qā’im. However, the
Resurrection was interpreted as a symbol of the ending of a spiritual era in which the
šari‛a was to be respected and the beginning of a new one in which the moral perfection
was above all else (Hodgson, 1968: 459).
Ḥasan II couldn’t manage to refine his doctrine, being murdered shortly after the
proclamation, but his son, Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, continued the newly established
tradition. He linked the figure of the imām, who now become qā’im, to the Qur’ānic Ḫiḍr,
who had drunk the water of life and was destined to live forever. Moreover, the imām-
qā’im was interpreted in the Ṣūfī manner who considered Ḫiḍr as an “eternally wandering
mystic, ready to bring material and spiritual sustenance to lonely dedicated Sufis in their
hour of extremest need” (Hodgson, 1968: 462-463). At this time, the Nizāris also adopted
the Ṣūfī terminology for their doctrine, where the leader was called by the Persian word,
pīr “old”, “old man”. By the time of Marco Polo’s journey to Persia, after the fall of Alamūt
and the subsequent Nizārī state, the Ismā‛īlis were disguised in a Ṣūfī ṭarīqa (Hodgson,
1968: 466), with the former leaders of Alamūt being known as pīr, thus offering a plausible
explanation for the name adopted by Marco Polo: “Old Man of the Mountain.”
Marco Polo continues his account with the description of a paradisiacal garden that
the Old Man of the Mountain used in order to make his followers obey him at all cost:

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 ȘTEFAN IONETE

“In a beautiful valley enclosed between two lofty mountains, he had formed a
luxurious garden, stored with every delicious fruit and every fragrant shrub that
could be procured. Palaces of various sizes and forms were erected in different parts
of the grounds, ornamented with works in gold, with paintings, and with furniture of
rich silks. By means of small conduits contrived in these buildings, streams of wine,
milk, honey, and some of pure water, were seen to flow in every direction.
The inhabitants of these palaces were elegant and beautiful damsels, accomplished
in the arts of singing, playing upon all sorts of musical instruments, dancing, and
especially those of dalliance and amorous allurement. Clothed in rich dresses they
were seen continually sporting and amusing themselves in the garden and pavilions,
their female guardians being confined within doors and never suffered to appear.
The object which the chief had in view in forming a garden of this fascinating kind,
was this: that Mahomet having promised to those who should obey his will the
enjoyments of Paradise, where every species of sensual gratification should be found,
in the society of beautiful nymphs, he was desirous of its being understood by his
followers that he also was a prophet and the compeer of Mahomet, and had the power
of admitting to Paradise such as he should choose to favor” (Komroff, 1926: 53-54) .

The depiction of the garden resembles greatly with the garden described in the
Arabic text Min al-ǧuz’ aṯ-ṯānī min sīrāti amīr al-mu’minīn al-Ḥākim bi-amr Allāh,
dating from the time of the Fāṭimid leader Ẓahir: in the story an Ismā‛īlī builds a garden
in Maṣyaf, near Tripoli, that looks just like the descriptions of Paradise with different
types of plants and animals, beautiful slaves finely dressed enchant the guests who are
brought inside only at the wish of the owner of the house after being drugged. In later
conversations with the Ismā‛īlī, the guests were told that all their experience was a miracle
of ‛Alī and that they would be offered a place in such a Paradise if they followed the
teachings of the Ismā‛īlīs. Such stories were also present in Persia, however, the historian
Juwaynī didn’t search for such a garden after the fall of Alamūt (Hodgson 1955: 135).
Marco Polo used the word “assassin” in reference to some followers of the leaders
of Alamūt, more exactly to those who carried out targeted murders. He argues that young
men aged between twelve to twenty years old were specifically trained for this sort of
missions with the use of the aforementioned garden: “at his court, likewise, this chief
entertained a number of youths, from the age of twelve to twenty years, selected from the
inhabitants of the surrounding mountains, who showed a disposition for martial exercises,
and appeared to possess the quality of daring courage. To them he was in the daily
practice of discoursing on the subject of the paradise announced by the prophet, and of
his own power of granting admission. And at certain times he caused opium to be
administered to ten or a dozen of the youths; and when half dead with sleep he had them
conveyed to the several apartments of the palaces in the garden” (Komroff, 1926: 54).
After a few days spent in the so-called Paradise, the young men were taken out and told
that they can only return if they obey their master.
While assassinations were, indeed carried by the Nizārīs, they generally came as a
result of massacres directed against them in various parts of the Mulsim world. Also, the
murders were targeted against preachers or rulers who actively fought the Nizārīs or
incited populations to violence against them. Those who carried out the murders were
called fidā’ī, the word “assassin” appearing to be derived from ḥašīšīn “smokers of

74
 IL MILIONE AND THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

hashish”, as they were known in Syria. However, the word “assassin” was not used by
Marco Polo for the first time, having already been introduced in European languages
during the time of the Crusades (Hodgson, 1968: 442-443).

Final remark

Marco Polo’s account of the Nizārī state of Alamūt is brief and, in many ways, it comes as
a reinforcement of the already existing myths and legends rather than shading light on the
historical truth of a complex reality. His travel to Persia were conducted after the year 1271,
when he left Venice, while the fall of Alamūt took place in 1256 (Hodgson, 1955: 265),
thus, Marco Polo’s story is based on accounts of other people and are not a description of
his personal, first-hand experience, fact that is acknowledged in his book: “the following
account of this chief, Marco Polo testifies to having heard from sundry persons.”
Another issue that is obvious is Marco Polo’s lack of knowledge with regards to
the terms he uses: the Old Man of the Mountain appears to be a direct translation of the
Persian word pīr “old”, “old man”, used in reference to the leaders of Alamūt, rather than
a documented account of his actual role and function of imām-qā’im, the term “assassin”
was just a perpetuation of the already existing notion introduced in Europe during the
Crusades, thus, not offering a broader explanation of their actual scope and function,
while just by calling the Nizārīs, mulehet, he doesn’t offer any insight into who they
actually were or what were their doctrines.
Overall, Marco Polo’s story only fuels the European imagination, reinforcing the
stereotype of the mystical Orient and can in no way be taken as a proper investigation of
the rather complex history of the Ismā‛īlīs.

References

Corbin, Henry. 1975. “Nāṣir-i Ḫusrau and Iranian Ismā‛īlism”. The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 4.
The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Ed.: Frye, Richard. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 520-543.
Daftary, Farhad. 2005. Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies. London: Tauris Publishers.
Daftary, Farhad. 2007. The Ismā‛īlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hodgson, Marshall. 1955. The Order of Assassins. The Struggle of the Early Nizārī Ismā‛īlīs against the
Islamic World. The Hague: Mouton&Co. Publishers.
Hodgson, Marshall. 1968. “The Ismā‛īlī State” in The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 5. The Saljuq and
Mongol Periods. Ed.: Boyle, John Andrew. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 422-483.
Gleave, Robert. 2004. “Taqiyya” in Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Ed.: Martin, Richard. New
York: Macmillan Reference. 678-679.
Komroff, Manuel. 1926. The Travel of Marco Polo, The Venetian. New York: Horace Liveright.
Lewis, Bernard. 1940. The Origins of the Ismā‛īlism. A study of the historical background of the Fāṭimid
Caliphate. Heffer & Sons Ltd.: Cambridge.

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