Nine Degrees of the Assassins Order

 
"Members were enrolled, on the understanding that they were to receive hidden power and timeless wisdom which would enable them to become as important in life as some of the teachers. Students had to pass through nine degrees of initiation.”

Templars and the Assassins
Origins of the Nizari Isma'ilisThe

The Schism in Islam
"...in the year the Christian calendar calls AD 632, a schism even greater than the Reformation was to produce engulfed Islam. Its two great forces, the Sunnis and the Shi'ites, became irrevocably divided. The Shi'ites insisted that the leadership of Islam should have remained in the Prophet's family and, upon his death, they had pledged their support to Mohammed's cousin, Ali, who became Caliph or successor to the Prophet." - Gordon Thomas, Journey into Madness

Rashid al-Din Sinan

From previous standpoints, historians or scholars in both the East and West have given considerable attention to the medieval Isma'ilis, and especially to the so-called "Assassins" of Alamut and Misyaf. Western writers have also shown interest in the Isma'ilis of Syria led by the 'Old Man of the Mountains' (Shaikh al-Jabal), or accounts of the contacts of the Templars with them.

The present article deals with the life and career of one of the greatest and most valiant of the Syrian Isma'ili da'is of the thirteenth century C.E. namely Rashid al-Din Sinan, (d. 1193 or 1194).

Assassin Castles
Institute of Islamic Studies

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_ar ticle.asp?ContentID=106256

Peter Willey’s Eagle’s Nest is devoted to the Ismaili castles in Iran and Syria. According to Peter, the larger Ismaili fortresses are quite outstanding as examples of military architecture, their strategic position and the skilled use of natural resources to ensure that, despite the difficulties of the terrain, the castles were well supplied with food and water and, therefore, able to withstand a prolonged siege of many months, and even years.

Allies and Enemies in the Holy Land

1 Come to Death

2 Fall of Acre

The Eight Petalled Lotus Symbol of Sufism The Buddist Doctrine of Shambalaism uses a similar one.  It is said to represent the Eight Regioned Underground World that lies beneath Tibet and the Hindu Kush, where lives the 'King of the World'...