Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood, Steve Tibble, Yale University Press, £20

I once tried to count the number of major factions involved in the wars for the Middle East at the time of the Crusades (1097-1291). I reached about 35 and gave up; the task simply couldn’t be accomplished. The entire area was a mosaic of different interests, clans, sultanates, empires, principalities, city-states, nomadic communities, and overlapping mercantile networks; it defied any easy reckoning. This failed experiment does, however, underline something important. Recognising the region’s immense complexity during this period (indeed during many periods) is a vital prerequisite to any attempt to understand it; certainly, it was never divisible into two easily defined religious blocks. The reality was more entangled and interesting.

In this landscape, calls for religious conflict represented only one cause for war among many, and, on plenty of occasions, the opposing ranks of mighty armies included members of different faiths on both sides. Then there were those caught in the middle, struggling to survive within this arena of empires.

The Assassins and the Knights Templar were among the most unusual communities shaped by – and shaping – this environment, and in Assassins and Templars, Steve Tibble explores their blood-soaked and intertwined histories. On one hand, there were the Nizaris (aka Assassins). This was a small community following a branch of Ismaili Shia Islam which, with little territory of its own, needed to maintain certain beliefs and a way of life in the face of sustained hostility from neighbours and overlords. Given the vulnerability of the Assassins’ position, they defended themselves by conducting political murders against high-profile targets – whether Arab, Turkish, Frankish (Western European), or Kurdish – a practice that caused their more powerful opponents to think twice before picking a fight. On the other hand, there were the Knights Templar, a Catholic religious order steeped in the ideology of crusading, garrisoning many fortresses, and intent on maintaining Christian control over the Holy City of Jerusalem.

At first sight, these two groups had little in common, yet Tibble is keen to stress their similarities. Both were ideologically committed to their goals and vocations; both were small groups operating in a region shaped by much larger forces; both punched well above their weight given their limited numbers; both centred their power in major fortresses; and both nurtured ideologies in which death and martyrdom played an important role. A further area where they still share a great deal in common is in their complex ‘afterlives’ – the elaborate fictions and conspiracy theories that surround their memory, which show no sign of diminishing even in the 21st century.

In structure, Assassins and Templars begins by taking its readers from the origins of these groups, through their early lives, and to their initial encounters in Syria in the mid-12th century. In these years, the Templars grew to acquire a substantial stake in the defence of the territories conquered during and after the First Crusade (1095-99). These are now commonly referred to as the ‘Crusader States’.  For their part, the Assassins – based initially in Persia – acquired a small state for themselves in Syria, centred on a group of fortresses including the strongholds of Qadmus and Masyaf.

The book follows the drumbeat of events, discussing the policies pursued by both groups against the broader panorama of wider events shaping the Middle East. Within this history, Tibble draws attention to many fascinating events. He discusses, for example, the Assassins’ attempt to conquer the town of Shaizar in 1114 from an Arab family called the Banu Munqidh, an assault that failed due to the spirited defence mustered by the Munqidhs’ leading women. Then there is the Templars’ rising power and involvement in the massive — and ultimately calamitous —crusading campaign led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany (the Second Crusade) in the 1140s. Covering later decades, Tibble explores the Assassins’ hostility towards Saladin, as his empire grew to encompass both Egypt and Syria – a rivalry that led them to stage several unsuccessful assassination attempts.

The Assassins also lie at the heart of one of the great murder mysteries of this era: the death of the crusade commander Conrad of Montferrat in the closing phases of the Third Crusade. Who killed him? Was it the Assassins? Even if it was, did they carry out the murder of their own volition or were they paid or pressured to do it? The book then follows the dramatic events and crusades of the 13th century up to and beyond the final collapse of the mainland Crusader States in 1291.

In all of this, the Templars and Nizaris (Assassins) crossed paths on many occasions, and Tibble pays close attention to these encounters. Their relationship was turbulent, marked by periods of both diplomacy and war. To take one example: in 1173-74 a group of Templars murdered an envoy sent by the Assassins to negotiate a peace agreement with the Kingdom of Jerusalem (the most powerful of the Crusader States); their goal was seemingly to avoid a scenario where the Assassins might be permitted to cease their longstanding tribute payments to the Templar order.

The Templars posed a particular threat to the Assassins during these years because they were partially immune to their murderous threats. The reason for this was that killing a Templar master – the head of the order – would actually achieve very little for the Assassins. Unlike a sultanate, kingdom or empire (where the death of a ruler could send their lands spiralling into chaos), the Templars operated according to a very different hierarchy and could replace a dead leader far more easily; this made them very difficult for the Assassins to intimidate or tackle.

Overall, Tibble is an engaging and enthusiastic guide to the intertwined histories of these distinctive and hazardous communities. Perhaps most importantly, he succeeds in setting out the complexity of this era’s geopolitics, considering the many agendas that shape this war-torn region.