Alamut

Fortress in the Alburz mountains of Khorasan (northeastern Iran). Here from 1090 to 1257, when Alamut was lost to the Mongols, a Shiite sect known as the Assassins ruled an enclave loyal to the Fatimids of Egypt. Systematic public murder was used to spread terror among the neighboring Sunni populations, and a chronic state of war existed between the Assassins and the surrounding areas.