...and in general, they stipulated in their caller that he should be knowledgeable of the ways by which the different classes are called, and then call each class according to what suits it. Whoever the caller sees inclined towards worship, he would urge them towards asceticism and worship. And whoever he sees indulging in revelry and dissoluteness, he would tell them that worship is foolishness and idiocy, and so on. Their leader, Al-Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, some narrators relate that he was a friend of Omar Khayyam and Nizam al-Mulk. He took his Shi'ism from Egypt when he traveled there and embraced the Fatimid doctrine, especially the Nizari branch. Then he traveled to Persia. He devised a plan for his followers to assassinate prominent Sunni figures so that the atmosphere would be cleared for Shi'ism. He paved the way for this by denouncing the Caliphs and Sunni rulings and exaggerating their injustices. He spoke of the imminent appearance of the Mahdi who would fill the earth with justice. He seized some places in Syria by force of his army. He also taught licentious teachings that called for the lifting of obligations, advancing the doctrine to attract the hearts of the common people. He terrified the kings and great men in the land due to the frequency of their assassinations. The first person they assassinated was