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occupied with winning converts to the cause. He was also concerned with finding a new kind of base - not a clandestine tryst in a city, in constant danger of discovery and disruption, but a remote and inaccessible stronghold, from which he could with impunity direct his war against the Seljuq Empire. His choice finally fell on the castle of Alamut, built on a narrow ridge on the top of a high rock in the heart of the Elburz mountains, and dominating an enclosed and cultivated valley, about thirty miles long and three miles wide at the broadest point. More than 6,ooo feet above sea-level, the castle was several hundred feet above the base of the rock, and could be reached only by a narrow, steep and winding path. The approach to the rock was through the narrow gorge of the Alamut river, between perpendicular and sometimes overhanging cliffs.

The castle is said to have been built by one of the kings of Daylam. While out hunting one day, he loosed a manned eagle, which alighted on the rock. The king saw the strategic value of the site, and at once built a castle upon it. `And he called it Aluh Amut, which in the Daylami language means the eagle's teach- ing.'8 Others, less convincingly, translate the name as the eagle's nest. The castle was rebuilt by an Alid ruler in 86o, and at the time of Hasan's arrival was in the hands of an Alid called Mihdi, who held it from the Seljuq Sultan.
The seizure of Alamut was carefully prepared. From Damghan, Hasan had sent dais to work in the villages around Alamut. Then `from Qazvin I again sent a da'i to the castle of Alamut ... Some of the people in Alamut were converted by the da'i and they sought to convert the Alid also. He pretended to be won over but afterwards contrived to send down all the converts and then closed the gates of the castle saying that it belonged to the Sultan. After much discussion he readmitted them and after that they refused to go down at his bidding.'9
With his followers now installed in the castle, Hasan left Qazvin for the neighbourhood of Alamut, where he stayed for some time in concealment. Then, on Wednesday, 4 September io9o, he was brought secretly into the castle. For a while he remained in the castle in disguise, but in due course his identity became known. The former owner realized what had happened, but could do nothing to stop or change it. Hasan allowed him to leave, and, according to a story related by the Persian chroniclers, gave him a draft for 3,000 gold dinars, in payment for his castle.x0
Hasan-i Sabbah was now firmly established as master of Alamut. From the time of his entry until his death thirty five years later, he never once went down from the rock, and only twice left the house in which he lived. On both occasions he went up on the roof. `The rest of the time until his death,' says Rashid al-Din, he passed inside the house where he lived; he was occupied with reading books, committing the words of the da'wa to writing, and administering the affairs of his realm, and he lived an ascetic, abstemious, and pious life."

At first, his task was twofold - to win converts, and to gain possession of more castles. From Alamut he sent missionaries and agents in various directions, to accomplish both purposes. An obvious objective was control of the immediate neighbourhood of his headquarters, the district called Rudbar, river-bed, after the river Shah Rud which flows through it. In these remote but fertile mountain valleys, an older way of life persisted, unaffected by the changes that had been taking place further south. There was no real town in Rudbar, and no town-based military or political authority. The people lived in villages, and gave their allegiance to a local gentry who lived in castles. It was among these, as well as among the villagers, that the Ismailis found support. `Hasan exerted every effort,' says Juvayni, `to capture the places adjacent to Alamut or that vicinity. Where possible he won them over by the tricks of his propaganda