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Shahin Al-Azar — Description

Name: Shahin Al-Azar
Born: April 28, 1071; Isfahan, Fatimid Caliphate
Died: March 4, 1165; Alamut, Fatimid Caliphate (age 93)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: Shahin was born to a small family of Islamic merchants living in the town of Isfahan in the late 11th century. While the family lived in relative peace, her father did dabble in some less-than-lawful practices when money was tight and he needed to support his family. Unfortunately, this eventually caught up with him in 1081, when a gang of bandits attacked their home after he failed to pay them the money that he owed them. Shahin cowered crying in the corner as her parents were slaughtered in front of her. She would've been killed as well had it not been for the sudden intervening of a hooded man that fought off the attackers and saved her life. He was kind and calm to the scared girl, comforting her as best he could and giving her parents a proper burial. He introduced himself as Hassan-i Sabbah, a famous scholar who was on a journey across the Muslim world spreading his teachings. Taking pity on the poor orphaned child, he offered her to come with him on his journey, to take her in as his student. Shahin, realizing there was no going back to normal life, agreed to join him.

Shahin’s teenage years were filled with training and education in the philosophy of Sabbah, whom she took to respectfully calling “Mentor”. During their travels, Shahin was taught that this education went deeper, being the foundation of an ancient Brotherhood that Sabbah was the leader of, one that had taken on many names over the centuries: the Hidden Ones in olden Egypt, the Liberalis Circulum in the Byzantine realm, and to themselves were simply known as the Asasiyun, or Assassins. They were defenders of the common people and their freewill, and had been for centuries, working from the shadows to serve the light in people's hearts. However, they did not stay in the shadows forever. Shahin and Sabbah realized how strong their enemies were growing in their corrupted positions of power, and it had gotten to the point where if the Assassins wanted any chance of fighting back, they needed to come out of the shadows, be more than just a Brotherhood, and become an army. And so the day came in 1088 when the Assassins laid siege to the city of Alamut, claiming it for themselves with the help of their supporters inside in 1090, and establishing it as their first public base of operations. From that day on, the entire Middle East knew the name of the Assassin Brotherhood.

The Assassins became known as defenders of the land, who killed any corrupt evildoers regardless of their status or allegiance. They fought against their most ancient foe, a group that has also gone by many names: the Order of the Ancients in olden Egypt, the Knights of the Round Table in the land of the Celts, etc. They sought to control the land through dominance, even corrupting Sabbah’s childhood friend Nizam al-Mulk once he had gained the position of vizier. Shahin was sent out to kill Nizam in 1092, and while Sabbah was heartbroken, he knew it was what was best for the people. A larger threat began to loom over the horizon as the years went on, however. In 1095, news had reached the Holy Land that Pope Urban II has called the European powers to a crusade in order to reclaim Byzantine lands that had been taken by the Turks. News of atrocities reached the Assassins daily, and they scrambled to prepare to defend the land. Nicaea was taken in 1097, followed by Antioch in 1098, before finally the crusader force besieged the holy city of Jerusalem in 1099, slaughtering hundreds of innocent men, women, and children, despite Shahin’s best efforts to ward them off. The crusaders won out in the end, taking control of the city and kicking out the Assassin defenders. Another hard blow had come while the crusaders were on their march. In 1097, Imam Nizar, a strong ally to the Assassins, had been overthrown by his brother al-Musta’li and he died in prison. His young son al-Hadi fled to Alamut for protection, and Shahin was tasked with guarding the young boy with her life. She eventually killed al-Musta’li in 1101, though this unfortunately didn't restore Nizar’s heir.

By far though, the worst threat came in the form of a French knight named Hughes de Payens, a Grand Master of the Order who came to the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem hoping to rebuild what the Assassins had been tearing down and striking back in force. The Assassins, with the help of their ally, emir Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan, captured the fortress of Masyaf after Shahin assassinated the local leader, Janah al-Dawla, in 1103. She later assassinated a puppet of the Order named Mawdud, who opposed Radwan, in 1113. Radwan tragically died later that year, however, and his position was taken by a brutal extremist of a man with no regard for innocent lives named Ibn al-Khashshab, whom Shahin eventually assassinated in 1125 for his crimes. The Order became even more powerful and threatening in late 1119/early 1120, when Hughes de Payens and eight of his strongest allies banded together and created a new name for their Order under the sanction of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem: the Knights Templar.

The Templars continued their wave of corruption across the Holy Land as the years went by. They partnered with al-Musta’li’s successor, al-Amir bi-Akhamillah, and killed a well-respected Egyptian vizier named Al-Afdal Shahanshah in December 1121. The Templars attempted to frame the Assassins for this murder, but the people saw through the ruse and continued to support the Assassins in their quest for liberation. It was hardly an easy fight, especially since Sabbah had passed away in 1124, and leadership was eventually assumed by an Assassin named Bahram in 1126. There were a few successful assassinations, such as when Shahin killed Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi that year, but their enemies got the upper hand again when the leader of Wadi el-Taym, Dahhak ibn Jandal, killed Bahram in 1128. He felt the stabbing revenge of the Assassins in 1149.

The Templars continued to gain more and more power all the while. In 1129, the Templar Order was made an official organization of the church thanks to the Council of Troyes, flooding their pockets with a vast amount of wealth and resources. However, Shahin still managed to cut their resources down bit by bit. She killed al-Amir in 1130, and rammed a blade through Hughes de Payens himself at Jerusalem in 1136. He was succeeded as Grand Master by Robert de Craon, who led multiple military expeditions throughout the Holy Land throughout the 1140s, especially after the Templars were essentially granted unlimited power by the Pope in 1139. Shahin assassinated him in 1147, in the midst of the Second Crusade that ended two years later.

In her old age, Shahin had confided herself to Alamut, leading the Assassins against the Templars as the Old Woman of the Mountain just as her Mentor did before her. In 1162, one of her students, Rashid ad-Din Sinan, was sent to become the Mentor of the Assassins at Masyaf, where he would eventually be known as Al Mualim to his own students. Shahin later visited Masyaf in 1165, and was introduced to one of Al Mualim’s students, Umar ibn La’Ahad. She learned that he had tragically lost his wife Maud in childbirth, and she sat him down and told him how important it was that he raise his son Altaïr with great respect and to teach him the ways of the Assassins. After her pep talk, Shahin returned to Alamut, where she passed away peacefully and was given an honorable burial by her brothers and sisters.

She is an ancestor of Ava Arie.