Sabah the man that came with his uncanny power

and his men whom struck terror from the Caspian to Egypt .

Today , the sect of the Hashishin still exists

in the forms of the Ishmaelites ,

whose undisputed chief ,

endowed by them with divine attributes ,

is the Aga Khan.

In the seventh century A.D.
the followers of Islam split into two divisions :
the orthodox ,
who regard Mohammed as the bringer of divine inspiration ;
and the Shiahs ,
who consider that Ali , his successor,
the Fourth Imam was more important .
It is with the Shiahs that we are concerned here .
From the beginning of the split in the early days of Islam ,
the Shiahs relied for the survival upon secrecy ,
although the minority party in Islam ,
they believed that they could overcome the majority,
and eventually the whole world ,
by superior organization and power.

To this end they started a number of societies
which practised secret rites in which
personality of Ali was worshipped,
and whose rank and file
were trained to struggle above all
for the accomplishment of the world dominion.

One of the most powerful secret societies which the Shiahs
founded was centred around the Abode of Learning in Cairo ,
which was the training-ground for fanatics
who were conditioned by the most cunning methods
to believe in a special divine mission.
In order to do this ,
the original democratic Islamic ideas
had to be overcome by skilled teachers ,
acting under the orders of the Caliph of the Fatimites,
who ruled the Egypt at that time .
Ismail the Seventh Imam , He was the embodiment of divinity ,
far more than any Tibetan lama ever was .
They had universities , not much different from Oxford ,
but their purpose and task were
the complete transformation of the mind of the student .