>Initiations

Students had to pass through nine degrees of initiations.

In the first, the teachers threw their pupils into a state of doubt about all

conventional ideas , religious and political .

Nothing is true , everything is permissible .

The seventh degree brought revelation of the Great Secret :

that all humanity and all creation were one

and every single thing was part of the whole ,

which included the creative and destructive power.

But , as an Ismaili , the individual could make use of the power

which was ready to be awakened within him ,

and overcome those who knew nothing

of the immense potential of the rest of humanity .

This power came through the aid of the mysterious power called

the Lord of the Time .

The ninth and last degree brought the revelation of the secret that
there was no such thing as belief :
all that mattered was action.

1058 A.D.

The real success extended abroad only in 1058 to Baghdad,
where a member gained temporary control of Baghdad and coined the money
in the Egyptian Caliph's name.
This sultan was slain by the Turks , who now entered the picture , and the Cairo
headquarters was also threatened.

1123 A.D.

By 1123 , the society was closed down by the Vizier Afdal.
The rise of Turkish power seemed to have discouraged the expansionist Cairo sect
so strongly that they have almost faded out ,
and little is heard of them after that date.
It was left to Hasan , son of Sabah , the Old Man of the Mountains ,
to perfect the system of the ailing secret society ,
and found an organization which has endured for nearly another thousand years.