original scientific article UDC 821.163.6.09Bartol:316.7 received: 2012-02-20 ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED” Mirt KOMEL University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT The paper presents a study of Vladimir Bartol’s novel Alamut that uses the epistemological framework of Edward Said’s Orientalism. Said’s conception of Orientalism is further developed through the concept of self-Orientalism in both its versions, here labeled as “Oriental” and “Occidental” self-Orientalism respectively. The main hypothesis of the paper states that Bartol’s novel can be interpreted as an example of Orientalism – as well as Occidental self- -Orientalism – in literature. Thus, the paper’s primary purpose is to deliver an analysis of Alamut’s Orientalist and self-Orientalist elements. ANNALES · Ser. hist. sociol. · 22 · 2012 · 2 Vladimir Bartol, Alamut, Orientalism, self-Orientalism L’ORIENTALISMO NEL ROMANZO DI BARTOL ALAMUT – “NULLA È REALE, TUTTO È LECITO” SINTESI Il contributo presenta uno studio del romanzo di Vladimir Bartol Alamut, che utilizza la struttura epistemologica dell’Orientalismo di Edward Said. L’idea dell’orientalismo di Said viene sviluppata ulteriormente attraverso il con- cetto di autoorientalismo in ambedue le sue versioni, qui denominate rispettivamente autoorientalismo ‘orientale’ e ‘occidentale’. L’ipotesi principale del contributo sostiene che il romanzo di Bartol possa essere interpretato come un esempio di orientalismo – nonché di autoorientalismo occidentale – in letteratura. Lo scopo primario del saggio è quindi di fornire un’analisi degli elementi orientalistici e autoorientalistici di Alamut. Vladimir Bartol, Alamut, orientalismo, autoorientalismo Key words: 353 Parole chiave: Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 INTRODUCTION becoming evident that it denoted a specific perception of the East by the West that was at the same time essentialist At first glance Vladimir Bartol’s novel Alamut presents and ahistorical. It also became clear that Orientalism has itself as a typical instance of Orientalism in literature, as its purpose the establishment of the Orient not only chiefly because it exploits the Arabo-Islamic Orient for as an object of knowledge and/or aesthetic pleasure but aesthetic purposes. However, on a closer inspection, the also of colonialist domination. Said’s work is understood novel distinguishes itself from similar examples of Orien- as one of the most important forerunners of contempo- talism by its distinctive self-Orientalist character. Starting rary post-colonial studies precisely due to this specific from the epistemological framework of Edward Said’s link it established between imagination and domination. Orientalism, we will further develop the concept through The scientific Orientalist discourse was traditional- the introduction of self-Orientalism, which comprises a ly understood mainly as a Western scholarly discipline specific conceptual permutation of the former. Further- that specialized in the research of certain very narrowly more, two versions of self-Orientalism will be analysed, defined aspects of a very broadly conceived Orient (lin- for which we propose the labels “Oriental” and “Occi- guistic, cultural, religious, and political). In contrast, Said dental” self-Orientalism respectively. Before proceeding gave Orientalism the more general meaning of “a style of to the application of this epistemological framework to thought based upon an ontological and epistemological our case study, a general historical background on Bartol distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and (most of the and his times will be provided, with particular attention time) ‘the Occident’” (Said, 2003, 1-3). The concept can paid to the shifting receptions and interpretations of his thus encompass the classical Orientalist writings of the novel Alamut in the various historical and geopolitical European – mainly French and British – scholarly tradition contexts (its negative reception at home and the success (which constitute the main object of critique in Orientali- it enjoyed abroad as well as the different interpretations sm), as well as the works of poets, novelists, philosophers, of its content). The central part of the article consists of political theorists, economists, and imperial administra- two separate analyses of Bartol’s AlaAmNuNt,A oLEnSe · dSeear.l ihnigs t. sotociros l–. · t2h2e i·r 2 c0o12m ·m 2o n denominator being an acceptance with its Orientalist elements (the “Secret Order of the of the basic ontological and epistemological distinctions Assassins”, the “Artificial Paradise”, the “Tale of the Three between East and West. Scholars”, the “Old Man of the Mountain”), while the This conception of Orientalism as a specific “style of other focusing on the self-Orientalist ones (nihilism and thought” was itself grounded in Michel Foucault’s con- Machiavellianism). We will try to show how all the main ception of a “discourse” as a unifying instance of kno- four Orientalist motives are in the first place an imagina- wledge and power (Foucault, 1972, 37). Orientalism as a tive fruit of the Islamic world itself, exported during the discursive style of thought did not confine itself to the tra- period of the Crusades and given greater currency only ditional Orientalist genres of discourse (scientific or litera- later on in the West – and conversely, how and why were ry writings) for it could be – and indeed was – extended the two main self-Orientalist elements (nihilism, Machia- into other, primarily non-discursive fields, such as photo- vellianism), as distinctively Western inventions, projected graphy or painting. It was only a matter of time before upon that Arabo-Islamic Oriental Other par excellence, critical cultural studies research on Orientalism began to namely, the “Assassins”. Finally, in the conclusion part, we focus on television and – especially – films: already in will consider the link between the historical “Assassins” Said’s book we are able to find the following assertion: and modern “terrorists” within the specific cultural and political context of the novel’s translation into English and One aspect of the electronic, postmodern world is its publication in the US – namely the post 9/11 era, mar- that there has been a reinforcement of the stereo- ked by a prevailing imperialism/terrorism ideology. types by which the Orient is viewed. Television, the films, and all the media’s resources have forced in- formation into more and more standardized molds. So far as the Orient is concerned, standardization and cultural stereotyping have intensified the hold of the Orientalism was long understood simply as a We- nineteenth-century academic and imaginative demo- stern artistic and scholarly tradition of depicting and wri- nology of ‘the mysterious Orient.’ (Said, 2003, 26) ting about the Orient but this understanding, as well as the meaning of the concept itself, has slowly started to If we consider entertainment – bolstered by the cul- change, at least since the publication of Edward Said’s ture industry – as the perfect locus for ideology to dress Orientalism in 1978. Instead of an allegedly neutral scien- itself up in non-ideological clothing (Adorno, 2001), then tific or aesthetic interest a careful examination of various cinema can very well be regarded as the medium par Orientalist works in the arts and sciences revealed a plu- excellence through which any hegemonic ideology can rality of ideological implications. It turned out that Orien- be reproduced (Comolli, Narboni, 2000, 197). In the con- talism was far from being a neutral description due to its text of Orientalism, cinema is consequently also the me- 354 EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK: ORIENTALISM AND SELF-ORIENTALISM Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 dium through which the ideological stereotyping of the by self-othered Western women. This is a phenomenon Orient is replicated – this is especially the case when it that is spreading mainly in Europe and the United States comes to the question of representations of the Arabo- and that is, according to Sunaina, connected to New Age -Islamic world (Shaheen, 2000, 2001). Orientalism is the feminism (Sunaina, 2008). movement that constructs the Orient as a twofold object If the main role of Orientalism as such is to reprodu- of knowledge and pleasure; an entity painted in negative ce the basic ontological and epistemological distinction tonalities as a dangerous and underdeveloped world; yet between the Orient and the Occident, then self-Orienta- at the same time exalted for its more fascinating colora- lism fulfils the same function in two very different ways: tion and thus fetishized in all its exoticism and mystery. It the first form of self-Orientalism achieves this through the comes as no surprise that in the cinematic Orientalist di- identification of the Oriental subject with Western Ori- scourse, as is the case in almost all representations of the entalist ideology while the second achieves it through the Oriental Other by the entertainment industry, the phobic identification of the Occidental subject with the Oriental elements go hand-in-hand with the fetishistic ones – in Other as part of a characteristic process of self-othering. cinema and television as well as in literature. To distinguish the two forms of self-Orientalism proposed If Orientalism therefore denotes a specific discursi- above, I will refer to the first as “Oriental self-Orientali- ve style of thought and the related power-praxis of do- sm” and to the second as “Occidental self-Orientalism.” mination exerted by the West upon the East, resulting in The two proposed forms of self-Orientalism are not to be a stereotyped depiction of the Orient as an exotic, yet seen as separate phenomena but rather as complemen- dangerous entity, then self-Orientalism can be regarded tary versions of the same “style of thought”. The distincti- as a peculiar extension of Orientalism, for in this case it on between Orientalism and self-Orientalism lies elsew- is the Oriental Other that inflicts Orientalism upon itself. here, namely in their relation to power: if Orientalism is Self-Orientalism can be generally understood in terms conceived as a post-colonial praxis of domination, then of post-colonial self-exploitation or as an anti-coloni- self-Orientalism (both Occidental and Oriental) could be alist attempt at cultural self-definition;A eNitNheArL EwSa ·y S, eitr .i sh ias t. soucniodle. r·s 2to2o · d2 0a1s2 p ·o 2s t-colonial self-exploitation. However, modus of Orientalism practiced by the Oriental Other it could also be understood – at least, so I argue – as a itself (Azm, 2000). Often labelled also as “self-othe- genuine attempt at potentially emancipatory and subver- ring,” or as “reversed” or “complicit” Orientalism (Macfie, sive cultural self-determination and self-Orientalisation. 2000), self-Orientalism denotes a reversal of Orientalism, Before proceeding to the analyses of the Orienta- a certain complicit – willing or unwilling – adoption of list and self-Orientalist elements respectively present in the Western “style of thought” through a process of self- Bartol’s novel Alamut, a historical contextualization of the -othering. The most evident cases of self-orientalisation emergence of the novel and its subsequent reception is would include a variety of present-day commercial ac- needed. This will help us to understand why it was re- tivities modelled for the Western eye, the most flagrant jected in its author’s time and popularized in our own: and popular example of which would be, of course, belly for this, factors inherently linked with the question of Ori- dancing (Shay, Sellers-Young, 2003). entalism in general and “Occidental self-Orientalism” in Besides this conception of self-Orientalism, there is particular are pertinent. another version that we must take into account, namely, the kind in which the subject of self-othering is not the Oriental Other, but rather the Occidental subject itself. ALAMUT Already during the colonial era, at a time when the Ori- entalist discourses were already flourishing, one can find Vladimir Bartol was a Slovene writer from Trieste examples of various degrees of such a self-Orientalisa- (1903-1967), best known for his novel Alamut, a novelistic tion, mostly by famous figures from arts and literature: account of an Islamic sect that flourished in 11th centu- Byron, in his eccentric voyages to the Balkans; Goethe, ry Persia and was popularly known as the “Order of the with his failed attempt to travel to an imaginary Orient; Assassins” and their uncanny master Hasan as-Sabbah, and most notably Burton, who, disguised as a Muslim, ac- nicknamed the “Old Man of the Mountain”. complished the ritual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Nicholas Bartol’s education began in Trieste and continued in A. Germana, for example, argues that German Orienta- Ljubljana with the study of philosophy, which conside- lism, from the Baroque period to Romanticism, demon- rably marks his literary works. Klemen Jug, a somewhat strates very different traits than its French and British co- controversial figure of the period, introduced him to the unterparts, which were the main concern of Said’s work works of Friedrich Nietzsche; meanwhile Bartol discove- (Germana, 2010). The most notable difference is a certain red the work of Sigmund Freud independently and was self-othering, which functions in terms of identification greatly interested in psychoanalysis. Graduating in 1925, with the Oriental Other. A more contemporary example he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1926-27 where he would include, again, belly dancing; this time performed met Josip Vidmar, a Slovenian critic, essayist and politician, not by the feminine self-Orientalized Arabic Other, but who invited Bartol to join the Yugoslav Front. Vidmar told 355 HISTORICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION: RECEPTIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF BARTOL’S Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 Bartol about the Tales of Marco Polo and suggested the main reasons for this recognition was undoubtedly the legend of the “Old Man of the Mountain” as material for success his novel Alamut enjoyed abroad – especially in a short story. This was the spark that ignited the idea for the west – a success that started in Paris in 1988. the novel Alamut. In 1928 Bartol moved to Petrovaradin While considering the reception of the novel during where he served in the army, while from 1933-1934 he Bartol’s own lifetime, we should also take into account lived in Belgrade and worked as the editor of the Sloveni- what the author said about it himself and what were the an Belgrade Weekly. Soon after he returned to Ljubljana criticisms he attempted to refute. Before the war he had and worked there as a freelance writer until 1941. It would two suggestions as to how his novel should be interpre- take ten years for Bartol to study the historical material, ted (as found in an article from 1938 entitled Instead of write down schemes, drafts and four versions of Alamut, an introduction to Alamut): on the one hand he said that before he finally published it in 1938. the novel was “a faithful historical reconstruction of 11th During his lifetime Bartol was not recognized as much century Islamic Persia” while on the other hand he su- as he would have liked, neither by the general public nor ggested that it was “a living metaphor for the age of dic- by his contemporaries in literature; the reasons for this tatorship we live in”, comparing the “Secret Order of the vary widely. For the most part, his fellow writers disliked his Assassins” to the totalitarian regimes of the period and work and felt free to disregard him. Nevertheless an ele- the “Old Man of the Mountain” to Hitler, Mussolini and ment within the younger generation looked at him as an Stalin. Both interpretations were either accepted or rejec- avant-garde cosmopolitan writer; a label that was also to ted largely depending upon whether it was being applied be applied later from abroad, where he was seen as one by the older “conservative” generation or the younger of the few genuinely cosmopolitan Slovenian authors.1 “open-minded” one. But if the historicity of the novel is From the perspective of his Slovenian literary peers his plainly erroneous – at least nowadays when extensive works were seen as cynic and nihilistic, stylistically poor and more precise research on the sect in question is avai- and at best essayistic philosophy disguised in the form of lable – the question of the central character and his sect’s literature.2 In between the two wars theA tNheNnA vLaElSid · eSsetrh. ehtii-st. sofucinocl.t i·o 2n2in ·g 2 0a1s2 a · 2m etaphor for the head of a totalitarian cal cannon, enforced mercilessly by the Slovenian literary regime is still a possible interpretation.3 On of the most triumvirate of Josip Vidmar and brothers Juša and Ferdo insistent criticisms of Alamut was that its author preaches Kozak, regarded Bartol’s prosaic work as too distant from solipsism and cynical nihilism, as well as amoral deca- the real problems of the Slovenian nation and in derelicti- dence and Machiavellianism. It is important to note that on of the duty of Slovenian literature. This type of critique, in the Slovenia of the 50s any reference to Nietzsche or which was rooted in the orthodox Slovenian perception similar authors was regarded as bourgeois decadence of literature as a means to achieve national cohesion, at best or fascism at worst. Bartol defended himself by was due to a very strong and rigid canon, nowadays still refuting any connection to Nietzsche whatsoever (even present and influential in Slovenian literature. Allegedly, if everybody – critics and supporters alike – knew that during the first period, under the regime of the Kingdom was his philosophical affiliation), remodelling the previo- of Yugoslavia, Bartol stated in bitterness that the Slovenian us two interpretations into a more acceptable form by guild of writers is ruled by nationalists; while during the amplifying his statement that Alamut was a metaphor for second, under the regime of Socialist Yugoslavia, he said totalitarian regimes. Regardless of Bartol’s own assertions it was ruled by ideologists, himself alone, together with a and interpretations, his novel continued to be critically couple of exceptions, being part of an alternative camp rejected, with the most frequent reasons besides nihilism of cosmopolitan Slovenian writers. Bartol’s work was to and Machiavellianism being the exoticism of the novel, be rehabilitated and recognized by his countrymen only which was “too far from the real problems of the nation”. long after his death on the eve of Slovenian independen- But the distinctively nihilistic and Machiavellian character ce, supported on the part of the now grown-up younger of the novel did not deter its French editor from publishing generation of writers and not contested anymore by the it in Paris in 1988, where its success was followed by a dying or already deceased older generation. One of the series of translations into other languages: Spanish and 1 Boris Paternu, for instance, rejects the interpretation of Bartol being an avant-garde post-modern author and finds the reasons for his revival in the 80s more in his Eco-style “encyclopedicness”, which “pleased the taste of the younger generations, not caring so much for its philosophical value as much as the writer’s “erudition, irony and his technique of story-telling”; for Paternu, Alamut is “not a post- modern novel” at all, but “a pre-modern novel, made in such a way that it pleased the post-modern sensibility” (Paternu, 1991, 89). 2 Drago Bajt gives us an insight into some of the period’s opinions about Bartol’s work being “mere training in essayistic”: B. Borko spoke of the collection of short-prose works Al’Araf as “intellectualism” and “scientificism”, and as “philosophical and psychological treatises”, while L. Legiša and T. Potokar declared Alamut to be “half report, half psychological study”, “nearer to artistic essays then creative prose” (Bajt, 1991, 77-78). 3 It is an important to mention the article was written after the publishing of the novel, and that in the same text he tells us that at the time of writing Alamut he did not want to consciously give any actual meaning to the novel. But it is also important to known that he first wanted to dedicate the book to Benito Mussolini, but was advised not to do so, and that then he tried to change the dedication into the more generic “To a certain dictator”, an attempt for which he was again dissuaded by the editor Janez Žagar (Bajt, 1991). 356 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 Italian in 1989, German in 1992, even Turkish and Persian it into the most fabulous success Slovenian literature had in 1995; later on also in English, Arabic, Greek and even ever known abroad. In short, as a “best-seller phenome- Korean. non” Alamut was smuggled into the consciousness of As the reasons of the failure at home, so do the rea- the allegedly “non-ideological” entertainment industry, sons for the success abroad vary; however, the most dis- while all the while reproducing Orientalist stereotypes tinctive and influential one is probably the appeal Alamut disguised as answers to complex political and cultural had on account of its chief Orientalist theme, which refer- problems. red to what is known nowadays as “Islamic fundamen- What the English translation brought of most value talism”. The Paris editor, besides mentioning that it was a was “an exhaustive summary of everything that Slove- “cursed book in its own country”, did not see any reason ne ‘Bartology’ had created so far,” as Miran Hladnik tells to mention the scandal about the “nihilistic amorality” of us about the afterword of his friend and translator of the the author or his novel; furthermore, he was concerned novel Michael Biggins, adding that “Biggins’s analysis of to downplay the philosophical aspects of the novel, wor- the four classifications of the novel is clearly his great rying they could be boring for the average reader. On the contribution to ‘Alamutology’” (Hladnik, 2004, 107). Both other hand, he was much more interested in amplifying statements are bold exaggerations since the summary its Orientalist aspect, promoting Alamut as a faithful de- mentioned consists of no more than four pages in a se- scription and interpretation of “Islamic fundamentalism.” ven-page afterword, that simplifies the arguments of the The editor probably had the right idea, at least in terms not-even-mentioned past or still-existing Bartologists or of marketing: the novel had a great success in a climate Alamutists. Let’s examine Biggins’s classification of the va- influenced by the then omnipresent “threat from the East”, rious different approaches used to interpret the novel (Bi- who went by the name of Khomeini.4 He was being re- ggins, 2004, 383-390) in detail. First, Alamut is a novelistic ferred to as a “charismatic leader of immense popularity,” account of the 11th century struggle between the Ismaili considered a “champion of Islamic revival” and described sect and Seljuk power, based on historical references.5 as the “virtual face in Western populaAr NcuNltAuLreES o · fS Iesrla. mhis” t. soSceicool. n· d2,2 A ·l a2m01u2t ·i s2 a n allegorical representation of the rise (Nasr, 2006, 138). It will not comes as a surprise to recall of totalitarian regimes in the early 20th century, where Ha- that the Hasan as-Sabbah of the novel was compared to san as-Sabbah can be seen as the mirror image of Hitler, Khomeini and vice versa; that many saw in Alamut a key Mussolini and/or Stalin. The third kind of interpretation, to understanding the otherwise – at least for Westerns – defined as “nationalistic” (of which Biggins complains that incomprehensible phenomenon of “Islamic fundamen- it rings “facile and flat” – and for which Hladnik in his talism.” Of course it was not only its political resonan- commentary on Biggins immodestly explains that in this ce that put the novel under the spotlight for it was also case we are speaking about his own original interpreta- regarded as a masterpiece in “literary hedonism” (as the tion) – is a mirroring version of the second reading, for it same Paris editor from promulgated); readable and enjo- compares the Ismailis to the underground organization yable for a very broad audience. Still, it was again its po- TIGR (“Trst-Istra-Gorica-Rijeka”), since both were fighting litical resonance that favoured the first translation of the against a foreign invader – and both used medicine forti novel into English. Al-Qaida’s 9/11 terrorist attacks using (as Machiavelli would put it) to achieve their ultimate goal, hijacked planes gave an excellent pretext for the novel’s namely national liberation. While the first three types of publication in the United States, where Alamut was once interpretation are bound to the past, the fourth ties Alamut again read as a rational explanation for what Westerners to the present, characterizing the novel as “actualistic,” by tend to believe to be the irrational behaviour of Islamic stating that it is some kind of a “prophetic vision or at le- extremists, who disregard their own personal safety and ast an uncanny foreshadowing” of the early 21st century’s have no moral compunction in killing civilians. As with fundamental conflict between the West and the Islamic the French translation, stereotypes about Islam and Mu- word; according to this kind of interpretation the US is slims in general – as well as about the Assassins/Terrorists seen as the imperialistic Seljuk power, and conversely, the in particular – worked in the novel’s favour, transforming Ismailis are Al’Qaeda and Hasan as-Sabbah is Osama bin 4 Syed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini was an Iranian political and religious leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which following a national referendum became “Supreme Leader” of the country (a function defined in the constitution as the highest ranking political and reli- gious authority of the nation). In his writings and speeches he propagated the Shi’ah Usuli theory of velayat-e faqih (“guardianship of the juriconsult”) or “clerical authority”, to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists. 5 Biggins diction is highly exalted, as the novel for him is “a broadly historical if highly fictionalized account of 11th century Iran under Seljuk rule”, where a reader can “appreciate its scrupulously researched historical background, the general absence of historical anachronisms, its account of the origins of the Shiite-Sunni conflict within Islam, and its exposition of the deep-seated resentments that the indigenous peoples of this area have had against foreign occupiers, whether Musim or non-Muslim, for over a millennium.” The work has some historical background, but considering Bartol used mainly 19h century historians, that his research was not as “scrupulous” as his wor- shippers tend to think, and that it is full of philosophical anachronisms, we can remain skeptical on this and any other account that tries to attribute to Alamut a firmer historical fundament that it has in reality. 356 357 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 Laden.6 The fifth, Biggins’s own personal interpretation, zero; meanwhile modern terrorism is purposely intended self-declared as “non-ideological” (as already the title of to harm civilians in order to spread terror in the populati- his pretentious afterword suggests: Against Ideologies), on (as its very name tells us) and by doing so to influence unsurprisingly sees Alamut as a “deconstruction of ideo- mainstream politicians, who are in final analysis again the logies”, itself being an anti-ideological work supposedly true targets of such extreme practices. based on “personalistic philosophy”.7 Moreover, Biggins As we have seen, the receptions and interpretations reassures us that Bartol was not at all the kind of a person of Bartol’s Alamut varied through time; its place in the hi- to promote solipsism, nihilism or Medievalism, for he was story of literature being characterized by its rejection in “in love with life”, and to convince us he quotes one of Slovenia during the author’s lifetime and by its populari- Bartol’s own remarks from 1957 about Alamut being a zation in the West afterwards. The common denominator novel about “friendship, love and truth”, forgetting or not of both its successes and failures was precisely its specific even knowing that this was the period when the author Orientalist character and set-up (the “Secret Order of the was forced to defend himself from the critiques that con- Assassins” operating in 11th century Perisa under the com- demned his work as nihilistic Machiavellianism. mand of the “Old Man of the Mountain”), expressed in a Besides the interpretations from the fourth group, Bi- distinctively Occidental self-Orientalist manner through ggins tells us that he personally most dislikes those from the numerous references to nihilism and Machiavelliani- the third while favouring the first two: for him the natio- sm, emblematically represented in the alleged “supreme nalistic interpretations, on the one hand, miss the obvious motto of the Ismailis”: “Nothing is true, everything is per- fact that nationalist ideologies are an anachronism in 11th mitted.” We will deal with the Occidental self-Orientalist century Persia and that Hasan’s articulated nihilism is dri- aspect of the novel later and for now focus solely on the ven from a pure lust for power without any greater goals, Orientalist elements. while on the other hand, the “actualistic” ones tends to stereotype the Middle East as a trans-historical “home of ALAMUT fanatics and unquestioning fundamenAtaNliNstAs”L; EmS ·o Sreeor. vheirs, t. sociol. · 22 · 2012 · 2 the combination of both interpretations can produce a “really perverted reading” by finding in the novel “an apo- logy for terrorism,” something Biggins is horrified even to consider. Biggins’ categorical rejection can be discarded There are four main motives in the novel that can help if we interpret it as a distinctively American ideology, whi- us to identify the various Orientalist elements scattered ch – if we push it to the extreme – tends to label “every in Bartol’s Alamut: first of all the “Secret Order of the As- desperate aggressive deed by those that have exhausted sassins” then the motive of the “Artificial Paradise” after it all other means to defend their rights as terrorism out of the “Tale of the Three SchoolFellows” and finally the “Old paranoia,” as Hladnik replayed to his friend and collea- Man of the Mountain”. All of these motives are, as I will gue. What both Hladnik and Biggins miss in this regard is try to show, first of all an imaginative fruit of the Islamic an anachronism typical of our present time, namely the world itself, which were exported during the period of equation between “terrorists” and “assassins”: the assas- the Crusades and given greater currency only later on in sinations of the Ismailis targeted high-ranking military of- the West. ficials, political figures, influential bureaucrats and even “Assassin” the name by which the Shi’a sect of the heads of states, while civilian causalities were almost Nizari Ismailis were known,8 has been traced to some 6 Such was also the mis-en-scène of Alamut as a piece of theatre from 2005, directed by Sebastian Horvat and dramatised by Dušan Jovanovič (coproduction of Ljubljana’s theater Drama with the Salzburg Festspiele). 7 To qualify his statement Biggins mentions the connections between Bartol and personalism, which was seen as an alternative to the mainstream currents of the period, such as, for example, Freudian psychoanalyses. Although it is true that Bartol studied in Paris with a number of his fellow-countryman who would later become “personalist” (like the psychologist Anton Trstenjak or the poet Edvard Kocbek), it is also obvious that his true sympathies were with Nietzsche (he even translated some parts of Zaratustra into Slovene) and that the living figures that influenced his life and work were not Trstenjak or Kocbek, but first and foremost Klement Jug, one of the most influential thinkers of the younger generations of Slovenian intellectuals in the interwar period. Jug was an alpinist, writer and philoso- pher, whose controversial “solipsistic ethics” influenced Bartol (Virk, 1991). 8 Ismailism is a branch of the Shia while the Shia is in turn a branch of Islam, which’S o OrigRinIaEtNedT aAsL aI SfaMct:i oTnH oEf “ASliE, tCheR cEoTu OsinR aDndE Rso On-Fin T-lHawE of the Prophet Mohammed, who claimed power after the murder ofA MSoShAaSmSmINeSd”’s, t ThiHrdE s u“AccReTssIFoIrC. AIAll tLh eP AdiRffeArDenItS fEa”c,t iToHnsE o “f TSAhiLaE Is OlamF have in common the belief that Ali and his successors in Mohammed’Ts HfamE TilyH aRreE Eth eS ConHlyO leOgiLtiFmEaLtLeO ruWlerSs ”a nAdN reDlig TioHuEs “auOthLoDri tiMesA frNom the time that the Prophet died. Shia Islam had become very strong by the middle of the 18th century, and one branch, represented by the OF THE MOUNTAIN” Abbasid dynasty, even took over the Caliphate in Baghdad, but then turned their backs on the other Shia and become the stronghold of Sunnism and the Sunni, who formed and still form the majority of Muslims. The Shia group we are interested in sprang from those Shia that limited the imamate (“leadership”) to only one line of Ali’s descendants; that is, the line by Mohammed’s daughter Fatima. In the context of the dissolution of the Fatimids and their capital in Cairo at the hands of the Seljuk Turks, the scattered Ismailis began with a totally new kind of policy as well as religious and philosophical doctrines and soon split from the Fatimids altogether. Calling themselves 358 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 conflicting potential origins. The most common interpre- the suicidal assassination missions in order to amplify the tation, present also in Bartol’s novel, can be found in de sinister and “fundamentalist” nature of the sect in que- Sacy’s famous article Mémoire sur la dynastie des As- stion, present in numerous mythological accounts about sassins et sur l’étymologie de leur nom, who two cen- the “Secret Order of the Assassins” (Daftary, 1994). In turies ago showed how the term was used not only by Bartol’s novel the fidayeen are depicted as a special rank Christian and Jewish but also by primary Muslim writers of soldiers, trained and prepared before combat, enacting (Sacy, 1818, 322-403). The Arabic form of the name “As- suicidal attacks following the will of their master – a trait sassin” was hashishiyya or hashishiyyun, meaning quite that leads us directly to our next element, the “artificial literally the users of the drug hashish, a preparation from paradise”. cannabis. The use of the drug was attributed to the “As- To introduce this second motive, let’s return to de Sacy sassins” as an explanation for their apparently “irrational and his own interpretation of the name “Assassins”, an behaviour”, with the insinuation that they used hashish to interpretation that was meant to be a “scientific” back- induce some kind of battle-frenzy, disregarding their own -up for one of Marco Polo’s famous Tales, itself one of personal safety and thus making them suitable for suicidal the main sources for the many legends circulating in the assassination missions. Apart from the obvious fact that Western minds about the sect in question – Bartol via the drug in question is not suited for combat, the most Vidmar not excluded. De Sacy disposes of one possibility, plausible explanation for the connection of the sect with which was nevertheless repeated after him; namely, that the drug seems – at least according to Hodgson – “that, the hashish was used to drive the fidayeen into a state of already despised as a minority, they had special opportu- frenzy. This seemed unlikely to him, because the patien- nities to become associated with the prevailing vices” in ce, carefulness and rationality of the murders attributed the popular view; moreover, Hodgson mentions another to the “Assassins” eliminates the probability of any use interpretation that goes along same llines; namely that of such a drug, whether as a momentary stimulant or as “the term was scornful rather then descriptive” and that a a regular habit. That’s why de Sacy turned to the legend popular name for them would be “lessA NlikNeAlyL tEoS d· eSsecr.r ihbies t. soscuirorol. u· n2d2i n· g2 0t1h2e · s2e ct as a historical explanation, name- a secret practice of theirs then to express the loathing and ly that the fidayeen were artificially prepared beforehand the fear for them.” (Hodgson, 2005, 136) In short, hashis- for their deeds. Relaying on Marco Polo’s tale, de Sacy hiyyun was most probably a popular term from the time deduced that hashish was a secret property of the chiefs used to derogate the Nizari Ismailis and was later picked of the “Assassins” used to stimulate dreams of paradise up as fact by Christian writers during the Crusades. From as a reward for their obedience. This tale of Marco Polo here it is only one step to the generalization that made the contains another, more elaborate story about an “artifici- practice of assassination a “specialty” of the sect, which, al paradise”, which occupied the popular mind and best in fact, merely lent it their name: suited Bartol’s own novelistic intent; a story that is also contained in the Sira Hakim, an Arabic novel completed The word “assassin”, which the West uses for terrorist in 1430.9 This version of the story recounts the exploits murderers in general, was originally a nickname of of an Ismail from the time of the Fatimid ruler Zahir, who the sect, and had nothing to do with killing. It received lands at Tripoli with his fidayeen and then installs himself this connotation in our language only by analogy to at the fortress of Masyaf, where he builds a vast garden the famous murders of the “Assassins” – whose “chief with a four-story pleasure-building in the midst, filled with object”, however, was not murder, and especially not luxuries and slaves of both sexes. In the evenings he in- “to assassinate Crusaders.” (Hodgson, 2005, 1) vited men attracted by his personal charm to his nearby residence, drugged them in such a way that they were It is also questionable whether the fidai or “devotee” unaware of it and then conveyed them through a sec- formed a special rank within the Isma’ili organization: ret tunnel connecting his residence to the garden, whe- “There seems little reason to suppose that the fidayeen re they were told they are experiencing paradise. After in any case formed a bottom rank in the Nizari hierarchy the experience, Ismail tells them that if they will keep the […] or that they received special training in languages, secret and serve his cause they will be sent to paradise, or wore special garb, as has been suggested” (Hodgson, thus binding their will to his own. As we can clearly see 2005, 82-83). Similar adaptations were made also about when reading Alamut, Bartol added or changed little of “Nizaris” (because they started as supporters of Nizar, one of the two sons of the imam Mustansir who disputed the Ismaili imamate in Egypt) they fought against the Seljuks and from a certain point in history onwards even against the whole of Islam, by seizing fortresses, conquering villages, attempting cities by coups de main and by means of assassination, a practice for which they became renowned. 9 In 1813 the Austrian Orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall announced that at the Imperial Library (now National Library) in Vienna he found the unique manuscript of this novel, entitled Sirat amir al-mu’minin al’Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Deliberately, the authorship of this work had been falsely attributed to the famous Muslim biographer Ibn Khallikan, probably to enhance its prestige. In fact, the novel is supposed to have been written in Syria in the late Mamluk era either by a local Sunni Muslim or an Arab Christian, who was familiar with the version handed down by Marco Polo (Daftary, 1994, 118-119). 359 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 the original story: he changed the tunnel into an elevator, themselves, portraying Hasan as-Sabbah a man who so- transferred the location from Masyaf in Syria to Alamut berly claimed revenge for an injustice. in Persia and substituted the main protagonist for Hasan And now comes the fourth element, the leader of as-Sabbah while retaining the original nickname of “Old the Nizari Ismailis at Alamut, a personage concerning Man of the Mountain”. whom we have less than satisfactory historical material: We’ll come to this intriguing figure in a moment but an imaginative short biography in Rashid ad-Din, a large before doing so let’s take a look at our third Orientalist excerpt of his writings preserved by Shahrastani as well element, another legend that circulated at the period, but as, of course, a vast number of references and quotati- this time about the first famous deed of the Nizari Ismai- ons scattered here and there, where fact cannot be sa- lis from Alamut, namely the assassination of the mighty fely separated from fiction. Nonetheless, there is enough vizier Nizam al-Mulk in 1092. According to Hodgson, evidence to show that a Hasan as-Sabbah existed10 and the “tale of the three schoolfellows” was a creation of that this man stood at the very centre of the new Ismaili the Nizaris themselves – a tale that become enshrined movement that started at the fortress of Alamut – in for- in legend after the renown historian Rashid ad-Din pu- mer times called Aluh Amut, a place that is surrounded blished it as part of the biography of Nizam al-Mulk by almost the same legendary aura as its master him- and came to be popularized in the West by Fitzgerald’s self. There a lot of variants of the story about the taking preface to his own translation of Omar Khayyam’s po- of the fortress, not to mention the mystic coincidences etry (Hodgson, 2005, 137). This tale goes like this: Omar related to it, all served to amplify the importance of the Khayyam, Nizam al-Mulk and Hasan as-Sabbah were founding-figure.11 In the version we find also in Bartol’s talented students of the same master, who agreed that novel, we are shown a Hasan as-Sabbah persuading the whoever would rise to high fortune first would help the former owner of Alamut to sell – for a pre-definite lar- others. Omar, a bon-vivant poet, chose a life of leisure, ge amount – as much land as could be included within while Hasan as-Sabbah competed at court with Nizam a cowhide; when the naive man accepts, thinking that al-Mulk, who became vizier of the migAhNtyN SAeLljEuSk · ESmerp. ihreis. t. sothceio lm. ·a 2n2 s ·t a2n0d12in ·g 2 b efore him was crazy, Hasan procee- When Hasan was near to overtaking Nizam in influ- ded to cut the cowhide into strips which laid end to end ence, the canny vizier tricked his old friend into exile. are used to enclose the whole fortress. As is the case In exile in Egypt he joined the Ismailis and afterwards, with the “tale of the three schoolfellows,” we can see returning in secret to Iran for a mission, he started to a repetition of the pattern used to characterise Hasan organize the supporters of Nizar, stating that with just as-Sabbah: first treated as a madman by his surroundin- two men as determined as himself he could overthrow gs and then the supposed madness being disclosed as the mighty Seljuk empire. His followers at first consi- geniality, a trait that Bartol was eager to exploit when dered that he had gone mad and offered him medicine describing the relations between the master and his su- but after this he took over Alamut and began his long- bjects in Alamut. In fact, Bartol seized every opportunity -planned project by the act of sending an assassin to to stress the discipline and rigor of his main character, take Nizam al-Mulk’s life for revenge. After the Sultan’s traits that were ascribed also to the real, historical Hasan death, which caused the empire to splinter among the as-Sabbah. He is portrayed as remaining constantly in quarrelling amirs (“princes”), Hasan’s followers were his residence, studying, writing and directing operations told: “Which of the two of us was mad when you gave from there, and – as is invariably stated – during all the me medicines?” Later Sunni historians attempted to cle- time of his stay in Alamut he never went out of his home, an Nizam al-Mulk and to picture Hasan as-Sabbah as except twice – onto the rooftop. His relationship with a mere madman with the lust for power; these are the his fellow men is portrayed as sober, rational and gene- versions that mostly also came to occupy the Western rally cold – the same being true of his relationship with mind. Again, Bartol’s writing delivers a faithful reproduc- his family members. During a time of want he send his tion of the original story as promulgated by the Ismailis daughters away with their mothers and does not bring 10 The young Hasan was born to a Twelver Shia family, apparently in Qumm, northwestern Iran, and studied in nearby Rayy to enter the clerical profession. Everything else about his youth is questionable; we have only variants of the legendary “tale of the three schoolfel- lows”. There are translations from Rashid ad-Din of what is supposed to be his own memoirs, telling how he was convinced of the truth of the Ismaili’s doctrines; but there are many reliable accounts informing how in fact he joined the Ismailis in Isfahan under Abd al-Malik’s command and, following that, how he arrived in Cairo in 1078, which was at the time the headquarters of their imam. The only credible fact remaining from the period of his stay in Egypt is that he was there during troubled times, when the question of succession between Nizar and his brother had not yet arisen. Upon his return to Isfahan, he began a series of travels that brought him through the major Ismaili centers in western Iran (Yazd, Kirman, Khuzistan, Iraq Ajami) as well as the major centers of Seljuk power, spending all the 1080s recruiting men and looking for a site to set up his headquarters, which he finally found in the fortress of Alamut (Hodgson, 2005, 41-51). 11 One of the meaningful coincidences the Ismaili believed in was, for example, that the letters of Aluh Amut in the numeric reckoning (each Arabic letter has a numeric value; the value of the sum of the letters in a word is the value of that word) give the date of Hasan as-Sabbah’s arrival at the fortress. 360 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 them back later on. Moreover, he has his own sons exe- cuted – one on a charge of murder, the other for being accused of drinking wine. The latter incident was not missed by Bartol who used the killing of the son to am- The two most emblematic elements, through which plify his character’s “diabolicity” (on a few occasions in we can palpably grasp Bartol’s “self-othering” onto the the novel he is called “dreamer from Hell”). He thus – Assassins – and especially onto the figure of Hasan as- knowingly or unknowingly – uses the same explanation -Sabbah – are related to the distinctively European phi- given also by the Orientalist von Hammer, known for losophies of nihilism and Machiavellianism. In the book being excessively disdainful toward the Nizari Ismailis: there numerous references to the teaching of Greek phi- “Human nature is not naturally so diabolical that the hi- losophers, which attestably were circulating in the Arabo- storian must, among several doubtful motives to an ac- -Islamic world of the period – while nihilism and Machia- tion, always decide for the worst; but, in the founder of vellianism clearly were not. this society of vice, the establisher of the murderous or- The primary motif of the novel, which is asserted at the der of the Assassins, the most horrible is the most likely.” very beginning of the book, is referred to as the “supreme (Hammer-Purgstall, 1968, 72) Hence von Hammer de- motto of the Ismailis”, stating: “Nothing is true, everything ducted, as did Bartol after him (although for completely is permitted”. We have seen how Bartol always insisted opposite reasons), that Hasan as-Sabbah’s son was killed on the historicity of the novel, on many occasions stating not for the sake of strict application of the law but rather that he studied numerous historical materials pertinent to as a deliberate act intended to affect the community in the related period and society; he also insisted particularly such a way as to give a picture of himself as someo- strenuously that the meaning of the phrase “Nothing is ne who disregards all natural bonds of affection. What true, everything is permitted” was not a mere echo of Bartol therefore did, following Western Orientalists such Nietzsche. For Bartol Alamut represented not only an ori- as von Hammer, was to amplify all these uncanny tra- ginal work of literature, but also a historically accurate its for his own purpose, namely to givAeN Na AfaLcEeS ·t oSe wr. hhaist t. sosctuiodly. ;· t2h2u s· 2n0o1 2d o· 2u bt is to be cast on the genuineness of he believed to be the “supreme motto of the Ismailis”: the motto’s source. Nobody went so far as to research the “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.” true origin of the sentence since from the very first lite- Before proceeding to the analysis of this most ex- rary studies of Bartol’s work, his own reassurances on the BARTOL’S SELF-ORIENTALISM: “NOTHING IS TRUE, plicit trait of self-Orientalism in Alamut, a few remarks. historicity of the novel were taken seriously and all that EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED” It is intriguing to consider that popular Western myths followed up until the 90s reproduced the same error.12 about the Assassins were first born in the Islamic world In truth, at least if we read his still living contemporaries, itself, due to the fact that the majority Sunni population everybody knew the phrase was from Nietzsche, but no- regarded the Shia in general and the Nizari Isma’ilis in body could find proofs that it was not an Ismaili motto in particular as a dangerous threat to their more mode- the first place. Only after Janko Kos went into a tiresome rate interpretation of Islam. Thus, Orientalism, allegedly research finding Bartol’s original sources (mainly histori- a complete Western invention, can be found – at least ans and Orientalists from the 19. century), the origin of the in our case – already present in the Islamic world itself, misunderstanding showed itself. from where it spread into and developed in the ideolo- As a matter of fact, it was Nietzsche who, in typical gical context of the West, where it gained the institutio- Occidental self-Orientalist fashion, popularized the phra- nalized form we are familiar with. What we are dealing se along with the conviction that it is “the supreme motto here with is a clear case of “self-Orientalism in reverse” of the Ismailis” . Thus spoke Nietzsche in his On the Ge- or what we have labelled as “Oriental self-Orientalism”: nealogy of Morality (published in 1887): the Orientalist myths circulating about “the Secret Order of the Assassins” turning out to be an imaginative fruit When the Christian crusaders in the Orient came that was first born by the same Arabo-Islamic Oriental across that invincible order of Assassins – that order Other as its own, internal “Oriental Other”. of free spirits par excellence whose lowest order re- ceived, through some channel or other, a hint about that symbol and spell reserved for the uppermost 12 In 1969 Marta Silvester makes reference to the sources, mentioning the names of the Orientalists and historians used by Bartol at the time, but does not use them by first hand, so that she follows Bartol’s autobiographical statement that the famous sentence of the Ismailis comes from Hakim I (Silvester, 1960). On the other hand, Nada Ulaga personally consulted his historical references in 1961 but she could do so only for Weil and Malcom, not for Flügel and Michaud. She concluded that the phrase can of course be found in Nietzsche and also in Dostoevsky, but that the true source is the Ismailis themselves, who in turn took it from Hakim I (Ulaga, 1961). The same assump- tion was followed by latter researchers, who depended entirely on the previous works on the novel: such was the case with Miran Košuta and his research from the years 1983-83 at the Faculty of Arts of Ljubljana; such was also the case with Drago Bajt, who wrote an extensive afterword for the 1984 edition of the novel (Bajt, 1984); and such was again the case with Košuta, who wrote another afterword for the novel, this time for the 1988 edition (Košuta, 1988). 361 Mirt KOMEL: ORIENTALISM IN BARTOL’S NOVEL ALAMUT – “NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”, 353˗366 echelons alone, as their secret: “nothing is true, eve- also a radical nationalist underground group that made rything is permitted.” (Nietzsche, 1976, 150) an attempt to assassinate Mussolini. It is precisely in this context that Hladnik discerns the basis for his “nationa- As Janko Kos, a contemporary Slovene literary scholar, lism thesis”, concluding that “Alamut belongs to the ge- reconstructs the misunderstanding, it was precisely from nre of the historical novel of which the basic demand is Nietzsche that Bartol took the idea in the first place, later a nationally relevant message.” (Hladnik, 2004, 110) One bolstering it with erroneous historical sources, which they of the reasons why Bartol’s work was disregarded in his themselves were probably used by Nietzsche in the first own time was that it did not conform to the mainstream place. In Sacy’s Exposé de la Religion des Druzes (first ideology of Slovenian literature at the time (namely the published in 1838), it is mentioned that, according to the nation-building mission). However, Hladnik’s interpreta- Isma’ili teachings, a proselyte must undergo some stages tion seems to direct us in the opposite direction: through of initiation, from which emerging “at the end he would a distinctively self-Orientalist gesture Bartol apparently forfeit the joke of any religion and become a true ma- wanted to “join the club” and write a nationalistic novel terialist, not recognizing any god or any moral constra- after all. Therefore, a parallel can be made between the int”. However, it is only in Gustav Flügel’s Geschichte der Nizari Ismailis fighting for liberation from the Seljuks and Araber (published in 1867) that we encounter the phrase the Partisans in Yugoslavia in general and TIGR in Slovenia for the first time, as a mere comment on Sacy’s own arti- in particular fighting for national liberation against the fa- culation, in the passage where it is said that for a student scist occupier. As tempting as this interpretation sounds, it is necessary to undergo eight levels of knowledge to according to my advice, this was not the case since we reach the ninth level and thus gain the supreme wisdom have many statements from Bartol’s his diaries that show of Nichts zu glauben und Alles tun zu dürfen (Kos, 1991, how he despised his nationalistic literary contemporari- 37-38). The famous sentence attributed to the Isma’ilis is, es for being “too narrow.” Moreover, if we consider his therefore, another clear case of Occidental Orientalism strong affiliation with philosophy and generally apolitical in reverse, for it was a common sloganA iNn NthAeL 1E9Sth · cSeenr.t uhriys t. soacttioitul.d · e2 2(a ·p 2a0rt1 2f r·o 2m the two abovementioned very tan- and was used in journals, essays and other sites of po- gential connections with politics), we must search for an pular philosophy to designate and disqualify atheism/ma- alternative interpretation. terialism as amoral. Therefore, in reading Sacy’s work, it As already mentioned, there are many philosophical was Flügel himself who paved the road for the erroneous references scattered throughout Bartol’s novel. Howe- belief concerning the “supreme motto of the Assassins” ver, apart from quotations of ancient Greek philosophers while Bartol reproduced and popularized it via Nietz- (Democritus, Archimedes, Heraclites, Epicurus), which sche. Just as in Nietzsche, so also in Bartol’s Alamut whe- were very-well known to the Muslim intellectuals of the re it functions in terms of a projection upon the Oriental period, most of the quotations or semi-quotations refer Other of a culturally-specific, nihilistic dilemma between to later philosophies, such as, for instance, a Cartesian in- moral restraint and absolute freedom. The phrase itself terpretation of Protagoras (Juvan, 1990, 96-99). But none is, of course, due to its philosophical character, open to of the numerous quotations or paraphrases can compete numerous interpretations that we cannot explore further with the weight attributed to the main idea of the no- here in all their variety. Instead, we shall limit ourselves to vel – “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”– which a single interpretation, namely by connecting the phrase is, as we showed earlier, a distinctively European pro- with the other cornerstone of Bartol’s self-Orientalism, duct related to the question of nihilism, as popularized namely its Machiavellianism. by Nietzsche. Flügel, as a traditional Orientalist, used the Four years before Alamut was published, King Alexan- quote disqualify the Oriental Other. In Bartol, however, der of Yugoslavia was shot by Bulgarian and Croatian we have a clear case of self-Orientalism, for he imbues national radicals. (This assassination can be compared it with a distinctively positive value, as is clearly seen in to an earlier, even more famous political assassination the extent and quality of the novel’s text that is dedicated 1914 when Franz Ferdinand was shot by Gavrilo Princip, to Hasan as-Sabbah’s philosophy. Now, first of all, Bartol a member of the radical Bosnian nationalist group Mla- used Nietzche’s aphorism “Nothing is true, everything is da Bosna). We already mentioned that Bartol had been permitted” in connection to another great European wri- invited join the Yugoslav Front by Josip Vidmar and that ter, namely Dostoevsky, who in The Brothers Karamazov he sympathized with the underground organization TIGR. states “if there is no God, then everything is permitted.” Despite the fact that he never became a member of ei- When, in a parallel movement, Bartol’s Hasan as-Sabbah ther, we have at least one statement that demonstrates deduces “Nothing is true and therefore everything is per- his allegiance: when one of the group’s most prominent mitted” from the cognition that “there is no God”, this is leaders Zorko Jelinčič was captured and executed by the a typically Cartesian move that links truth with God (God Italian fascists, his friend and admirer Bartol stated in his being the guarantee of truth). From the detailed analyses diary: “I will avenge you, Zorko!” I mention the two fa- Janko Kos made on the question of nihilism in Alamut mous assassinations in this context, because TIGR was (1990, 39-51), one is tempted to put forward the thesis that 362