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read_100_books's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. It is a comprehensive, thorough look at the organization that inspired and influenced so much of modern culture. They are the reason the word assassin exists.I would recommend having some passing knowledge of middle eastern politics during the 1100-1200s before picking up this book, but overall I would urge anyone to pick it up.
nerdy_scholar's review against another edition
5.0
Bernard Lewis is one of the best historians one can read. He manages to write with an impartiality that is very rare to find. His prose flows elegantly without being overly aesthetically concerned. Everything he writes he supports with the proper sources and citations.
sardonic_writer's review against another edition
3.0
It's a pretty good overview of the Isma'ili, but Lewis gets way too bogged down in the theological debates between the sects. If I'd realized that this was a reprint of a book from the 1960's I would have looked for a more recent text. Even for just 140 pages this is more of a slog than it needs to be.
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