THE TEMPLARS AND THE HOLY SEE 79
married Maria, daughter of Manuel Comnenus, and had
been promised Byzantine co-operation, but Constantinople
gave practically no assistance. The kingdom of Jerusalem
had shrunk to little more than a strip of the coast, forty miles
broad at most, from Ascalon to Tiberias, and Amalric
desperately sought aid everywhere to stop the Moslem
advance. In 1172 help was offered from an unexpected
quarter, for the Assassins were ready to unite with the
Christians. This sect, founded by the Persian, Hassan el
Homeiri, late in the preceding century, was feared through-
out the East. Its numerical strength was not large, but
these fearless fanatics had been very successful in destroying
everyone who opposed them and even the mighty Saladin
had been forced to make peace with the chief of the
organisation.
The Assassins had established themselves in the castle of
Alamut in 1090, and three-quarters of a century later were
in possession of a number of fortresses in Lebanon. Sinan
ibn Sulirnan, who commanded the order in 1172, proposed
that the Assassins should co-operate with the Latins against
Islam, and that all his followers should adopt Christianity.
In return he asked for one concession. When the son of
Raymond II of Tripoli had been slain in church by the
Assassins, the Templars had pursued the murderers into the
hills and compelled them to pay an annual tribute of two
thousand pieces of gold. Sinan insisted that this tribute,
which had been due to the Temple for some twenty-five
years, should be abolished, and Amalric would have been
prepared to grant much greater favours. The king promised
to compensate the Temple for the loss of the tribute and
assured the Assassin messenger, Boaldel, that the payment
could be considered as cancelled.
For some reason, however, the Templars opposed the
bargain. Perhaps they doubted whether Amalric, who had
a reputation for meanness, would keep his promise to give