Najafi to make film on Hassan Sabbah
“I intend to make a film based on a screenplay entitled ‘Hassan Sabbah’ this year. The film will also focus on social and political events during the life of Hassan Sabbah. Part of the set will be made by stage designers, and some sections of the film will be shot at Alamut Castle,” Najafi added.
According to Najafi, the film may be produced by Ziaeddin Dorri and shooting will begin in August.
“A five-member group has researched the life of Hassan Sabbah over the past two years. We restudied the results of the research and the final outcome was handed over to Naghmeh Samini, who wrote the screenplay,” Najafi explained.
Hassan Sabbah was the leader of an Islamic sect, the Nizari Ismaeilites.
He studied theology in the Iranian city of Ray and at about the age of 17 adopted the Ismaeilite faith. He was an active believer and rose in the Ismaeilite organization, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In 1076 he went to Egypt, probably for further religious training, remaining there for about three years. When he returned to Iran he traveled widely in an effort to further Ismaeilite interests. He made a number of converts, and, in 1090, with the aid of converts made within its garrison, was able to seize the great fortress of Alamut in Daylam, a province of the Seljuq empire.
After further turmoil, Hassan Sabbah settled down to the leadership of a territorially scattered yet cohesive state. After the last major siege of Alamut (1118), Hassan Sabbah was able to live out the remainder of his life in peace.
He led an ascetic existence and imposed a puritanical regime at Alamut -- when one of his sons was accused of murder and the other of drunkenness, he had them both executed. He wrote a number of cogent theological treatises, stressing in particular the need to accept absolute authority in matters of religious faith. His expression of this doctrine became widely accepted by contemporary Nizaris.