Almot Dar Al-Takween

Author's name: Vladimir Bartol Publisher: Al-Takween for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2009 Literary classification: History, Politics Book summary: Alamut is a fortress on a high mountain in Khorasan built by the kings of Daylam, seized by Hassan ibn Sabbah in the month of Shaaban of the year 483 AH, and from there his Ismaili Batinist call began. Although Vladimir Bartol had written his novel (Alamut) sixty-six years ago, the bitter questions it raises have gained very realistic logic and justifications after the events of September 11, 2001. Vladimir Bartol, whose country celebrated his centenary on February 24 of this year, was a writer interested in biology and philosophy. He studied all published works of Freud and obtained a double doctorate in biology and philosophy at the age of no more than twenty-five. He was born on February 24, 1903, and grew up as a highly sensitive child. He lived in Belgrade, worked for several newspapers, and always dreamed not just of being a writer but of extending his ambitions beyond local borders to global horizons. After World War II, he became an associate member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, where he remained until his death on September 12, 1967. Bartol wrote several theatrical and story works, but his most famous work worldwide is the novel (Alamut). This novel, which we are discussing, has been translated into more than 19 languages and became a curriculum in secondary education in Slovenia, despite critics and readers not recognizing or paying attention to it at the time of its publication in his country. Vladimir Bartol saw many scenes of the realistic essence of Alamut unfold before him during the days of World War I, scenes of killing and destruction that the world and his country specifically endured. He decided to write this novel and continued writing it for ten years from 1927 until its publication in 1937. Bartol drew his historical information about Ibn Sabbah and the Assassins group in Alamut from writings of Orientalists and European travelers, especially what the famous Marco Polo wrote.