The Assassins targeted Muslim leaders, not Crusaders, whom they served only as allies

Evidence

The Crusaders were convinced that they themselves were the main target, that the Assassins were there in order to fight and destroy them. This impression, which has persisted into modern times, is quite false. There were very few Crusader victims among the scores who fell to the daggers of the Assassins between the 11th and 13th centuries. Most of their victims were Muslims—caliphs, sultans, amirs, generals, judges and high ministers of state. In the few cases where they did murder a Crusader, there is good evidence that they did so as a service to a Muslim ally rather than for any reasons of their own. They were not terribly interested in the Crusaders who were, so to speak, outside their world. Their aim was to overthrow the existing order in the Islamic lands and to take over. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 571

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the modern question the author raises next about who Islamic terrorism actually targets — and connects to broader arguments that internecine Muslim conflict, not the West, drives jihadism.
• SHARE: Strong corrective for anyone who takes the Crusader-centric view of the Assassins at face value.