ASSEMANI
479
ASSEMBLY
Mohammed II, who acted in his father's spirit, the Syrian Dai-al-kebir, Sinan, became independent, and entered into negotiations with the Christian king of Jerusalem for coming over, on certain conditions, to the Christian faith ; but the Templars killed his en- voys and rejected his overtures, that they might not lose the yearly tribute which the}' drew from him. Mohammed was poisoned by his son, Hassan III, who reinstated Islamism, and thence obtained the surname of the New Moslem. Hassan was succeeded by Mo- hammed III, a boy of nine years old, who, by his ef- feminate rule, led to the overthrow of the order, and was eventually murdered by command of his son, Rokn-eddin, the seventh and last Old Man of the Mountain. In 1256, the Mongolian prince, Hulagu, burst with his hordes upon the hill-forts of Persia held by the Assassins, which amounted to about a hundred, capturing and destroying them. The Syrian branch was also put down about the end of the 13th century, but remnants of the sect still lingered for some time longer in Kuhistan. In 1352 the Assassins reappear- ed in Syria, and, indeed, they are still reported to exist as a heretical sect both there and in Persia. The Per- sian Ismaelites have an imaum, or superintendent, in the district of Kum, and still inhabit the neighborhood of Alamut under the name of Hosseinis. The Syrian Ismaelites live in the district of Massiat or Massyad. Their castle was taken in 1809 by the Nossaries, but restored.— Chambers, Encyclopedia, s. v. ; Withof, das Reich der Assassinen (Cleve, 17G5); Hammer, Gcschichte der Assassinen (Stuttg. and Tub. 1818).
Assemani, the family name of three of the most eminent Orientalists of the eighteenth century. They were Maronites (q. v.), born in Mt. Lebanon, Syria.
1. Joseph Simonius, came to Rome toward the be- ginning of the eighteenth century, was made arch- bishop injmrtibus of Tyre, and librarian of the Vatican, by Clement XI. He was sent by that pontiff on a lit- erary mission to Egypt and Syria in the years 1715- 1716, and he brought back to Rome 150 valuable MSS. On a second visit to the East (1735-1738) he obtained many more MSS., with 2000 ancient coins, medals, etc. Assemani was a man of immense erudition and industry. His most important publications were: 1. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementina Vaticana(l\ome, 1719— 1728, 4 vols, fol.), a biographical account of the Syrian writers, divided into three classes, i. e. Orthodox, Jac- obites, and Nestorians, with copious extracts in the Syriac text, and a Latin version, lists of their works, and comments on the same. He intended to proceed with the Arabian, Copt, and other Eastern writers, but nothing appeared in print beyond the Syriac. The fourth volume of the Bibliotheca is engrossed by a learned dissertation on the Syrian Nestorians. 2. St. Ephraem Syri Opera omnia que extant (Kome, 1732- 1746, 6 vols. fol.). This edition of the works of St. Ephraim, one of the old Syrian fathers, containing the Syriac text and a Latin translation, was begun by Am- barach, another learned Maronite, living at Rome, and better known as Father Benedetti, being a member of the society of the Jesuits, and after his death was com- pleted by Assemani. This work is much esteemed, and the Latin is better than that of the other works of Assemani, who was more skilled in the Oriental than in the Latin language. 3. Kalendaria Ecchahv uni- verse, in quibus Sanctorum nomina, imagines, festi dies, Ecclesiarum Orientis ac Occidentis, prcem'ssis unins cu- jusque. Ecclesie originibus, recensentur, describuntur, et notis ilhtstrantiir (Rome, 1755-1757, 6 vols. 4to). 4. Bibliotheca Juris Orientalis Canonic') et Civilis (Rome, 1762-1764, 4 vols. 4to). Besides these, he published Rudimenta Linguae, Arabicce (Rome, 1732, 4to) and oth- er works. Many of his writings were burnt in a fire at the Vatican in 1768. He died at Rome in 1768, at the age of eighty. He left MSS., several historical dissertations, and other fragments, on the Christian population of the ancient patriarchate of Antioch, on
the nation of the Copts, on the Nestorians, and other Eastern sects, etc., which have been published by Mai. It is said that there are still at Rome MSS. in his hand- writing enough to fill 100 volumes.
2. Joseph Aloysius, nephew of the preceding, pro- fessor of Oriental languages at Rome, where he died, Feb. 9, 1782. His most important work is the Codex Liturgicus Ecclesie Universce (Rome, 1749-1766, 13 vols. 4to). This vast work was intended to include all Ori- ental and Western liturgies, but was never completed. Still it is of great value. He also wrote a Commenta- rius hist.-theologicus de Catholicis sen. Patriarch's Chal- dceorum et Nestoriemorum (Romae, 1775, 4to) : — Disserta- tio de Sacris Ritibus (Rome, 1757, 4to): — Comment, dc ecclesiis, earum reveraitia et asylo (1766, fob).
3. Stephen Evodius, another nephew of Joseph Assemani, was born at Tripoli in Syria about 1707. He studied at Rome, and returned to Syria as a mis- sionary of the Propaganda. He was present at the Synod of Lebanon, 1736, at which his uncle acted as legate. Subsequently he spent some months in Eng- land, where he was elected a member of the Royal So- ciety. Having established himself at Rome, he was employed as assistant to his uncle at the Vatican, and on his uncle's death succeeded him as upper keeper of the library. He also became titular Bishop of Apamea. He died in 1784. His literary reputation is not very high. The only works of any consequence which he published are the following: Bibliotheca; Mediceo-Lau- rentiane et Palatine Codicnm MSS. Orient edium Catalo- gus (Flor. 1742, fob), with notes by Gori : — A eta Sancto- rum Martyrum Oricntalium et Occidentcdium (Rome, 1748, 2 vols. fob). To this work, which he compiles from manuscripts in the Vatican, he added the Acts of St. Simon, called " Stylite" in Chaldaic and Latin. He also began a general catalogue of the Vatican manu- scripts, divided into three classes, Oriental, Greek and Latin, Italian and other modern languages, of which, however, he published only the first volume, in 17; 6, the fire in the Vatican having destroyed his papers-. Mai has continued parts of this catalogue in his Scrip- torum Veterum nova colkctio. — Herzog, i, 560.