Firdous e Bareen ( fa, فردوس برین) was the name of the ancient
Persian garden
The tradition and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens or Iranian gardens ( fa, باغ ایرانی), an example of the paradise garden, has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond. The gardens of the ...
, supposedly located in the fortress of
Alamut, in the
Elburz
The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...
mountains of Northern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, in which
Hassan-i-Sabah and his band of
Nizari
The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...
Ismaili Shiite
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
Hashshashin
The Order of Assassins or simply the Assassins ( fa, حَشّاشین, Ḥaššāšīn, ) were a Nizārī Ismāʿīlī order and sect of Shīʿa Islam that existed between 1090 and 1275 CE. During that time, they lived in the mountains of P ...
took refuge.
According to some accounts, this
Paradise garden
The paradise garden is a form of garden of Old Iranian origin, specifically Achaemenid which is formal, symmetrical and most often, enclosed. The most traditional form is a rectangular garden split into four quarters with a pond in the center, ...
, imitating
paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
or
heaven, was furnished with all luxuries of life, even a rivulet of
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
and was used to recruit Sabah's
assassin
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
s. The recruit was drugged to simulate "dying," only to later awaken in a garden and be served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that Sabah was a minion of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even to death.
The
novel Firdaus-e-Bareen, written by Indian
Muslim novelist
Abdul Halim Sharar
Abdul Halim Sharar ( ur, ; 4 September 1860 – 1 December 1926) was an Indian author, playwright, essayist and historian from Lucknow. He left behind, in all, hundred and two books. He often wrote about the Islamic past and extolled virtues l ...
, gives a biographical account of Hussain, a youth lured and captured by Sabah's men and then forced into his assassination machinery.
Firdous e Bareen is also a song on the album
In the Absence of Truth
''In the Absence of Truth'' is the fourth full-length studio album by American post-metal band ISIS, released by Ipecac Recordings on October 31, 2006. The vinyl release was handled by Conspiracy Records.
The album expands upon the group's previ ...
by the American post-metal band
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
.
{{garden-stub
Persian gardens in Iran
Paradise gardens in Iran