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    Anatomy of Assassinations: From Biblical Times to the End of the Second Millennium
    Anatomy of Assassinations: From Biblical Times to the End of the Second Millennium
    Anatomy of Assassinations: From Biblical Times to the End of the Second Millennium
    Ebook331 pages5 hours

    Anatomy of Assassinations: From Biblical Times to the End of the Second Millennium

    By Laszlo Solymar

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    About this ebook

    Assassination of prominent people occurred in all countries at all times over the history of mankind. They are not random events in the sense that there is always a motive behind them. In our analysis we shall more or less adhere to the following criteria: (i) The victim must be a public personage, (ii) The assassination must be premeditated, (iii) It must be done by stealth, (iv) There must be a motive and (v) The assassin aims only at the death of the person selected.

    In Part I we give a chronology of all major assassinations from biblical times onward. The number of assassinations in any particular year may often be seen to bear some strong correlation with the historical events unfolding. There is actually a year, 1934, that presages most major conflicts in Europe.

    Part II contains brief biographies of both victims and perpetrators. It is not unusual that he who arranges an assassination will be assassinated in his turn. As stated in Matthews gospel: They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

    The various categories of assassinations `are discussed in Part III together with definitions and classifications and with descriptions of historical periods dominated by assassinations, as for example the French Wars of Religion.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateNov 21, 2013
    ISBN9781491881828
    Anatomy of Assassinations: From Biblical Times to the End of the Second Millennium
    Author

    Laszlo Solymar

    Laszlo Solymar was born and educated in Hungary. In the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution he escaped to England. He joined the University of Oxford in 1966 where he is now an Emeritus Professor. During his career he had Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabruck, Berlin, Madrid, Budapest and London.

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      Book preview

      Anatomy of Assassinations - Laszlo Solymar

      CONTENTS

      Anatomy Of Assassinations

      Preface

      PART I Chronology Of Victims

      PART II Biographies Of Victims And Perpetrators

      PART III Comments, Comparisons, Curiosities, Brief Histories, Explanations, Generalizations

      Anatomy of Assassinations

      from biblical times

      to the end of the second millennium

      Laszlo Solymar was born and educated in Hungary. In the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution he escaped to England. He joined the University of Oxford in 1966 where he is now an Emeritus Professor. During his career he had Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabruck, Berlin, Madrid, Budapest and London.

      By the same author

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      To

      Gillian and Mike

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      Lucy and Paddy

      PREFACE

      There are many books on assassinations. In what respect does the present one differ from the others? I have a chronology in Part I and lots of biographies (close to 600) in Part II in which I include both victims and perpetrators. My criteria for including someone may slightly differ from those of others but not radically. The main difference is in Part III. The characteristics of Part III is that it summarizes certain aspects of assassinations as for example in the section Brothers a set of assassinations is highlighted in which brothers are involved. They may have helped each other by assassinating common enemies or may have killed each other in their bid for power.

      The classical definition of assassination has the following five criteria: (i) The victim must be a public personage, (ii) The assassination must be premeditated, (iii) It must be done by stealth, (iv) There must be a motive and (v) The assassin aims only at the death of the person selected. These criteria are discussed in more detail under the heading Assassination, classical criteria. In fact, for the purpose of this book the strict definition is somewhat relaxed. On our choice see section Who is included?

      This is the place to mention problems with the spelling of names. There are all kinds of accents in many of the languages. I ignore them all and use only the 28 letters of the English alphabet. As for the spelling of the names from countries that do not use the Latin alphabet, I adopt one of the currently used transliterations. Some of the names, mostly those from Muslim countries, appear in history books in many forms, e.g. Mohammed, Muhammad, Mehmed and Mehmet and all four may refer to the same person. In these cases I adopt the forms more often used and stick to it.

      I also wish to acknowledge here the help I received from my friends, Katya Shamonina, Richard Syms and Gabor Sebestyen, and last but not least from my wife Marianne and daughters, Gillian and Lucy.

      PART I

      CHRONOLOGY OF VICTIMS

      PART II

      BIOGRAPHIES OF VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS

      Abdulaziz II (1830-1876, reigned 1861-1876)

      Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who for the first ten years of his rule was quite susceptible to Western ideas. He introduced, on the French model, the first Ottoman civil code, a public education system and even founded a university. After the defeat of France in the 1870-71 war he came to the conclusion that old-fashioned despotism may after all be the best form of government. At home he quickly lost popularity, at abroad his efforts to secure Russian friendship failed, and he was unable to curb atrocities in Turkish held Bulgaria. He was deposed in an internal coup, imprisoned and found dead a few days later. The official explanation was suicide but few people believed it then and since.

      Abdullah Ibn Hussein (1882-1951, reigned 1946-1951)

      After 1908 he represented Mecca in the Ottoman Parliament but later became an Arab nationalist supporting the Allies against the Turks during the First World War. He was made Amir of Transjordan during the British mandate in 1921 and continued to rule the country after gaining independence in 1923. He was crowned king of Transjordan in 1946. He changed the country’s name to Jordan after the incorporation of Arab Palestine in 1949. Although verbally supporting Arab unity he was in clandestine contact with the Israeli leadership in search of a peace formula. He was assassinated by an Arab extremist at the entrance of the Great Mosque in Jerusalem.

      Abimelech (11th century, BC)

      Son of Gideon by his concubine Drumah who was from Shechem. After his father’s death he killed 69 out of his 70 brothers and ruled over Shechem with an iron fist. He successfully defeated rebellions against him and made frequent attempts to extend his power over other cities. At the siege of Thebez a woman threw from the walls part of a millstone that broke his head. Thereupon he asked

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