Clan Assamite circa 1197-1242
The Banu Haqim of the Dark Ages are strongly unified, following a tumultuous period where the clan was split by those who followed Islam and those who chose not to. Some Banu Haqim even renounced their clan membership, becoming Dispossessed. It took the threat of the Baali destroying the clan entirely for them to come together again. In 636 CE, the demon-worshippers had once again reformed and the Banu Haqim were ready to strike them down. It was during their siege on the tainted acropolis of Chorazin that the Baali unleashed their curse of hunger upon the Warriors, raising an insatiable thirst for vitae within them. Neonate and methuselah alike fell prey to a dreadful hunger that could be satisfied only by the vitae of other Cainites. As the curse spread across the castes, the Sorcerers and Viziers searched in vain for a way to break it. By the end of the 14th century, the entire Warrior caste and no few Sorcerers and Viziers were afflicted. The vast majority of the Banu Haqim became Muslim, but some still followed other faiths.
In the Dark Ages, the Children of Haqim are kept quite busy because of the Western vampire clans. The Crusades enabled the Western Cainites to invade the lands of the Banu Haqim. In addition, their greedy and corrupting ways had hurt and diminished the herds the Banu Haqim had so carefully developed and tended to, as well as the mortal families of the Assassins that many of the clan still held in some regard. In response, the Banu Haqim worked to rid themselves of these invaders and restore their own power.
For centuries, the Children of Haqim also refused to officially Embrace women, although this policy seems to have changed by the time of the War of Princes. Another split had taken place by this time: that of the creation of the three castes: Warrior, Vizier, and Sorcerers. Although the Banu Haqim consider themselves noble, the Western vampires saw them as little more than meddling, corrupt, heretic foreigners and placed them among the Low Clans.
The Clan called themselves the Banu Haqim, or Children of Haqim, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Superior in numbers to the other bay't in the area, many of the Banu Haqim worked hand-in-hand with the Ashirra to keep the Europeans out, especially since the majority of the clan was Muslim.
The Inquisition never really touched the Holy Land, nor did it extend into the Ottoman Empire or parts farther east. While the Assamites regained their strength from the battles of the Crusades and the aftershock of the Baali curse, the European elders sacrificed their childer for the hope of another night's survival. Too many of those intended victims fled east, preferring to take their chances with the dread Saracens than with their sires' betrayals and the Church's flame-lit crosses. When the sentiments among the childer boiled up and the Anarch Revolt began, the Banu Haqim followed, slaying many Cainites and gaining their reputation as a clan of cannibalistic assassins and murderers, a sentiment that many Warriors encouraged to flourish.
When the Camarilla was founded, many Anarchs chose to ally with them instead of continuing their struggles. This enraged many Children operating in Europe who saw their erstwhile allies deserting them for the promise of sanctuary that they could have earned for themselves anyway if they had possessed the strength to continue their fight. They turned their attention to the Camarilla with a fury born of betrayal. It was only after a lone Nosferatu discovered the location of Alamut that the Banu Haqim yielded and submitted to the Treaty of Tyre and the blood curse of the Tremere.
In the eyes of many Cainites, however, the Assamite threat was barely contained. This showed itself, when the Ottomans marched against the rest of Europe and the Assamites followed the Turks, hoping to direct them against Vienna to smite the Inner Council of Seven and force them to rescind the curse. The Viziers and Sorcerers hid themselves in Alamut and began to work furiously to break the curse on their own, using alchemical potions made of vitae to simulate the effects of Diablerie. In order to obtain this blood, many Warriors were forced to sell themselves as assassins, further strengthening the picture of the fanatic killer. Many Warriors began to invent stories over their Clan and Haqim, further concealing the other two Castes.