Christian military orders were societies of knights whose main objective was to propagate or defend their faith - either by conquesting pagans or battling neighbour Islamic empires. Some of those orders also had other duties, for example tending to the sick and poor (like the Knights of Saint Thomas). While some of the knights were actual brothers, the majority were laymen; the latter could even take commanding roles over the former. The first and most widely known are the Templars (Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon), an order established in 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. Apart from the Templar Knights, the most famous - but by no means the only - knightly orders were Knights Hospitalier (Knights of Malta) and the Teutonic Order (Teutonic Knights of the Hospital of Saint Mary of Jerusalem). Some historians also point towards certain Islamic organizations like the Shiite Assassins as having similar structure and function to the Christian religious brotherhoods.