Assassin

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “why is he posting this when most people know where the word comes from?” – well, read on…

Pronounced a-sass-in, in English, the Assassins (or Hashshashin in the anglicised Arabic form) were a secret society of young men, operating between the 10th and 13th century and noted in particular – in Western history – for their activity during the Crusades. They even worked for the Crusaders from time to time – not because they had any loyalty to the Christians but for their dislike for the other factions of their religion. They were trained to kill prominent political, religious and military figures to the end of destabilizing the enemies of their leader, al-Hassan ibn-i-Sabbah.

The Hashshashin were a religious sect of Isma’ili Shi’ia Muslims in post-Muslim Persia who refused to accept Fatmid rule. The Fatmids were a branch of Shi’ites who believed that Mohammed’s daughter, Fatimah was his natural successor.

The story (according to The Adventures of Marco Polo) goes that al-Hassan ibn-i-Sabbah kept a large number of boys aged around twelve years old in his service. They would be given hashish to drink and would fall asleep for three days. They would be taken to his garden, where they would awake and find themselves surrounded by beauty and lovely and willing women. Hassan promised them more of the same if they killed for him – and also if they died in his service. They would apparently use hashish before killing.

If you think about it, being really stoned is probably not the best way to approach a task as serious as a political killing. It’s also seldom mentioned that Hassan was also a strict Muslim and hashish prohibitionist who believed that all intoxication was forbidden by the Qu’ran – making it unlikely he would advocate the use of drugs.

As I have mentioned, the word hashshashin (meaning hashish smokers) is Arabic. The assassins were Persian and would have spoken Farsi, which brings into dispute the root of their name. The most likely explanation is simply that they were named after their leader – Hassassin, or “follower of Hassan”.