Some murderers are called assassins because this name was given in the 11th Century to a sect of Shi’ite Muslim fanatics who pledged themselves to murder those who did not believe in their religion.
The word assassin comes from the Arab hashishi or hashish eater, supposedly because the killers were alleged to take hashish to give ecstatic visions of paradise before setting out on a mission which might well end in their own deaths. We use the word now for one who kills a public figure.
The history of the Shi’ite Muslim sect began in 1090 in Persia, where it was founded by Hassan ibn al-Sabbah and where its endeavours were chiefly directed against the regime of the Seljuks, a Turkish family who had invaded western Asia and founded a powerful empire.
In the 12th Century the assassins extended their activities to Syria, where the expansion of Seljuk rule and the arrival of the Christian crusaders gave them ample scope. They seized a group of castles and waged a war of terror against rulers and crusaders. At one time, they made a pact with Saladin (1138-1193) and murdered Conrad de Montferrat, a crusader who had been made King of Jerusalem. The successive assassin chiefs in Syria were known as the “Old Man of the Mountain” The chief of the sect in Persia proclaimed himself as ruler or Imam.
The end of the power of the assassins came in the 13th Century. The last of their castles tell in 1272. There are still followers of the sect to be found in Syria, Iran and Pakistan, where they are known as Khojas.
Today they owe allegiance to the Aga Khan, as the spiritual leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect of the Shi’ite Mohammedans.
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