It is from this story that the connection between the words assassin and hashish is drawn. Thus, he recruited an army of assassins who were the first terrorist gang. Awakening back in the presence of "The Old Man of the Mountain" they were told that he had given them this glimpse of Paradise and that they would go to Paradise if they entered his service and followed his instructions or died in his service. After a few hours of bliss, they were again made unconscious with the unknown substance. When they awoke in the garden, surrounded by beautiful naked women and boys, they were told that they were in Paradise. They were then carried to a beautiful secret garden which was impenetrable and unseen by any but those intended to be his haschishin. First, hashish is seldom prepared in a liquid form Hassan would drug young men with a substance which "cast them into a deep sleep" from which they could not be awakened. When the Old Man wished to kill someone, he would take a young man and tell him they could return to Paradise if they entered his service and followed his instructions or died in his service.įrom this account it is farily clear that hashish was not the substance used. And these damsels were always with them in songs and great entertainments they received everything they asked for, so that they would never have left that garden of their own will." "When these young men woke, and found themselves in the garden with all these marvelous things, they truly believed themselves to be in paradise. They slept for three days, then they were carried sleeping into the garden where he had them awakened. When the Old Man sent them into the garden in groups of four, ten or twenty, he gave them hashish to drink. In the account given by Marco Polo in "The Adventures of Marco Polo" it is told that "The Old Man kept at his court such boys of twelve years old as seemed to him destined to become courageous men. It was from this mountain home that he obtained evil celebrity among the Crusaders as "the old man of the mountains", and spread terror through the Mohammedan world. In 1090, al-Hassan and his followers seized the castle of Alamut, in the province of Rudbar, which lies in the mountainous region south of the Caspian Sea. In the early 11th century, al-Hassan became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians, a rather obscure party of fanatics which gained local power under his guidance. There are many conflicting facts and sources for this information. One of the primary sources for this information comes from the writings of Marco Polo who visited the area in 1273, almost 150 years after the reign of Al-Hassan. The story is that al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah used hashish to enlist the aid of young men into his private army known as assassins (aschishin - or follower of Hassan). It is a common myth that the word assassin comes from the Arabic word haschishin for hashish user. Myth : The word assassin is derived from the word hashish.
Generally contemporary Isma'ili sources reject the 'hash' root entirely (though do not, interestingly enough, reject the Alamutis 'terrorist' reputation) as demeaning to Isma'ilis. In the 'History of Alamut' there are at least four etymologies given for the word assassin.īelow I've included excerpts from various sources which argue the 'correct' etymology of the term. Please refer to my Index to the History of Alamut. NOTE: For a synopsis of this document and more information about the history of Alamut
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