The Romance of Words.
ASSASSIN The word "assassin” is derived from a military organisation established in 1080 in Persia by Hasanibn Saba. The members were known as Hashhishin or Assassins from the practice that a member of the society, before being sent to commit murder, was intoxicated with a decoction made from the leaves of Hashish or Hemp. This horrid practice of secret murder was the peculiarity which distinguished them from other sects, and made them the terror of the Moslem world. During the Crusades the nations of Europe came into contact with them in Palestine and Egypt; their name passed into the west as a designation for treacherous and secret killing; assassination, to assassinate. This sect fo the assassin sank into insignificance in the 13th century, when 12,000 of them were slain in 1250 by Hulaku, the general of the Mongols. A scanty remnant still exists in the mountains of Persia, In the Lebanon, and even in Zanzibar.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 114, 7 February 1935, Page 7
Word Count
159The Romance of Words. Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 114, 7 February 1935, Page 7
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