Assassins

Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden or secret attack, of a person especially a prominent or important one—typically for political or ideological reasons. Assassinations may be ordered by both individuals and organizations and carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin.

Assassin comes from medieval Italian and French or , believed to derive from the word hashshashin ( ), and shares its etymological roots with hashish ( or ; from ). It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets.

Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the Near East from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The group killed members of the Abbasid, Seljuk, Fatimid, and Christian Crusader elite for political and religious reasons.

Although it is commonly believed that members of the Order of Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking was not the key feature behind the name.