Who were the Assassins?
Assassins and assassination are, regrettably, very much with us today. Our heads of government must be protected by elaborate security day and night, while the rest of us in many parts of the world are constantly at risk of being caught up in the fanatacism of zealots of one kind or another who feel it justifiable, or even meritorious, to kill innocent bystanders. Assassination as a political weapon is no doubt as old as organized human society but the word itself is of mediaeval origin and refers to the activities of a Persian sect who were popularly supposed to drug themselves by means of hashish, whence the name. But who were the original Assassins, and what did they believe about themselves? These are fascinating questions, whose interest is not confined to politics or history; the ramifications extend to religion, mysticism, and ideas about the millennium. The assassins were a heretical Islamic sect. They were a potent source of myth and legends; this emerges in an imaginative acc
