A PERSIAN assassin. This was a group started by Hassan. The word Aschihsin is PERSIAN and means "Follower of Hassan". They were given hashish to put them to sleep, NOT TO TEMPT THEM. It was also LIQUID, not smoked. It put them into a deep sleep.
He did this when they were young, so that they could be
transported to a false, garden-like paradise, with
temptations otherwise not permitted, such as women and alchohol. They were promised to be able to return if they fought for Hassan. Therefore, Hashish is NOT what he used to tempt them, therefore the word haschishin is very likely an ancient misconception.
Marco Polo is one major source of this infomation: "
The Old Man kept at his court such boys of twelve years old as seemed to him destined to become courageous men. When
the Old Man sent them into the garden in groups of four, ten or twenty, he gave them hashish to drink. They slept for three days, then they were carried sleeping into the garden where he had them awakened."- one of Marco Polo's accounts.
This word developed into "Hassassin" then became what we call it today: assassin.
As far as in the media, there is only one major account: "
Assassins Creed", a revolutionary game for PS3 and Xbox 360. They have the innacurate name, haschihsin, however.
There was also an appearance in one of Dan Brown's books, "Angels & Demons", where there was supposedly a descendant called the Hassassin. The portrayal of them, however, was horribly innacurate. They were portrayed as ruthless, sex and drug addicted freaks who enjoy murdering, and killing in sadistic ways. As you can see, its far from the truth, but he writes in a convincing way, therefore most people sadley think that they ARE truely freaks.
Note: Some of the historical
information in this article may not be 100% accurate, but is probably closer to the truth than most things.
