Middle East Information Resource
Religions/Belief Systems - Assassins
A sect of Shi’ite Muslims founded by the Persian Hasan i Sabbah around 1090. They were an important force and much feared for about two hundred years in Persia and Syria. They were destroyed in Persia by the ascendancy of the Mongols in Persia in 1256 and in Syria by the Mamluk around 1270.
It was a secret order organized in a class system, according to the degree of initiation into the secrets of the order. The lower groups were governed by a strict code of obedience, and carried out assassinations while operating in complete ignorance of the motivation or policy behind the act.
It is believed that the operatives were given hashish to produce ecstatic visions, especially when carrying out an assassination. The connection between the drug experience and the religious life is not clear.