Intoxication to assassination!

These days the word assassin is used for a killer, particularly if the person killed is an important person in society or major political leader. But the history of the word assassin takes us back nearly 1000 years to conflicts between middle eastern Muslims and Christians from European. As is known the Christian holy land is part of present day Israel and Palestine area. The Christians from around the world including Europeans would visit the Holy Land for purpose of pilgrimage. However, from early 11th century AD trouble started with Christians finding it difficult to visit their Holy Land. What followed was a series of confrontations between the Christians inspired by the Pope Urban II and supported by many European kings and knights leading their armies to conquer the areas from Muslims in Egypt and Palestine. It is argued that these attacks by Christians were partly religious and partly driven by search for conquests over different lands and the wealth that it would have brought. These expeditions are known as Christian Crusades that lasted for almost two hundred years. Obviously the Muslims were not sitting quiet, they fought back too. The Islamic fighters who killed the Christians in response gave the word assassin. These fighters had religious rationale to fight Christian crusaders. Many of these fighters would consume hashish before they went into fighting, mostly as secret attacks. Hashish is a cannibus drug that temporarily gives euphoric feeling and causes intoxication. The drug is illegal in most countries now. These hashish using Muslim fighters came to be known as hashishin a word that travelling through Italian and French languages has found its place in English as assassin! In 17th century it meant Muslim assassin but now it is used for any killer.

Note: I am neither an authority on religion nor on history so take the above write up as simple historical note to understand the meaning and history of the word assassin. The use of any drugs like hashish is harmful and illegal in most countries in the world today.