To: Sultan who wrote (80268 ) 3/7/2003 9:01:39 PM From: Win Smith Respond to Atran noted the dubious origins of the hashish/assassin ink in his background materials posted in #reply-18671055 According to Marco Polo, the Assassins, who belonged to the schismatic sect of ???? a foretaste of eternal bliss before setting out to kill or conquer (S1). But no corroborating evidence from Middle Eastern sources exists for such hashish rituals. From the fortress of ???? known as Shaykh al-djebel (which the Crusaders rendered as “Old Man of the Mountain, instituted a strategy of political wreckage and intimidation to undermine Sunni dominance in the region. Charismatic leaders ceremoniously passed on the ritual dagger to young men for use in suicide assassination. Victims included caliphs, sultans, emirs, vizirs, qadis (judges), and so on. Although known as early as the 8th century, the foundation of the Assassins is usually marked as 1090 when Hasan-i Sabbah, established his stronghold in the mountains south of the Caspian Sea at Alamut. A Yemeni emigrant and an Ismaili Shiite, Hasan set the aim of the Assassins to destroy the power of the Abbasid Caliphate by murdering its most powerful members. Hasan ibn Sabbah was also known as "The Old Man of the Mountain", however, this is likely to have been a mistake in translation, since "Old Man" is the literal translation of "Sheik". Much of the current western lore surrounding the Assassins stems from Marco Polo's supposed visit to Alamut in 1273, which is widely considered mythical (especially as the stronghold was allegedly destroyed by the Mongols already in 1256). wikipedia.org
