assassin, Assassin

[In Ger. A as sinen (pl.); Fr. & Prov. a a in; Sp. asesino; Port. & Ital. as sa i no (all sing.); Arab. Has chis chinas substantive, a member of the sect described under No. 1; as adj., inspired by haschisch, an intoxicating liquid or drug called in India bhang, prepared from the powdered leaves of Cannabis sativa, or Common Hemp. Many Eastern desperadoes, when they wish to do some nefarious deed, deaden what remnants of conscience they po e and stimulate their pa ions by means of this bhang. (BHANG.) Some etymologists derive a a in from Ha an ben Sabah, the founder of the order (I., 1).] I. Literally : 1. Hist.: A military and religious order which constituted an offshoot from the Is mail i branch of the great Shiah sect of Mohammedans. It was founded in A.D. 1090 by Ha an ben Sabah, at the hill fort of Alamoot, in Persia. A section of them afterwards removed from Persia to Mount Lebanon, where they came in contact with the crusaders, and through them acquired infamous notoriety in Europe. By the rules of their founder, they were bound implicitly to carry out the commands of their chief (popularly known in the West as the "Old Man of the Mountain "), even to the extent of murdering any king or inferior person in Europe, Asia, or anywhere, with whom he might have a quarrel. Several proud potentates are said to have paid him black mail for safety's sake; but the gallant Knights Templars had more of a kingly spirit, and defied his power. The Mongols made a general ma acre of the Persian branch of the order in 1256, and Sultan Bibars all but rooted out the Syrian offshoot in 1270, but traces of them are said still to exist in both countries, especially at Kalat el Masryad, in Persia. Despite their origin, the A a ins were not pure Shiahs in faith; their religion was a mixture of Magianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedism. There was a certain resemblance between their tenets and those of the Druses in Mount Lebanon. 2. A ruffian who, either from personal animosity, or from having been hired to do the atrocious deed, murders one by open violence or by secret or sudden a ault. "... of all the Jacobites, the most desperate a as sins not excepted,.."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. xvii. When, on the 9th Thermidor, 1794, the French National Convention would no longer allow Robes pierre to domineer over it, and would not permit him even to defend himself, almost the last words he addre ed to it before his arrest were these, "President of a a ins, for the last time I ask liberty to speak." II. Fig .: One who criminally destroys the polity of his country. "The hir'd a a ins of the commonweal!" Thomson: Liberty , pt. v. Like an a a in. "... the Syrian king, who, to surprise One man, a a in - like , had levied war,