Mysteries of vernacular Assassin Jessica Oreck

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misters of vernacular assassin a

murderer

who relies on the element of surprise to

attack a prominent personage the word

assassin comes from the Arabic hashishin

which means hash yousa the history of

Hashshashin

is sensational but unconfirmed in the

early 11th century a man named Al Hassan

urban Al Sabah became the leader of a

band of Persian extremists

according to legend and various tenuous

accounts Al Hassan gave his men hashish

as a way of deceiving them into loyalty

these young men became known as a

shishun or followers of Hassan from

their fortress in the mountains Al

Hassan ordered his men who were highly

trained warriors to do away with his

enemies no one was safe from Sultan’s

two counts the Asha Shen spread terror

throughout the region when the word Asha

Shen was transmuted into English

the pluralizing suffix in was mistaken

to be part of the word for this reason

the modern word assassin is singular

referring to only one surprise murderer

as if that weren’t enough

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