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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