Assassins
Assassins, in the original sense, members of a Muslim secret order of fanatics. The name, from the Arabic hashshashin , "hashish eaters," refers to the supposed practice of using the drug hashish to excite a religious fervor in members chosen to kill persons marked for death by the order's leaders.
The order was founded in Persia about 1090 by Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, called "The Old Man of the Mountains" by the Crusaders. It spread into Lebanon and Syria, and terrorized the Middle East for almost 200 years. At times, rival political factions used members of the order as paid murderers. In 1256 the Mongol invaders destroyed the order in Persia; the Syrian branch was stamped out in 1273.