History : Hashashin the myth and figure of the Assassin

There is a story about an old man in the mountains who trains and leads an elite army of assassins who obey his orders. When an official visited, the old man demonstrated the quality of his troops by having one of them walk towards the ravine. The killer walked to the end of the cliff, fell and died. without screaming or jumping, just walk as instructed.

They get the term hashash from opium or the drugs they consume as cigarettes. they were trained in the influence of drugs and were very obedient to the orders of their masters. their specialty is using various poisons and exotic weapons. their ability is to hide in the dark and kill their victims without being seen. But it is mostly a myth that is exaggerated rather than truth.

The real Hashashin is a fairly radical religious sect. when facing conflicts with political opponents, they choose to silence or finish off the opponent's leader. uniquely the sect as much as possible to avoid open confrontation. For them, eliminating the opponent's leader is more effective than open conflict that can cause large casualties between followers, clans, or camps.

As a result of this thinking, the Hashashin's minimum targets were sect leaders, regents, governors or generals who opposed their influence. unlike in movies or novels, they never attack the public or the army. because for them ordinary people are considered to have no effect on their problems. therefore Hashashin attacked kings and sultans more frequently than his opponent's military members.

The Hashashin's favorite weapon was a small, dagger-like blade that was sometimes coated with poison. not to be deadly but to give maximum psychological effect to the opponent. Not only were daggers very common and possessed by many people, they also liked the use of harmless objects such as food. instead they did not use the cataract-like weapons used exclusively by Indian culture.

Even their main weapon is a cake smeared with poison blatantly. the intention was not to trap the opponent to death from eating the poisoned cake, but to frighten the target. usually the cake is hidden along with the threat letter. if daggers, cakes and threats don't scare them then they are forced to attack. Uniquely, unlike in movies or games, the Hashashin does not attack in the dark.

On the other hand, the Hashashin is guided by always carrying out attacks openly as much as possible in the middle of the day or broad daylight and in the middle of a crowd to get the maximum psychological effect on his opponent and the wider community. Their ability to finish off figures who were heavily guarded and in a crowd made their sect so feared.

Over time the Hashashin sect became an influential political force in the government around ancient Syria. Although they are known as murderers, they are actually very rarely killed. their leader argued that using threats with daggers and pies was much more effective in making opponents obey. other than that the risk is much smaller for the members.

The way to use the dagger and the cake itself is as follows: People who are considered to be against or endanger the existence of their sect will usually find a keris stuck in the pillow, mattress or bedroom area. accompanied by a threatening letter that reads, "It would be very sad if the dagger stuck in my lord's soft pillow also stuck to my lord's soft chest."

The most famous incident was when Saladin woke up one afternoon from his rest to find a piece of cake that was clearly poisoned on his chest along with a threatening letter. He was asked to be careful in his military expansion which began to graze in the sect's territory. Saladin chose to make peace with his parents in the mountains rather than having to deal with European crusaders and radical sects all at once.

The Hashashin sect fortress itself is an unmanned fortress in the Syrian mountains that has been abandoned since the Persian-Byzantine war hundreds of years ago. if their sect was attacked then they could flee from one mountain fortress to another. In this fort, they also hold special training and education for their followers or agents.

Unlike many imagined, his training focused on the art of disguise. Not a ninja-style technique in movies or games, but combining skills by mastering several professions and dialects of the opposing tribe. With this capital, a Hashashin agent could enter the opponent's city and then get the job and trust of the target family. he then becomes a passive agent that can be used at any time.

Attempted assassination is only made after a failed threat attempt. this in itself was undesirable as it ran the risk of death of a highly trained spy agent regardless of the dignity of the chief and the dignity of the sect. but sometimes there was no other way for the order to attack given.

The hashashin attacked undercover. The agent who had infiltrated before could become the sole executor or act as vanguard for other assassins sent. In one of the recorded attacks, a vizier or governor who was watching a dance in a city crowd was stabbed to death by one of the dancers. It turned out that the dancer was a Hashashin in disguise.

The deadly dance was witnessed by thousands of people in the middle of the town square and caused a commotion for everyone. At first the Hashashin dancers danced very well like professional dancers along with other dancers so that the security forces did not suspect anything. After the incident even though the bodyguards were so shocked that they were unable to react to catch the culprit who fled quickly.

As a sect, the Hashashin existed before the arrival of the first crusaders. they continued to develop before and during the conflict caused by the arrival of the crusaders in Syria. their reputation as assassins was widespread in the area and later used by European aristocrats. are the nobles who will later spread stories about assassins in the western world.

One famous story involves a ruler of Jerusalem. being under the fully armed knight escort of the ruler unsuspectingly greeted the group of Christian monks who passed by. Unexpectedly it was a hashashin in disguise who suddenly stabbed him twice to death. It is said that this work was an order from European rulers who wanted to seize power over the city.

The Hashashin's influence and sect collapsed when they broke the promise of peace by the Ilkhanate Mongols who began to rule the region. they wretched some of the Mongol trust officials and caused chaos in the city. The Mongol general also hated a lot when he was sent cakes and daggers to his men. therefore the Mongols were ordered to destroy all defenses held by the Hashashin.

After the Mongol rule retreated, the remaining sects were unable to revive themselves as competition with other powers in the region grew tighter. the only survivors were assassins employed by the sultan, amir, shah or other ruler who was always fighting. Finally, before disappearing from history, they were recorded as complaining about labor wages, which turned out that their wages were equalized by the sultan even though the level of difficulty of each target was different.