Who is assassins

However, it is possible to trace the beginnings of the cult back to its first Grandmaster, Hassan-i Sabbah s— A passionate devotee of Isma'ili beliefs, Hassan-i Sabbah was well-liked throughout Cairo , Syria and most of the Middle East by other Isma'ili, which led to a number of people becoming his followers.

Using his fame and popularity, Sabbah founded the Order of the Assassins. While his motives for founding this order are ultimately unknown, it was said to be all for his own political and personal gain and to also exact vengeance on his enemies. Because of the unrest in the Holy Land caused by the Crusades , Hassan-i Sabbah found himself not only fighting for power with other Muslims, but also with the invading Christian forces.

After creating the Order, Sabbah searched for a location that would be fit for a sturdy headquarters and decided on the fortress at Alamut in what is now northwestern Iran. It is still disputed whether Sabbah built the fortress himself or if it was already built at the time of his arrival. In either case, Sabbah adapted the fortress to suit his needs not only for defense from hostile forces, but also for indoctrination of his followers. After laying claim to the fortress at Alamut, Sabbah began expanding his influence outwards to nearby towns and districts, using his agents to gain political favour and to intimidate the local populations.

Spending most of his days at Alamut working on religious works and doctrines for his Order, Sabbah would never leave his fortress again in his lifetime. He had established a secret society of deadly assassins, which was built in a hierarchical structure.

It was the Lasiqs who were trained to become some of the most feared assassins, or as they were called, "Fida'i" self-sacrificing agent , in the known world. It is, however, unknown how Hassan-i-Sabbah was able to get his "Fida'in" to perform with such fervent loyalty.

One theory, possibly the best known but also the most criticized, comes from the reports of Marco Polo during his travels to the Orient.

He recounts a story he heard, of the "Old Man of the Mountain" Sabbah who would drug his young followers with hashish , lead them to a "paradise", and then claim that only he had the means to allow for their return.

Perceiving that Sabbah was either a prophet or magician, his disciples, believing that only he could return them to "paradise", were fully committed to his cause and willing to carry out his every request. With his new weapons, Sabbah began to order assassinations, ranging from politicians to great generals. Assassins would rarely attack ordinary citizens though, and tended not to be hostile towards them. All Hashashin were trained in both the art of combat and in the study of religion, believing that they were on a jihad and were religious warriors.

Some [ who? Although the "Fida'yin" were the lowest rank in Sabbah's order and only used as expendable pawns to do the Grandmaster's bidding, much time and many resources were put into training them. The Assassins were generally young in age, giving them the physical strength and stamina which would be required to carry out these murders. However, physical prowess was not the only trait that was required to be a "Fida'i".

To get to their targets, the Assassins had to be patient, cold, and calculating. They were generally intelligent and well-read because they were required to possess not only knowledge about their enemy, but his or her culture and their native language. They were trained by their masters to disguise themselves and sneak into enemy territory to perform the assassinations, instead of simply attacking their target outright.

The Assassins were finally linked by the 19th century orientalist scholar Silvestre de Sacy to the Arabic hashish using their variant names assassin and assissini in the 19th century.

Citing the example of one of the first written applications of the Arabic term hashish to the Ismailis by 13th century historian Abu Shama, de Sacy demonstrated its connection to the name given to the Ismailis throughout Western scholarship. This label was quickly adopted by anti-Ismaili historians and applied to the Ismailis of Syria and Persia.

The spread of the term was further facilitated through military encounters between the Nizaris and the Crusaders , whose chroniclers adopted the term and disseminated it across Europe. During the medieval period, Western scholarship on the Ismailis contributed to the popular view of the community as a radical sect of assassins, believed to be trained for the precise murder of their adversaries. By the 14th century, European scholarship on the topic had not advanced much beyond the work and tales from the Crusaders.

While he assembled the accounts of many Western travellers, the author failed to explain the etymology of the term Assassin. According to Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf : Their contemporaries in the Muslim world would call them hash-ishiyun , "hashish-smokers"; some orientalists thought that this was the origin of the word "assassin", which in many European languages was more terrifying yet The truth is different.

Send us feedback. See more words from the same year. Accessed 12 Nov. More Definitions for assassin. See the full definition for assassin in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of assassin for Spanish Speakers.

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Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history. See More. Thus, security was another reason for the Assassins' policy of stealth. Despite this, it was not unknown for Assassins even after the High Middle Ages to resort to open conflict, and these uncommon tactics could range from the instigation of riots, employment of mercenaries, or even a direct militaristic assault on enemy bases.

As a result, at first much of their activities revolved only around the elimination or sabotage of those they believed threatened the rights of humanity. With their dream that humanity arrive at utopia through free will, their way of guidance was often indirect, with an emphasis on individuals learning through self-experience.

For instance, their way of teaching Ezio against the path of vengeance involved allowing him to experience that journey personally. Over time, the brotherhood's policies evolved and during the Italian Renaissance , the Assassins under the leadership of Ezio Auditore became more active at winning the hearts of the public.

Accordingly, the Assassins' campaign in Rome was prolific in rehabilitating a city crumbling under the weight of Borgia corruption, such as funding renovations, sponsoring merchants, and rescuing civilians. The order continued to adapt and reform gradually through the centuries, and by the 20th century, their activities began to shift over to non-violent social reforms rather than aggressive enforcement.

The transition was tenuous: certain branches, such as the fledgling branch established in North America by Achilles Davenport and the Assassin-sponsored movement Narodnaya Volya engaged in operations smacking of terrorism. It was only after World War II that the Assassins definitively refocused their activities towards inspiring change through example.

Assassinations became far rarer, and until the Great Purge of , the shadow war with the Templars defused to one waged through covert tampering of political elections instead. After declaring oneself an Assassin under the Creed, a trainee would be tested to prove their worth over an unspecified period of time. For example, Ezio was tasked with hunting down Templar conspirators over years before he was officially inducted, [1] whereas Assassin apprentices had to gain enough experience in their contract missions across the world before joining the Assassins Guild as fully-fledged members.

The Assassins spent their entire lives training to kill. Combat skills were essential and focused on bladed weaponry. However, the most important consideration in the Assassins' training was concealment. Stealth was the greatest weapon of the Assassins, and everything about their lives emphasized a devotion to it. Another significant focus of an Assassin's training was maneuverability. By the time an Assassin reached the rank of Master Assassin, they were also a master of freerunning , an early form of parkour extensively utilized by the Assassins.

Widely seen as alien by the general populace, this method of movement allowed the Assassins to reach areas not otherwise accessible. Freerunning gave the Assassins a significant advantage over nearly all of their enemies and city guards , and could be used to traverse crowded urban environments quickly and efficiently.

However, not all Assassins were trained from birth, particularly those recruited later in life. Trainees had to learn the ways of their craft through personal experience and the teachings from other Assassins in the field. Unlike certain other factions, the Assassins did not have a specific style of fighting.

Aside from their signature Hidden Blade, each branch used weapons and fighting styles native to the area. For example, the Ottoman Assassins favored curved daggers, [3] while the Chinese Assassins were trained in wushu. Throughout the ages, the Brotherhood has had many weapons at its disposal. During ancient times, the Assassins did not have any standard attire or equipment, but ancient Assassins were known for using spears , poisons , bows , and other armaments.

This age also marked the appearance of the Assassins' signature weapon, the Hidden Blade , a retractable blade first conceptualized by Darius. Other weapons used by the Assassins included swords, short blades and throwing knives , though the Order forbade the use of poison as "a coward's tool". These included the Poison Blade , the Hidden Gun , and new types of assassinations which dramatically altered the practices of the Order.

From the Renaissance onward, the Assassins' equipment did not change significantly, but some weapons were added to their arsenal. The use of armor over robes had become popular, although the white robes with beaked hoods persisted. Ezio Auditore and other Italian Assassins used a Hidden Gun, crossbow , poison darts , smoke bombs , and a secondary Hidden Blade, among more conventional weapons like swords and knives.

Still others, such as the Caribbean Assassins , did not have beaked hoods as part of their standard attire. Under the Mentorship of the Sikh Jayadeep Mir , the British Brotherhood adopted the fear tactics developed by the Indian Brotherhood , began utilizing fear tactics through the employment of hallucinogens and fear bombs.

By scaring enemies from battle, the Indian and British Assassins could avoid being forced to kill them, thereby mitigating casualties.

In modern times, Assassins followed the rest of society into the new era. As technology progressed, guns became commonplace and computers became prevalent, with Assassins like Rebecca Crane and Hannah Mueller specializing in their use. While the classical Assassin is a parkour expert who specializes in eliminating targets in stealth operations, not all Assassins fit this archetypal mold.

These are commonly termed field agents, [5] but more than a paramilitary organization, the Assassin Brotherhood was a transnational state within itself, composed of entire families born into the order with a diverse range of skill sets, not all of them combat-oriented. Even among Assassins primarily trained for combat roles, there has been much variation in specialization.

The Italian Brotherhood of the early 16th century deployed teams such as that of Francesco Vecellio which had among its members Tessa Varzi , a herbalist with an unrivaled knowledge of concocting poisons, and Cipriano Enu , a masterful archer. During the Renaissance in the Italian peninsula some assassins like Lo Sparviero were typed as Berserker, Shadowblade, Trickster, Thief, or some dual combination there of. Berserkers focused on attack and defense, using heavy damage to stun, knock over, and shred armor of multiple opponents at a time, and were equipped with splinter bombs to cause bleeding.

Shadowblades were masters of stealth, able to remain incognito for longer periods while under scrutiny, using throwing knives to silence and blind enemies or deal precision strikes, and smokbombs to extricate themselves from battle. Trickster were skilled in guile and creating diversions, able to disguise themselves as guards, lure or distract targets with whistling or coins, and employed sticky bombs and the explosive jack in the box to kill from a distance.

Thieves were adept pickpocket who used sand and fast strikes to blind and overwhelm opponents, relied on precision and agility to reduce noteriety and fall damage, and set trip-wire bombs to frighten and cause bleeding.

Depending on the branch, specializations differed and could be more formalized. During the era of the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish Brotherhood classified its agents as either Shadow, Enforcer, or Specialist with each further broken down into three subdivisions. Shadows could focus their training more exclusively towards pure stealth, the art of assassination, or freerunning.

Enforcers were warriors whose approach could be geared more towards an offensive style, defensive style, or employing crowd control tactics. Specialists provided field support as medics, saboteurs who disarmed traps, or in other miscellaneous roles. The French Brotherhood utilized a similar system of nine classes which recognized a wide range of operational styles. Derived from four parameters, combat, stealth, parkour, and tactics i. These classes are as follows: [6] [19]. These classes were not necessarily rigid, serving more as templates which permitted flexibility to accommodate the unique skills and sensibilities of French Assassins.

They illustrate that although mainstream Assassin methodology mandated discretion, there has historically been a recognition of the need for specialized roles which did not conform strictly with the classical approach. Exceptions were allowed for Assassins to be battle specialists, such as the Spanish Enforcers or French Brawlers, who confronted enemies aggressively and directly, particularly as part of a larger strategem to divert attention away from fellow Assassins in charge of stealth infiltration.

Historically, Assassins always showed great respect for the dead. Their own were buried in crypts or large tombs, wrapped in a cloth shroud with their red sash spread across the body.

The greatest Assassins were venerated in large tombs and entombed within sarcophagi, their likeness emblazoned on the lid and their symbol venerated in the flags of the tomb.