ASSASSIN

ASSASSIN, a Person who kills another with the Advantage either of an Inequality in the Weapons, or by meansof the Situation of the Place, or by attacking him at unawares. See MURDER, DUEL, etc. The Word Assassin is said, by some, to have been brought from the Levant, where it took its Rise from a certainPrince of the Family of the Arsacides, popularly called Assassins, living in a Castle between Antioch and Damascus,and bringing up a number of young Men, ready to pay ablind Obedience to his Commands; whom he employed in murdering the Princes with whom he was at Enmity. See ARSACIDES.



The Jew Benjamin, in his Itinerary, places them near Mount Lebanon; and calls them in Hebrew, from the Arabic word راص, El Asisin, which shows that the Namedid not come from Arsacide, but from the Arabic اسيس,Asis, Insidiator, a Person who lies in Ambush.

The Assassins, or Assassinians, Assassinii,abovementioned, possessed eight or twelve cities around Alamut: They chose themselves a king, whom they called the Old Man of the Mountain. In 1213, they assassinated Conrad of Montferrat. They were Muslims, but paid some tribute to the Knights Templars.—The supporters of the Assassins were condemned by the Council of Lyons, and under Pope Innocent IV in 1256.—The Mongols overcame them, and killed their old Man of the Mountain in 1256; upon which the faction became extinct.

ASSASSIN