Naruto

The term 'Assassin' derives from the Persian word Hashshashin (Ar: اشون \ جماعة الحشاشين), a militant Ismaili Persian Muslim sect, active in the Northern parts of Iran (Alamut) from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. This mystic secret society killed members of the Abbasid and Seljuq élite for political and religious reasons.

It is believed that the assassins were under the influence of hashish and opium during their killings or during their indoctrination, and that assassin derives from hasishin, the influence of the drugs. However, this is only partly true. At the time of their existence "Hashashins" were people who sold medicine. The region of Alamut was filled with plants rich with natural medicine and many of the residence of that region made a living by selling those plants at Bazaars (Marketplaces) that were called Bazare Hashashin (The medicine market). Due to their advance medicine during that period, they were able to offer free health care to their citizens. Also many people in Iran would travel to the region of Alamut to get cured for unknown illnesses.

The earliest known literary use of the term "assassination" is in The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).