THE ASSASSINS
This was an offshoot of the Ismaili sect (led by the Aga Khan today) founded c. 1090, by Hasan ibn al-Sabah when he captured the mountain fortress of Alamut (south of the Caspian Sea). Some have compared them to Al-Quaeda, but they were more Murder Incorporated than Al-Quaeda, since they would only target individual enemies who they considered dangerous, mostly their fellow Moslems, & not innocent bystanders.

There is a belief that they would drug naïve young Moslems, who would wake in the garden of the Assassins’ Persian mountain stronghold, believing that they were in Paradise. This would be theirs if they carried out an assassination as ordered by someone that they believed to be the Prophet himself. This may have been a story put about by their enemies. The word assassin itself is Arabic for hashish takers.

Alamut was destroyed by the Mongols on the way to Baghad (by a trick) & the Syrian branch of the sect was destroyed by Sultan Baybars I.