Editing Ismailism (section)

====The Hashasheen / Assassiyoon====
{{Main|Order of Assassins}}

Surrounded by the Abbasids and other hostile powers and low in numbers, Hassan-i Sabbah devised a way to attack the Isma'ili enemies with minimal losses. Using the method of assassination, he ordered the murders of Sunni scholars and politicians who he felt threatened the Isma'ilis. Knives and daggers were used to kill, and sometimes as a warning, a knife would be placed on the pillow of a Sunni, who understood the message to mean that he was marked for death.<ref name="Alamut">{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Campbell |title=The Assassins of Alamut |year=2004 |page=84}}</ref> When an assassination was actually carried out, the Hashasheen would not be allowed to run away; instead, to strike further fear into the enemy, they would stand near the victim without showing any emotion and departed only when the body was discovered. This further increased the ruthless reputation of the Hashasheen throughout Sunni-controlled lands.<ref name="Alamut" />

The English word ''assassins'' is said to have been derived from the Arabic word ''Hasaseen'' meaning annihilators as mentioned in Quran 3:152 or [[Hashasheen]] meaning both "those who use hashish" and "throat slitters" in [[Egyptian Arabic]] dialect, and one of the Shia Ismaili sects in the Syria of the eleventh century.<ref name="cleiden">{{cite journal |last=Leiden |first=Carl |title=Assassination in the Middle East |journal=Transaction |date=May 1969 |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=20–23 }}</ref>