The Secret Order of Assassins The Struggle of the Early Nizari Ismai'lis Against the Islamic World Marshall G. S. Hodgson "The essential work on the Assassins."--Times Literary Supplement The sect known as "the Assassins," a corruption of an Arabic word that means hashish smoker, is familiar to the West as a mystical cult of killers led by the "Man in the Mountain" encountered by the Crusaders. But it was not defeat at the hands of Christians that ended more than a century of Assassin rule; it was the massive and brutal invasion of Mongols from the East who conquered Assassin strong...