Paragraf Test-1 Soru=29

The group of killers referred to in the passage were originally called by a name meaning ........ .

The adoption of assassination as a political weapon derives from the Islamic world of the 11th
century. A secret order of Muslims was founded in Persia in about 1090 by a man named Hasan-e
Sabbah. After gaining control of a mountain fortress near the Caspian Sea, Hasan founded a sect to
fight his political enemies by means of murder. Hasan and his followers were known as Nizaris and
belonged to the Isma'ili branch of Islam. For two centuries this secret organisation terrorised the
Middle East. Hasan, who gained the nickname Old Man of the Mountains from his fortress hideaway,
is said to have given his followers a vision-inducing drug called hashish, made from Indian hemp. The
visions of Islamic paradise brought on by the drug persuaded his disciples that they would have a
glorious afterlife if they followed Hasan's orders and killed his enemies. The killers were called
Hashshashin, the plural of a word meaning "one who smokes hashish." This name was eventually
corrupted into its present form, Assassins.