Hashashim, also known as the Order of Assassins, were the Nizari Isma’ilis in the mountains of Persia and Syria between about 1090 to 1275. The name was not used by the Nizaris themselves, but was given to them by their opponents in Syria. Nizarism formed in the late 11th century after a split within Isma’ilism, a branch of Shia Islam. While “Assassins” typically refers to the entire sect, only a group of acolytes known as the fida’i actually engaged in conflict. Lacking their own army, the Nizari relied on these warriors to carry out espionage and assassinations of key enemy figures, and over the course of 300 years they killed two caliphs, and many viziers, sultans, and Crusader leaders.
Another Deviants CD came out in 1996 called Fragments of Broken Probes and is more of a compilation, with an excerpt from Beginning of the End (the horror flick about giant grasshoppers) and a description of the Tunguska event, where a comet or asteroid exploded over Siberia in 1908 (a much smaller but similar explosion in Russia was caught on video last year) interspersed among Deviants recordings from a variety of sources. They include what might be their best live performance, of “Half-Priced Drinks”; and other treats include “Outrageous Contagious”, “Broken Statue” and “Shock Horror”. The closing track, a monologue called “Dog Poet” name-checks the Hashashim – whence came the words “hashish” and “assassin” – and the Anti-Christ in its wild tale of adventures on the outer fringes of humanity.
