Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AS-SAS'SINS, n.

In Syria, a tribe or clan called Ismaelians, Batanists or Batenians. They originated in Persia about the year 1090; whence a colony migrated and settled on the mountains of Lebanon, and were remarkable for their assassinations. Their religion was a compound of Magianism, Judaism, and Christianity. One article of their creed was, that the Holy Spirit resided in their chief, and that his orders proceeded from God himself. He was called Scheik, and is better known by the denomination of old man of the mountain. This barbarous chieftain and his followers spread terror among nations far and near, for almost two centuries, when the tribe was subdued by Sultan Bibaris. – Encyc.