Peter Lamborn Wilson - Hashisheen

Peter Lamborn Wilson plays several selections from a CD he organized with Bill Laswell. The CD, titled "Hashisheen: End of Law," is a collection of readings about the myth of an ancient Islamic sect known as The Assassins, often thought to be associated with hashish. Between listenings, Wilson comments on the sources of texts and gives some substantial background.

"The Assassins, a medieval Persian sect of esoteric terrorists, founded in 1090 AD by Hasan-i Sabbah "The Old Man of the Mountain" at the Rock of Alamut. Anyone who opposed their secret freethinking propaganda might be rubbed out by a fanatical hit-man. Hasan-i Sabbah built an exquisite garden at Alamut as a lure and reward for his secret agents -- according to legend he gave them hashish before showing them the garden, and told them it was Paradise. (The word "assassin" may come from hashisheen "user of grass.") The Resurrection was declared at Alamut, and the chains of the law were broken. "Nothing is true -- everything is permitted." From a network of mountain castles in Iran and Syria they opposed both Islam and the crusaders of the Christians, scandalizing the world with their lawless heresy, till they (and the garden of Alamut) were destroyed around 1257 by the Mongol hordes. Their religion still survives today." -- Peter Lamborn Wilson

MP3 Album: https://www.amazon.com/Hashisheen-end-Law-Bill-Laswell/dp/B0014S3W4I/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_22