I just finished a great little book; or, more of a pamphlet. The Devil's Deception (Talbees Iblees).

Hoo boy, those religious type know how to tear into people. This one is a translation of a twelfth century text that is a attack on Shi'a, specifically, and Sufi beliefs. Man does he talk some smack. It's interesting to read these responses from the time periods about all these things I have read that are so academic. Responses that consistently refer to people being misled by the devil or what ever great evil there is.

This one manages to tie all of its criticism up in the end with the Assassins. Yes those wonderful boogey men of yore. "They did drugs", "They killed wantonly". Pretty much everything bad that could be said about them has been. But really, what do we know?

Well, first off, they didn't smoke hash, at least not in any large way or as some sort of indoctrination. They got their name from being Assassiyun, followers of the assass, the base or foundation. strangely similar to todays al Qaida in nomenclature. Really there are a lot of similarities between the time of the crusades and now. A major one of these is the Sunni-Shi'a internecine warfare.