a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a treacherous surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed; "his assassins were hunted down like animals"; "assassinators of kings and emperors"
An assassin is a person who assassinates someone. He saw the shooting and memorised the number of the assassin's car. someone who murders an important person (assassinus, from hashshashin , from hashish). properly Nizriyyah Byname for any member of a sub-sect of Ismil Shite Muslims who operated in parts of Iran and Syria from the 11th to the 13th century. The order takes its name from the purported use of hashish to induce ecstatic visions of paradise among its devotees (hashshshn, "hashish smokers" whence is derived the English term) before they set out to face martyrdom. The Assassins operated out of series of mountain fortresses and, seeing assassination as a religious duty, engaged in a long campaign of murder against members of the Sunnite community, including numerous officials of the Abbsid and Seljq dynasties, and others. The Assassins' power was finally broken by the Mongols, who captured the great Assassin stronghold of Alamt in Iran in 1256. The Syrian branch was destroyed by the Mamlk Baybars I in 1271-73. Leadership of the Nizr order continued until modern times in the line of the Aga Khans, a family prominent worldwide as philanthropists and public servants