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HASHistory

When it comes to the history of hashish, the facts are as fascinating as the folklore.

ISLAMIC ORIGINS It’s believed that the word hashish derives from the Arabic root word hasis, meaning dried grass or herb. The first historical records of hashish date back to the “Golden Age of Islam” in ancient Persia – sometime between the writing of the Koran in 632 and 900 CE. Unlike alcohol, which was forbidden by the Koran as a khmar (intoxicant), Cannabis was originally considered a medicine and therefore not prohibited.

The earliest written reference to hashish appears to be in “The Book of Poisons” – a toxicology/astrology treatise by Iraqi alchemist Ibn Wahshiyya published in the 10th century. In it, Wahshiyya refers to a toxic concoction containing Cannabis extract and other aromatic herbs, which he claimed was lethal when inhaled. Another, more famous text from that period in which hashish is mentioned is the fabled “1001 Arabian Nights,” which even includes a story entitled “The Tale of the Hashish Eater.”

Sufi monks viewed hashish as a sacrament.

THE SUFI

The earliest group to embrace hashish were the Sufis – a mystical branch of Islam that arose during the 8th century. Once called “the hippies of the Arab world,” Sufi monks believed that hashish assisted in elevating consciousness to achieve communion with Allah. For them, eating hashish was, according to one Muslim critic, “an act of worship.”

One Sufi legend even claimed that it was one of the sect’s founders, Shayk Haydar, who

Hashish Smokers (1887) GAETANO PREVIATI

first discovered hashish. According to the story, after 10 years of reclusivity in his mountaintop monastery, Haydar ventured into the desert, where he discovered a “sparkling” plant and ate it. He returned to the monastery in a euphoric state, shared the plant’s magical properties with his fellow monks, then swore them to secrecy about it. While there’s no evidence that Haydar actually made or used hashish, the Sufis did eventually embrace it as a sacrament.

THE HASHASHIN

Though Cannabis resin was referenced centuries earlier, the word “hashish” wasn’t reportedly seen in print until 1123 – in an Egyptian pamphlet accusing a group called the Nazari of being “hashish-eaters” (a derogatory term used to denote undesirables). Another mystical branch of Islam founded in 1090, the Nazari were based in a mountaintop fortress in northern Iran called Alamut Castle and ruled over by their founder, Hassan-i Sabbah – a.k.a. “The Old Man of the Mountain.” Sabbah created an elite squadron of warrior-spies called the Fidai, who he sent out on covert espionage and murder missions. The Fidai were allegedly so devoted to him that they’d Hassan-i Sabbah (above), and The Fidai at Alamut.

sacrifice their lives at his command. Sabbah allegedly brainwashed his fanatics by feeding them copious amounts of hashish – a practice that supposedly earned them their notorious nickname: Hashashin (Arabic for “hashish users”), from which we derive the modern word “assassin.” In fact, no evidence exists that they ever used hash; nevertheless, the legend stuck – thanks in part to the writings of Marco Polo.

Though Genghis Khan’s armies killed off the Hashashin in 1256, they didn’t kill hashish’s appeal; on the contrary, many Arab historians credit the Mongols’ invasions – and the resulting Sufi refugees – for spreading hashish throughout Iraq, Syria, and Egypt during the 13th century.

INTO EGYPT

The first record of hashish in Egypt comes from a Spanish-born Muslim botanist named Ibn al-Baytar, who in 1227 observed Egyptian Sufis swallowing charas balls in Cairo. There was a park there called the Gardens of Kafur where Sufis and other poor stoners congregated, grew Cannabis and made hashish – that is, until 1266, when King al-Zahir Babar outlawed hashish, destroyed the gardens, and threatened anyone caught with it with prison and “de-teething.” Eventually, concerns over moral decline led Sunni authorities to declare hashish illegal under Islamic law, essentially condemning the Sufi as heretics. Regardless, hashish use continued to expand; it wasn’t until four centuries later, however, that it would make its mark on Europe.

ENTRÉE FRANCE

In 1798, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. Since alcohol was banned in the Muslim country, his soldiers had no access to wine and instead adopted hashish as their intoxicant of choice. Hashish smoking among the troops became such a problem that in October 1800, General Jacques-François Menou banned Cannabis across Egypt. But when the French troops were driven out by Anglo-Ottoman forces in 1801, they brought the hash back home with them.

By that time, most French citizens had heard of hashish, thanks to Antoine Galland’s translation of “The 1001 Arabian Nights” published a century earlier. The stories sparked a romantic fascination with hashish in France’s collective imagination. Over the next two centuries, that love affair only grew – fueling a creative explosion that culminated in the formation of the infamous Club des Hashischins.

Founded in 1844, Les Club des Hashischins was a private social club in Paris where the literary, artistic, and intellectual elite of the day would gather to get high. Dressed in Arabic attire, they’d hold séances and drink coffee laced with a green paste called dawamesk made with butter, nuts, spices, and of course, hashish.

Grand meeting room at Les Club des Hashischins.

The counterculture movement of the 1960s introduced hashish to the New World.

induced violence and insanity, avoided studying hashish. This kind of misinformation helped bring an end to the burgeoning medical marijuana field and usher in the new age of global prohibition instituted in the 20th century.

While most associate America as the architect of pot prohibition, it was actually Egypt that originally led the charge for its international embargo. Both Egypt and the US attempted (unsuccessfully) to add hashish to the list of prohibited drugs outlined in the League of Nations’ International Opium Conventions of 1912 and 1925. Nevertheless, by the late 1920s, nearly 60 countries had outlawed hashish.

THE HIPPIE TRAIL

The counterculture movement of the 1960s introduced hashish to the New World. Starting in the late ‘50s, thousands of beatniks and Eden Hash Center—a popular hippies embarked on pilgrimages to the great hashish capitals of stop on The Hippie Trail. the East in search of primo smoke – rechristening the old Silk Road WORLD OF CANNABIS MUSEUM as “The Hippie Trail.” Some, like Travis Ashbrook of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, smuggled tons of hash back to the US to power the psychedelic revolution. Others brought the art of hash making into new areas, like Morocco; though Cannabis had been grown in the region for centuries, until then it had only been smoked with tobacco. In the decades that followed, however, Morocco’s Rif Valley would become the world’s largest producer of hashish. Just as the Hippie Trail was subsiding, Amsterdam – which had recently undergone its own social revolution – became the new hub for hashish. Hash from all over the world was smuggled in and sold at the city’s hundreds of Cannabis coffeeshops. It was amidst this happening hash scene that another former Hippie Trail traveler by the name of Mila Jansen invented a revolutionary new resin collection method that used ice water rather than hand-scraping or dry sieving – creating the first ever “bubble hash” (aka ice hash, full-melt) and earning her the honorific “Hash Queen.”

Hashish assortment lithograph (1970). WORLD OF CANNABIS MUSEUM

HASHISH TODAY Though still widely popular in Europe, demand for hashish in the US has declined dramatically over the past few decades – due largely to the rise of the more potent hydrocarbon concentrates (dabs). In fact, you’d be hard-pressed (pun intended) to find any traditional hash for sale in US dispensaries, with one notable exception: the old-school hashish made by Frenchy Cannoli. Like those old Hippie Trail pilgrims, Frenchy spent his youth traveling to many of the world’s great hash centers and mastering the classic techniques, which he now teaches to a new generation with his “Lost Art of the Hashishin” workshop series. Thanks to the passion of master hashishin like him, hashish’s history will undoubtedly live on for centuries more.

Demand for hashish in the US has declined dramatically over the past few decades.

FROM PRESCRIPTION TO PROHIBITION

During the 19th century, medical research and experimentation with Cannabis flourished across Europe. Studies were written, compounds were extracted, and a number of hashish-derived remedies were formulated. But most medical professionals, still operating under old misconceptions that it

For more on the history of hash, listen to Episode #13 of our podcast at worldofcannabis.museum/cannthropology.

Story and photos originally published on worldofcannabis.museum and reprinted with permission.