Hash Through History
Ah, hash. To know it is to love it. Hash oil was my first experience with hash, and I still remember the extreme clarity of vision and thought that filled my brain. Ive always wondered about the history behind hash, and where the practice of dabbing came from so I looked into it.
Where Did Hash Come from?
The word hashish, which is the longer form of hash, is an Arabic word which means grass. According to the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, cannabis survived in the desert lands of the Middle East through the years by producing a thick, sticky resin that coats its leaves and flowers, and keeps the plants moisture from evaporating into the air. This resin is hashish. Some believe it came from Asia. There are numerous stories out there describing the men (who knows, it was probably a woman who found it) who discovered hashish although pre-Islamic Arabian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek people often consumed it.
Shayk Haydar
One story is about the founder of the Sufi or Tasawwuf religion, one Haydar. It is rumored that Haydar discovered hashish in 1155 A.D.E. Since Sufis usually take vows of celibacy and poverty, strict self-control is a major part of accessing spirituality within all ideas that might go well with enlightening hashish consumption. According to Patheos.com, some of the most beautiful literature in the world has been written by Sufis, who often focus on philosophy and rituals like writing poetry and music; Rumi, Hafiz, Ibn Arabi, and Anne Marie Shimmel are all famous Sufi writers. You may be familiar the whirling dervishes of the Turkish Sufi orders meditation through constant spinning. (I dont know about you, but I could compare the feeling of dizziness I get when spinning with the feeling of consuming hashish pretty easily.)
Hashish: From Revered to Sin
La Mota Grow Shop in San Sebastian, Spain, notes that consuming cannabis is a sin for 1.3 billion Muslims today, but during Islams Golden Era, it was an instrument of worship. Fakirs, ascetic men who travelled, encouraged the use of pressed cannabis resin, consumed through the mouth instead of smoked fakirs believed the high helped them get closer to God. According to La Mota, Shayk Haydar survived by eating cannabis and nothing else during the last 10 years of his life. I dont know if thats possible, but thats what the legends say. Of course, altered states are a favorite among the poverty-stricken; escaping into alternate realities is a great way to stop thinking about overdue bills bearing down on your head and the fact that you have nothing to eat. The Green Prophet Al-Khadir was an old fakir who dressed in green and could be found in solitary desert locations to help travellers and mystics meet with God.
The Hassasins of the 11th Century
Hassassins (as they were known by those who feared them), possibly the origin of all negative hashish associations, were an army of orphans that controlled the Fatim Caliphate during the 11th century. These Persians were raised from children to serve their leader and were rumored to have been fed enormous amounts of hashish, plied with women, and trained as assassins. When their leader, Hassan-i-Sabbah (a Sufi) died, he was a very powerful man. The hassassins were ultimately hashishs downfall for Muslims (and eventually the rest of the world), who began to associate its use with the criminal element Muslim legal scholars, or ulamas, banned hashish and cannabis consumption in the 13th century and made it a sin. According to the Abbot Arnold of Lubeck, Hassans followers (known as fidai which means devoted ones) were given hashish to raise them to a state of ecstasy or fallingtheir sorcerers draw near and exhibit to the sleepers phantasms, pleasures, and amusement. Then they promise that these delights will become perpetual if the orders given them are executed with the daggers provided. Fidai were patient daggermen, or assassins, who were feared throughout the Middle East.
Scheherazade and the Sultan
Scheherazade lived from A.D.E. 1000 to 1700 and is the character that The Thousand and One Nights is based on; one wife of a sultan who was to be put to death following her wedding night. She outsmarted the Sultan by telling him the The Tale of the Hashish Eater. The story follows a man who squanders his money on drugs and women, but escapes to a fantasy world by consuming hashish in a public bath and journeying to a world where he is a rich, handsome man attended by a sensuous slave girl. Every male hasheaters dream, right? His dreams were lucid, meaning that he was able to guide them and was still aware of his surroundings. In the Middle East, hashish was not, and is still not, considered the evil that it was in the United States for a little over a century.
Hashish Today
Today, of course, hashish is becoming more widely accepted in United States society, and many other places in the world. It can still be a bit of a mystery, however, and you may be confused by conflicting stories about its effect and side effects, as well as how best to consume it. There are several popular ways to consume cannabis resin, or hash, and they include dabbing, vaping, eating, and smoking. According to The Cannabist, the most accessible way for new users to consume concentrates is by crumbling them up on top of a pipe bowl or into a joint. There are many different types of hash, and Ive most often encountered the blond hash or the dark brown types of hash. (Also, hash will not dissolve if you put it in water, so if it does what you have is not hash.)
If you find that you enjoy consuming hash, you may try it on its own, say with a glass hash pipe, a vaporizer, or dabbing. A hash pipe is budget-friendly and easy to come by ...
