Medieval assassins were volunteers for whom survival was disgraceful

Evidence

But a few points emerge. One, fairly obvious, is that the assassin is a dedicated volunteer; this is no work for conscripts or mercenaries. Another is that he does not expect—or perhaps even desire—to survive his mission. According to some accounts it was considered disgraceful for him to survive. He had to get up close to his victim and made no attempt to escape—not that there would have been much chance anyway. The story is told of one who survived and escaped; his mother went into mourning in shame for her son. The medieval Persian author Hamdullah Mustawfi tells us that among these people, to commit no murder was regarded as a great sin. The suicide bomber, so to speak, has a long history. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 564

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: examining how culturally variable ‘honorable death’ norms in combat/martyrdom traditions shape who is entrusted with extreme missions.