CANNABIS CULTURE – In different publications of A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, the 19^th century scholar John Kitto put forth two, potentially related, etymologies for “hashish”, through Hebrew terms Shesh, which originates in reference to some sort of “fibre plant”, and the possibly related word,  Eshishah, (E-shesh-ah?) which holds connotations of “syrup” or “unguent.”

SHESH… also SHESHI, translated fine linen in the Authorized Version, occurs twenty eight times in Exodus, once in Genesis, once in Proverbs, and three times in Ezekiel. Considerable doubts have, however, always been entertained respecting the true meaning of the word; some have thought it signified fine wool, others silk;the Arabs have translated it by words referring to colours in the passages of Ezekiel and of Proverbs. Some of the Rabbins state that it is the same word as that which denotes the number six, and that it refers to the number of threads of which the yarn was composed. … This interpretation, however, has satisfied but few….

Shesh… must… be taken into consideration. In several passages where we find the word used, we do not obtain any information respecting the plant; but it is clear it was spun by women (Exod. xxx. 25), was used as an article of clothing, also for hangings, and even for the sails of ships, as in Ezekiel xxvii. 7. It is evident from these facts that it must have been a plant known as cultivated in Egypt at the earliest period, and which, or its fibre, the Israelites were able to obtain even when in the desert. As cotton does not appear to have been known at this very early period, we must seek for shesh among the other fibre yielding plants, such as flax and hemp. Both these are suited to the purpose, and were procurable in those countries at the times specified. Lexicographers do not give us much assistance in determining the point, from the little certainty in their inferences. The word shesh, however, appears to us to have a very great resemblance, with the exception of the aspirate, to the Arabic name of a plant, which, it is curious, was also one of those earliest cultivated for its fibre, namely hemp. Of this plant, one of the Arabic names is… husheesh, or the herb par excellence, the term being sometimes applied to the powdered leaves only, with which an intoxicating electuary is prepared.This name has long been known, and is thought by some to have given origin to our word assassin, or hassasin. Makrizi treats of the hemp in his account of the ancient pleasure grounds in the vicinity of Cairo, “famous above all for the sale of the hasheesha,, which is still greedily consumed bythe dregs of the people, and from the consumption of which sprung the excesses, which led to the name of ‘assassin’ being given to the Saracens in the holy wars.”

“Hemp is a plant which in the present day is extensively distributed, being cultivated in Europe, and extending through Persia to the southernmost parts of India. There is no doubt, therefore, that ‘it might easily have been cultivated in Egypt. We are, indeed, unable at present to prove that it was cultivated in Egypt at an early period, and used for making garments, but there is nothing improbable in its having been so. Indeed, as it was known to various Asiatic nations, it could hardly have been unknown to the Egyptians. Hemp might thus have been used at an early period, along with flax and wool, for making cloth for garments and for hangings, and would be much valued until cotton and the finer kinds of linen came to be known…. There is no doubt… that it might easily have been cultivated in Egypt.”

“…Indeed, as it was known to various Asiatic nations, it could hardly have been unknown to the Egyptians, and the similarity of the word hasheesh to the Arabic shesh would lead to a belief that they were acquainted with it…” (Kitto, 1856)

ESHISHAH, eshishah, once translated ‘flagon’ only: in three passages ‘flagon of wine’ and once ‘flagon’ with grapes joined to it in the original, as noticed in the margin (Hosea iii. 1). The Sept. renders it in four different ways, viz. … ‘a cake from the frying- pan’ (2 Sam. vi. 19); in another part, which narrates the same fact…, ‘a sweet cake of fine flour and honey’ (1 Chron. xvi. 3)… a cake made with raisins (Hos. iii. 1), *raisins here corresponding to ‘grapes’ in the Hebrew ; and by one copy…, ‘sweet cakes’ (Cant. ii. 5) ; but in others ‘unguents’ [!-emphasis added]. In the Targum to the Hebrew… tzappikhith. in Exod. xvi. 31, the Chaldee term is… [Hebrew] ethiilian, ‘a cake,’ rendered in our version by ‘wafers.’ Eshishah has been supposed to be connected with [Hebrew]… ash, ‘fire’ and to denote some sort of ‘sweet cake’ prepared with fire; but the second part of the word has not been hitherto explained.”

“Perhaps the following extract from Olearius (1637) may throw light on the kind of preparations denoted by shemarin [preserves or jellies]and eshishah:‘The Persians are permitted to make a sirrup of sweet wine, which they boyl till it be reduc’d to a sixth part, and be grown as thick as oyl. They call this drug duschab [debhash], and when they would take, of it, they dissolve it with water.’ ‘Sometimes they boyl the duschab so long that they reduce it into a paste, for the convenience of travellers, who cut it with a knife, and dissolve it in water.’ At Tabris they make a certain conserve of it, which they call halva… mixing therewith beaten almonds, flour, &c. They put this mixture into a long and narrow bag, and having set it under the press, they make of it a paste, which grows so hard that a man must have a hatchet to cut it. They make also a kind of conserve of it, much like a pudding, which they call zutzuch, thrusting through the middle of it a small cotton thread to keep the paste together… Amongst the presents received by the ambassadors there is enumerated ‘a bottle of scherab [syrup]or Persian wine’… This zutzuch is but a harsh corruption of the Hebrew eshishah, and is by others called hashish and achicha. Even this substance, in course of time, was converted into a medium of intoxication by means of drugs. Hemp is cultivated and used as a narcotic over all Arabia. The flowers, when mixed with tobacco, are called hashish. The higher classes eat it (hemp) in a jelly or paste called majoon mixed with honey, or other sweet drugs’ … De Sacy and Lane derive the name of the Eastern sect of ‘Assassins’ (Hashshusheen). ‘hemp- eaters,’ from their practice of using shahdanaj [Persian – cannabis] to fit them for their dreadful work. El-ldreesee, indeed, applies the term Hasheesheeyehto the ‘Assassins.’ (Kitto, 1845/1854)