Dawn Images

Iranian authorities have banned an Egyptian TV series depicting a medieval Persian figure over historical “distortions” and “a biased approach”, state media reported on Sunday.

The Assassins, or El-Hashashin in Arabic, recounts the story of Hassan bin Sabbah, the controversial founder of a sect known for political assassinations during the 11th century.

The 30-episode series about Sabbah and his band of assassins, who operated out of mountain bases in northern and western Iran, was first broadcast during Ramazan.

The show has since gained popularity across the Middle East, but the head of Tehran’s audiovisual media regulatory body, Mehdi Seifi, said that “the broadcast of El-Hashashin series… is no longer approved in Iran.”

“Its narrative of Islamic history includes many distortions and it seems to have been produced with a biased political approach,” Seifi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, without elaborating.

It said the series shows “a false image of Iranians” and quoted experts who argued it sought to link Iranians to the “inception of terrorism”.

Another news agency, ISNA, said the series was a “perfect example” of the “modification and falsification of truth”.

Originally published in Dawn, April 29th, 2024