Note 121 — Chapter XII · A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT (VAN AND THE ARMENIANS)

The word “Fedai” is Persian, and comes from a root that means sacrifice, and implies “one who sacrifices himself for a cause.” Thus a volunteer in a forlorn hope would be a Fedai; and the term was originally applied to the devoted Assassins of the “Old Man of the Mountain” in crusading days. Ottomans usually called the revolutionaries simply “brigands.” A third society, the Huntchak, was worked on the same lines as the Tashnak, and was incorporated with it later.