The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (271 page)

 
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rava
(defilement)
:

see
SAVA
.

 
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(Skt., ‘basis’). In Buddhist Sanskrit sources, a term used mainly in a philosophical sense to refer to the receptacle-consciousness (
alaya-vijñ
na
) as the basis or support of the other six consciousnesses (
vijñ
na
) or sensemodalities. Less commonly the term is used of the body itself as the substrate or support for conscious experience.

 
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(Fr., from Arab.,
ash
sh
, ‘one who consumes hashish’). An
Ism
‘
l
(Niz
r
) sect at the time of the
crusades
, founded by
al-
asan b. al-Sabbah
, who resorted to assassination supposedly under the influence of the drug (though the name
ash
sh
is not often used outside Syrian texts). Taking advantage of the confused conditions, the sect gained considerable strength, but was driven out of its mountain strongholds in the 13th cent. CE. The ruler of the Syrian assassins was known as
shaikh al-jabal
, ‘the Old Man of the Mountain’.