Hashish (/həˈʃiːʃ/ ⓘ; from Arabic ḥašiš 'hay'), usually abbreviated as hash, is a compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the marijuana flowers.

[6] Like many recreational drugs, multiple synonyms and alternative names for hashish exist, and vary greatly depending on the country and native language.

[7] Hashish is a cannabis concentrate product composed of compressed or purified preparations of stalked resin glands, called trichomes, from the plant.

It is defined by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (Schedule I and IV) as "the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from the cannabis plant".

[14] The cult of Nizari militants which emerged after the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate is commonly called the sect of the Assassins—a corruption of hashishin, Arabic for "hashish-smokers."

[16] In 1596, Dutchman Jan Huyghen van Linschoten spent three pages on "Bangue" (bhang) in his historic work documenting his journeys in the East.

[3] The Napoleonic campaigns introduced French troops to hashish in Egypt and the first description of its useful stems was in 1830 by pharmacist and botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck.

[3] In 1839, O'Shaughnessy wrote a comprehensive study of Himalayan hemp, which was recognised by the European school of medicine and describes hashish as relief for cramps and causing the disappearance of certain symptoms from afflictions such as rabies, cholera, and tetanus.

Around the same time, American author Fitz Hugh Ludlow wrote the 1857 book The Hasheesh Eater about his youthful experiences, both positive and negative, with the drug.

[3] Hashish played a significant role in the treatment of pain, migraine, dysmenorrhea, pertussis, asthma and insomnia in Europe and USA towards the end of the 19th century.

Rare applications included stomach ache, depression, diarrhea, diminished appetite, pruritus, hemorrhage, Basedow syndrome and malaria.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of hashish in Europe came from Kashmir and other parts of India, Afghanistan, as well as Greece, Syria, Nepal, Lebanon, and Turkey.

In Greece, Hashish was prevalent in the early decades of the 20th century, and although locally produced for hundreds of years prior, it reached its peak with the coming of two and a half million Greek refugees, expelled from Turkey following the disastrous 1919-21 war.

This gave rise to a substantial urban underclass and sub culture of hashish smokers called "hasiklithes", and a musical genre "rembetika" (oriental sounding), "urban blues" played on the bouzouki, tzoura, and oriental instruments such as the baglama, outi (oud) and kanonaki (kanun) that spoke of life as a hashish user in the "tekethes", as well as about life as refugees, society's unfairness, lack of financial opportunities, prejudice against the refugees, and the deceit of lovers and others in the community.

In succeeding decades, there was a strong resurgence in Greece of "rembetika" music with the songs of the rembetes and hasiklithes being continually performed publicly by many including the younger generation, as a form of cultural heritage, and have gained respectability and popularity for their frank expressions of that period, and Greek society in general.

][20] It is believed that massive hashish production for international trade originated in Morocco during the 1960s, where the cannabis plant was widely available.

[21][22] Hashish remains in high demand in most of the world while quality continues to increase, due to many Moroccan and western farmers in Morocco and other hash producing countries using more advanced cultivation methods as well as cultivating further developed cannabis strains which increases yields greatly, as well as improving resin quality with higher ratios of psychoactive ingredients (THC).

[citation needed] A tastier, smoother and more aromatic terpenes and flavonoids profile is seen as an indicator of a significant rise in hashish quality in more recent years.

Hashish production in Spain has also become more popular and is on the rise, however the demand for relatively cheap and high-quality Moroccan hash is still extremely high.

[3] Hashish is made from cannabinoid-rich glandular hairs known as trichomes, as well as varying amounts of cannabis flower and leaf fragments.

Hashish samples from India, Lebanon and Morocco confiscated in Europe and Israel in 2005 contained all appreciable amounts of cannabidiol (CBD), and cannabinol (CBN), in addition to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

[24] In a study conducted in 2014 by Jean-Jaques Filippi, Marie Marchini, Céline Charvoz, Laurence Dujourdy and Nicolas Baldovini (Multidimensional analysis of cannabis volatile constituents: Identification of 5,5-dimethyl-1-vinylbicyclo[2.1.1]hexane as a volatile marker of hashish, the resin of Cannabis sativa L.) the researchers linked the characteristic flavour of hashish with a rearrangement of myrcene caused during the process of manufacture.

Traditionally this was, and still is, done in remote locations by pressing or rubbing the flowering plant between two hands and then forming the sticky resins into a small ball of hashish called charas.

[29] Mechanical separation methods use physical action to remove the trichomes from the dried plant material, such as sieving through a screen by hand or in motorized tumblers.

When a high level of pure THC is present, the end product will be almost transparent and will start to melt at the point of human contact.

[34] Tiny pieces of leaf matter may be accidentally or even purposely added; adulterants introduced when the hashish is being produced will reduce the purity of the material and often resulting in green finished product.