Baghdad (Arabic: بَغدَاد) is the capital of Iraq. It was founded in 762 by Al-Mansur, the second caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, as the state's new capital, replacing Anbar.[1]
During the Abbasid period, the city was one of the foremost cultural, intellectual, and economic centers of the world, presiding over the Islamic Golden Age. However, this status ended with its decimation[2] at the hands of Hülegü Khan and the Mongol Empire in 1258.[1]
History[]
Parthian Empire[]
After Khepri completed her initiation as an Egyptian Hidden One, the Mentor Bayek tasked her with establishing a home for the Hidden Ones in the area where Baghdad would later be founded, an order with which she complied, taking with her part of an Isu dagger.[3]
Islamic Golden Age[]
In 819, a teenage girl, Roshan, killed her abusive husband and escaped the confines of his ship. Treading through Baghdad, she found herself living at the House of Wisdom.[4] While there, she was mentored by the Sudanese engineer Bakhit, who helped her in her education.[5] Later, he offered her a job as his assistant, which she accepted. After months of living at the House of Wisdom, Roshan joined Bakhit as they rode together to Thatta, Pakistan, where the latter had beeen invited by the local prince to live and work for him.[6]
The House of Wisdom in the 9th century
Around 820, the Persian polymath al-Khwarizmi was appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom.[7] In his later years, one of his students in astronomy and mathematics was Basim Ibn Ishaq, who was a frequent visitor of the library in his youth.[8]
In 824, a section of the House of Wisdom was closed off for a meeting between the Martyrs of Agaunum and their customer, an agent of the Order of the Ancients. However, a trio of mercenaries, consisting of Roshan, the Roman pirate Dias, and the Persian mercenary Azadeh, attacked and killed the Martyrs. Their employer, the Hidden One Fuladh Al Haami, came to aid them and killed the customer. He then secured the case that the Martyrs were meant to deliver to the Order agent and invited Roshan to join the Hidden Ones, an offer she accepted.[9]
By the 860s, the Order had established a strong presence in Baghdad, controlling much of the inner workings of the Abbasid Caliphate and using the caliph Al-Mutawakkil as their puppet. Following the caliph's death in December 861,[10] a power struggle ensued between his son Abu 'Abdallah and nephew al-Musta'in, both of whom claimed the right to the throne.[11] The Order, secretly led by Abu 'Abdallah's mother and Al-Mutawakkil's former concubine Qabiha, took advantage of this feud to try and increase their influence[12] while simultaneously setting up several excavation sites around Baghdad to search for Isu artifacts.[13]
One of the Order's excavation sites near Baghdad
While Qabiha oversaw the Order's operations from the Round City,[14] her lieutenants controlled each of Baghdad's districts. In Harbiyah, Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob ruled the Soap Boiler's District and sought to acquire workers for the Order's dig sites, most of whom were either slaves purchased from the Caravanserai west of the city,[15] or enemies of the Caliphate that had been imprisoned in the Damascus Gate Prison.[16] In Abbasiyah, the scholar and Ancient Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa took over the House of Wisdom and, with the help of his subordinates Hassan and Zahra, aimed to build a machine called the Alruh using scavenged Isu technology, experimenting on human test subjects.[17]
In Karkh, the Ancient Ning, who had secured the position of the caliph's Treasurer, controlled the Bazaar and focused on acquiring various rare artifacts of foreign origin.[18] She had her subordinate Javed set up a blockade at the Baghdad harbor to seize all foreign goods,[19] and funded it through taxes paid by the merchants, which were raised by Suhail.[20] In Sharqiyah, Wasif al-Turki held control over the Caliphate's Turkic Army and collaborated with fellow Order members Nadir ibn Havid and Jasoor ibn Basil to fight the brewing Zanj Rebellion led by Ali ibn Muhammad.[21]
The Hidden Ones bureau in Harbiyah
The Hidden Ones of Alamut, seeking to halt the Order's plans, sent three of their members – Roshan, Fuladh Al Haami and Basim Ibn Ishaq – to Baghdad to investigate the Ancients' activities and assist Ali, who was an ally of the Hidden Ones.[22] They established bureaus in each of the city's districts and, over the course of several months, gradually unraveled the Order's schemes, which Basim brought to an end by assassinating all the Ancients involved.[23]
With all of her lieutenants dead, Qabiha resolved to negotiate a deal with Baghdad's governor Muhammad ibn Tahir, who wanted to end the conflict between Abu 'Abdallah and al-Musta'in. In exchange for convincing her son to renounce his birthright to the throne, Qabiha asked Muhammad to have his Tahirid relatives remove their protection of Alamut, leaving the Hidden Ones' stronghold vulnerable.[24] Before the Ancients could use this opportunity to strike back at their enemies, however, Qabiha was confronted inside the Palace of the Green Dome by Basim and slain by Roshan, bringing an end to the Order's influence over the Caliphate.[12]
At the height of the Islamic Golden Age, Thābit ibn Qurra emerged as a leading visionary in the fields of mathematics, mechanical engineering, medicine, astrology, and astronomy. Although born in Harran, he moved to Baghdad and occupied his years with teaching, study, and innovation until his death in 901.[25]
Mongol conquest[]
After Hülegü Khan took the Assassins' citadel of Alamut in 1256,[26][27] he continued with his campaign westward, attacking other citadels throughout the Levant in retribution for his grandfather Genghis Khan's murder in 1227 at the hands of the Levantine Assassin Darim Ibn-La'Ahad and the Mongolian Assassin Qulan Gal,[28] as well as for an attempt on his own life.[29]
After a two-week siege,[30] the Mongols destroyed Baghdad,[31] burning its libraries and the House of Wisdom and massacring most of its population, leaving behind only the "young and malleable".[2]
Modern times[]
In 1936, archaeologists discovered a set of artifacts that they referred to as the "Baghdad Battery", which unbeknownst to them were Isu power sources that used temporal energy as fuel.[32]
The Saddam International Airport was developed in 1979, but the Iran-Iraq war delayed its opening until 1982. In April 2003, U.S.-led Coalition forces invaded Iraq and changed the airport's name to Baghdad International Airport.[33][34]
On 4 December 2004, a suicide bomber struck a police station near the main entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad, resulting in seven fatalities and 50 injuries.[35] Following the attack, a private military contracted Blackwater MD-530F helicopter assisted in securing the site.[34]
Geography[]
During the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad was divided into four sections: the gardens of the central Round City or Madinat As-Salam, the southeastern trade region of Karkh, the northern industrial Harbiyah, and the western scientific district of Abbasiyah which contained the famous House of Wisdom. Each of these sections was in turn divided into several sub-districts, such as Sharqiyah in Karkh.[23]
Behind the scenes[]
After being mentioned a number of times throughout the Assassin's Creed series, Baghdad made its first appearance as the primary setting of the 2023 video game Assassin's Creed: Mirage, set at the height of the Islamic Golden Age.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
 This list is incomplete. You can help the Assassin's Creed Wiki by expanding it.
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- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (photo only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Hidden Codex (mentioned only)
- The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North – Logs and Files of a Hidden One (mentioned only)
- Echoes of History (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Daughter of No One
- Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game (indirect mention only)
References[]
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