Assassin's Creed Mirage: What to know about the 'Golden Age' of Baghdad

Whether you dream of holstering a flintlock pistol and sailing through the 18th-century Golden Age of Piracy or leading a clan of Vikings to settle in the fractured Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 9th century, Assassin's Creed video games have you covered. Since 2007, the popular action-adventure series created by video game publisher Ubisoft has been taking gamers on adventures around the globe through different historical periods. With its 13th instalment released on Thursday, Assassin's Creed Mirage attempts to immerse players in Iraq's 9th-century Baghdad during the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, when it was one of the most significant cities in the world. Today's capital of Iraq is often associated, especially by those in the West, with the United States war and the destruction it brought more than two decades ago. But in Assassin's Creed Mirage, the game attempts to give players a glimpse into the rich and diverse history of the Abbasid Caliphate during the Islamic Golden Age.