What the new Assassin's Creed game tells us about ninth-century Baghdad – from the art historian who worked on the game

• Gamers the world over will be familiar with the incredibly detailed historic cityscapes the Assassin’s Creed franchise has produced so far.
• Following earlier forays into ancient Damascus and Athens, the forthcoming instalment, Mirage, takes players into ninth-century Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate.

Baghdad, the Round City

• It was a focal point of international politics, intellectual life, the arts and a booming global economy.
• Architectural historians Saba Sami Al-Ali and Nawar Sami Al-Ali have discussed how, despite the lack of archaeological remains, scholars have long reconstructed the Round City’s basic parts.
• The city counted two concentric circular walls, surrounded by a moat and punctuated by four domed gates, each topped with a figure holding a lance.
• This mausoleum and mosque complex features a conical muqarnas dome, the design of which is typical of the region from the 11th century.

A lack of archeological evidence

• The best evidence for what the city looked like at the time is found in other archaeological sites.
• Research has shown that two cities – Al-Rafiqa, at Raqqa in Syria and Qadisiyya (or al-Mubarak), near Baghdad – were effectively imitations of the Round City.
• The archeological site of Samarra provides even more clues.
• What people think they know about the visual culture of Muslim societies is also not supported by historical evidence.