Assassin’s Creed: Mirage has offered a luminous example of how Muslim representation can be, along with its Arab, Persian, and broader SWANA representation. For one of the region’s most prominent religions, Islam, the game offers Muslim and non-Muslim players worldwide not only positive Muslim representation, but the depiction of an entire Islamic civilization. No one is the token Muslim. Islam is gracefully designed into the fabric of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, from our Muslim protagonist Basim Ibn Ishaq, to various members of his society, to sprawling Masjids, architecture, and art covering 9^th Century Abbasid Baghdad. While Islam is the main religion depicted in Mirage, other religious minorities like Christians also appear in the city, as Baghdad was a highly diverse city as well at the center of trade. The Silk Road spanned all of Asia, North Africa, and beyond, and the religions across the regions.

To understand more about the thoughts that went into depicting Islam in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, Game Developer sat down with Mohammed Aleman, Ubisoft’s localization and cultural consultant for Mirage. We discussed his and Ubisoft’s process for cultural accuracy and respect of Islam in the game, how that functioned in the game’s sound design as it pertains to the Muslim Call to Prayer, and the scientific breakthroughs made during Islam’s Golden Age. We also discuss the science fiction aspects of the game and how that does or does not interfere with the game’s depiction of Islam.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Game Developer: I’m only about halfway through the game, but I’ve loved everything about it so far. I’m actually Kurdish as my family’s from northern Kurdistan in Iraq, and even though I’m not Arab, I still have been exposed to a lot of that culture and I have a lot of Arab friends and Iraqi friends. The game’s just so beautifully done, Mashallah, and bravo to you and the entire team.

Aleman: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, the Arab world and specifically Iraq since then, has always been multicultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, it’s, the perfect setting.

And when you first heard that Ubisoft was doing this game what went through your head?

The funny thing is that we were approached about it first. So, the production team, from the very beginning, reached out to the diversity and inclusion team, which recommended me to be a cultural consultant on the project. And I jumped on the chance of course, saying “I’ll love to be part of this project. I’ll do everything I can.” And it’s been fantastic.

On the Muslim representation of the game, I think the thing that says it all is how, while you’re playing the game, the soundtrack stops whenever the Call to Prayer (Adnan) occurs. It’s literally become part of the soundtrack and it’s so lovely to listen to whenever you’re playing. Can you say anything about how that particular choice came to be part of the game?

Well, authenticity being part of Assassin’s Creed DNA, the team really wanted to ensure to the best of their abilities that the game is not just authentic, but also respectful. We’ve seen representation of Muslims or Arabs in games and in entertainment before, and it’s not always accurate. Sometimes it’s just straight-up negative. So, the team really put their trust and confidence in us to ensure that it’s respectful and authentic. When they wanted to include the event in the game, they didn’t just want to add it as just some flavor in the background. They wanted to because it’s part of the city’s identity as well. You’ll see the mosques, you’ll see the minarets, and they wanted to be accurate and respectful.

So, they asked about guidelines, if any, that they’ll need to follow. So, part of it was avoiding music playing while the Adnan is being recited, which is something that they found out later, that in some small cases, they overlap with each other. So, they worked on a fix and they deployed it in a recent update that you can turn on and off to ensure that music never plays during the daytime.

That’s amazing.

And I’m not sure if you’ve seen any but there are some animations of people washing up to get ready for prayer and some animations of prayers as well. All of which they’ve taken really good care in doing it accurately, finding Muslims to do the animations and checking them with us as well, to ensure that everything’s right. So, there’s some back and forth some corrections here and there until we get to the final product.

Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned the Masjids in the game. They’re absolutely beautiful. Getting to climb the minarets and the towers for the synchronization Leaps of Faith from them was so great. Can you comment on how you may have worked on that aspect of the game?

I’ll give full credit to the art team and the team of historians. [Ubisoft] worked with historians specializing in the past, that period, and art historians, as well as those specialized in Islamic art and architecture, so full credit to them. My part with that is to make sure that there’s nothing accidentally added that would be offensive, or something like that. But overall, it’s full credit kudos to them, honestly. There’s nothing left of the city that they can visit and see; it’s all based on verbal evidence and verbal accounts from traders, from historians, so they did amazing.

They absolutely did. And besides the sheer beauty of seeing Islam portrayed this way in the society in the city, it’s just so refreshing to see Islam and Muslims portrayed as a relatively casual backdrop for Basim and his society. It’s an important facet, but not necessarily the main focus of the game or story. So why do you think that’s so important for Muslim and non-Muslim players to see and experience?

You nailed it. Honestly, the feeling that we had is even though Islam, as the religion, is not the focus of the game, it is the reality of the city. It is the background. It is in the identity of these characters. So even if it’s not mentioned, it’s there in the background. We can imagine that it’s part of the characters’ daily life, and it’s like you said, it’s refreshing to see. Maybe for non-Muslims It might not be as big of a deal, but I’m sure it will for Muslims playing the games. There’s a point of pride in seeing it portrayed naturally, accurately, without anything negative attached to it, as we’ve seen many times before. We see it as multi-religious as well. There’s some representation of other religions and sects that have been highlighted. You can see the Nestorian temple there. The team did amazing, honestly. The historians and the historical artists did fantastic.

Yeah, you see Christians, for example, walking in the background, and you see people from East Asia. Baghdad was a very diverse city, at the center of so much trade but still had a distinct Arab and Muslim identity. And it was just pitch-perfectly done. Also, this was the height of the Islamic Golden Age, when you had great scientific breakthroughs, you had such advancements made and I think that’s really important to show as well for how advanced research was at times. Can you comment on that aspect of Islamic society at the time and how it’s portrayed in the game?

One hundred percent. A lot of people might not know but history buffs will tell you that most, if not the majority, and all of what we know today in modern medicine, modern science, philosophy is built on top of what the Abbasids did during that era. Not only did they have pioneering scientists and philosophers and polymaths during that time, but they also had a very strong movement of translation, supported by the caliphate at the time, to translate science books, philosophy, anything that is enriching and would benefit society, it was ordered to be translated into Arabic. And that helped a lot. So, we see the benefits of translation and localization of Plato’s works. I forget now, but also a lot of the scientists and philosophers.

Aristotle and Pythagoras, for example.

Yes. It was translated into Arabic and then from there people around the world came, studied it and then went back home and translated it into their own language, and that spread knowledge in so many parts of the world. You have Ibn Sina, you have Al-Khawarizmi, you have so many great names.

We know that in the Assassin’s Creed world, various world religions through history are explained away through sci-fi elements. I’d just like to ask you why Muslim players shouldn’t worry about anything like that or anyone trying to “disprove” Islam while playing the game?

It’s a very fun question. Science fiction is not big in the region. A lot of science fiction has tried to be a thing here but it doesn’t really catch. With Assassin’s Creed, I think I’ve seen people debate a lot and it results in really interesting discussions and debates, but I don’t think Assassin’s Creed’s science fiction contradicts anything that is in the game’s world. Yeah. But there’s a bit of suspension of disbelief, but overall, I don’t think it causes an issue really. The game is not discussing religion. The game is not really saying anything against religion, per se. And I think in the history of AC, this is the most respectful of religion. We have past Assassin’s Creed games where you’re fighting the Pope. This is very different from it.

It’s extremely different. It just makes Muslim players feel so welcomed and embraced and just, I want to say thank you, and thank the entire Ubisoft team for creating and making this. We’re all so grateful.

One question I have for you.

Sure!

What are your thoughts on the soundtrack?

It’s gorgeous. I’ve listened to it while I’m working and I feel home in a lot of ways. I know that that the composer himself is not Arab or Muslim, but he worked so hard and diligently with artists across the region from so many countries, and it’s just so beautiful. It’s so amazing. I love it, man.

Thank you. That makes me happy.

Everything about this game makes me happy.