Editing Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob

{{Era|Individuals|Ancients}}
{{Spoilerhd|[[Valley of Memory]]|18 January 2026}}
{{Quote|It is our divine will to rule over them. Our duty to exact their contribution.|Mas'ood, on the Order of the Ancients' goal to rule over humanity, 860s.|Assassin's Creed: Mirage|First Order}}
{{Character Infobox
|name = Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob
|image = ACMirage DB Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob.png
|death = 860s<br>[[Caravanserai, Baghdad|Caravanserai]], [[Baghdad]], [[Abbasid Caliphate]]
|species = [[Human]]
|database = [[Database: Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob|Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob]]
|affiliates = [[Order of the Ancients]]
}}
'''Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob''' (died 860s), also known as '''Al-Ghul''' (English: ''The Ghoul''), was a soap mill owner and an [[Order of the Ancients]] member who operated in the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]'s capital of [[Baghdad]] in the 9th century. A ruthless taskmaster, he [[Slavery|enslaved]] desperate foreigners in his mills to make vast quantities of soap to sell, earning immense fortunes for himself and his son, Nimlot. After joining the Order, he fully devoted himself to their [[New World Order|goal]] and had his enslaved workers moved to the desert to dig for rumored [[Isu]] relics.

Caring only about his excavations' successes at any cost, Mas'ood ordered the mysterious abductions of inmates at [[Damascus Gate Prison]] and unwary travelers at a [[caravanserai]] to replace fatally overworked slaves, which drew the [[Hidden Ones of Alamut|Alamut Hidden Ones]]' attention and they moved to stop him. After the [[Assassins|Hidden One]] [[Basim ibn Ishaq]] infiltrated the caravanserai where Mas'ood was to purchase more slaves and confirmed his culpability in the disappearances and abusive work conditions, he lured Mas'ood out from his office and publicly hanged him before shocked onlookers.

Nimlot, unaware of what his father's secret activities actually entailed, had joined him that day but was elsewhere when Basim killed Mas'ood. Upon returning and seeing his father's dead body, Nimlot fled to the caliphate's edges in [[al-Ula]], where he set up a [[gang]] of robbers and became rich himself selling the goods they stole from [[civilian]]s and travelling [[merchant]]s while he masqueraded as an upstanding community member. By chance, Basim met Nimlot there while on his own personal journey and later also killed him for his role in harassing and misleading the townsfolk.

==Biography==
===Early life===
A successful merchant in Baghdad, Mas'ood earned his fortune on the backs of vulnerable foreigners he employed in his soap mills. After joining the Order of the Ancients, he became a strong believer in its cause and used his workers to search for [[Isu]] [[Piece of Eden|artifacts]] buried in the desert.<ref name="DB">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[Database: Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob]]</ref> Mas'ood quickly rose in the Order's ranks to become one of the five leading members in Baghdad, answering directly to the [[Ra's Al-Af'a]], [[Qabiha]], and overseeing the Order's operations in the [[Harbiyah]] district.<ref name="First Order">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[First Order]]</ref>

Ruthless and proud, Mas'ood treated his employees like slaves and frequently overworked them, sometimes to the point of death.<ref name="DB" /> He saw no issue with this, as in his eyes, it was the Order's divine right to use those beneath them to further their goals, which would ultimately benefit all of humanity.<ref name="First Order" />

===Meeting the Caliph===
[[File:ACMirage The Master Thief of Anbar 34.png|thumb|250px|left|Mas'ood and his Order brethren meeting Al-Mutawakkil]]
On 11 December 861, Mas'ood and the other Order leaders in Baghdad—Qabiha, [[Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa]], [[Ning]], and [[Wasif al-Turki]]—convened at the [[Winter Palace, Anbar|Winter Palace]] in [[Anbar]], where [[Caliph]] [[al-Mutawakkil]] awaited them with a chest containing a [[Memory Seals|Memory Seal]]. After verifying the artifact's authenticity and ordering the caliph to guard it until their return, the masked Ancients left.<ref name="Master Thief">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[The Master Thief of Anbar]]</ref>

However, it was all for naught, as shortly after the meeting, the young [[thief]] Basim ibn Ishaq killed al-Mutawakkil in self-defense after breaking into the Winter Palace to retrieve the Memory Seal for the Hidden Ones. The caliph's death robbed the Order of a powerful puppet, but Mas'ood and the others remained undeterred in their work and moved forward with their respective plans.<ref name="Master Thief" />

===Search for Isu artifacts===
{{Quote|You think your cruelties are well-hidden, Al-Ghul, for you chose those with little voice whose cries you knew would go unheard. They dug at your bidding, died at your hand and were cast aside like so much refuse. All to scour the desert for some artifact.|Basim ibn Ishaq, on Mas'ood's operations, 860s.|Assassin's Creed: Mirage|First Order}}
After the loss of the Memory Seal, Mas'ood continued to utilize enslaved workers in his search for Isu artifacts. He set up several excavation sites in the desert around Baghdad, including [[Excavation Site, Baghdad|one]] southwest of the city and another near the [[Northern Oasis]].<ref name="Missing Brother">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[Find the Missing Brother]]</ref><ref name="The Calling">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[The Calling]]</ref> After his workers found several [[Isu Shards|mysterious shards]], Mas'ood believed they were connected to an [[Northern Oasis vault|Isu vault]] beneath the Northern Oasis and asked that they be given to the Order's elite [[Tha'abeen]] members for protection until an entrance into the vault was found.<ref name="The Calling" />

[[File:ACMir First Order 5.png|thumb|250px|Mas'ood overseeing his workers at a dig site]]
At some point, Fazil offered to show Mas'ood his progress with the [[Alruh]], a machine built using the Isu technology recovered from his excavation sites, which had the goal of decoding Memory Seals. Mas'ood was fascinated by the visions of an [[Isu Era|ancient past]] he saw and encouraged Fazil to finish his device.<ref name="The Great Symposium">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[The Great Symposium]]</ref>

In his own tasks, Mas'ood began bribing the guards of the [[Damascus Gate Prison]] to supply him with prisoners for his dig sites,<ref name="Jailbreak">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[Jailbreak]]</ref> and started frequenting the [[Caravanserai, Baghdad|Caravanserai]] west of Baghdad to procure additional laborers.<ref name="A Delicate Alliance">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[A Delicate Alliance]]</ref> However, he soon faced incursions from the [[Hidden Ones of Alamut|Alamut Hidden Ones]] and their ally [[Ali ibn Muhammad]], who investigated his operations. Infuriated by the interruptions, Mas'ood sent the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] guards after them and they succeeded in capturing Ali, who was subsequently taken to the Damascus Gate Prison for [[interrogation]].<ref name="Zeroing In">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[Zeroing In]]</ref>

===Death===
{{Dialogue2|Mas'ood|These... are gifts. Destined to be recovered. They speak to us. As you well know...|Basim|Me?|Oh, yes. A Hidden One you may be, but not just...|Mas'ood and Basim in the former's final moments, 860s.|Assassin's Creed: Mirage|First Order}}
Following Ali's capture, the Hidden Ones sent their newest [[Initiation into the Assassin Order|initiate]] Basim to rescue him, and they both found evidence of Mas'ood's dealings with the Damascus Gate Prison guards, allowing them to identify the soap mill owner as an Order member.<ref name="Jailbreak" /> Meanwhile, Ali's second-in-command [[Beshi]] infiltrated one of Mas'ood's dig sites by posing as a slave and learned about the Ancient's operations at the Caravanserai.<ref name="A Delicate Alliance" />

[[File:ACMir First Order 14.png|thumb|250px|left|Basim leaping to assassinate Mas'ood]]
Basim subsequently infiltrated the Caravanserai and worked up the [[civilian]]s' sentiments against Mas'ood to lure him out of his locked office. When he emerged onto the balcony to investigate the commotion, Basim leapt down and [[Assassination|assassinated]] Mas'ood, stabbing him with his [[Hidden Blade]] before hanging his body in a public display.<ref name="First Order" /> His death alerted Qabiha to the Hidden Ones' presence in Baghdad and she cautioned Ning not to showcase herself too publicly to avoid meeting Mas'ood's fate, though the advice was ignored.<ref name="Gilded Butterflies">''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' – [[Gilded Butterflies]]</ref>

==Behind the scenes==
Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob is a fictional character featured as the first major assassination target in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]''. He is the only one of the five Order leaders in Baghdad not to have any subordinates that Basim needs to assassinate beforehand.

In his final moments in the [[Memory Corridor]], Mas'ood indicated that he was aware of Basim's true nature as a [[Isu incarnation]], though it is unknown how he learned this fact. It is possible that Qabiha revealed it to him, but why she seemingly chose to only tell Mas'ood is not explained.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="180" position="center" captionalign="center">
ACMir Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob.png|Close-up of Mas'ood
ACMir Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob Masked.png|Mas'ood in his Order outfit and mask
ACMir First Order 3.png|Mas'ood overlooking the Caravanserai
ACMir First Order 15.png|Basim dragging Mas'ood to a rope
ACMir First Order 16.png|Mas'ood hanged
ACMir First Order 18.png|Mas'ood's final moments
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Mirage]]'' {{1st}}
**''[[Valley of Memory]]'' {{Mo}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{ACMir}}
[[Category:860s deaths]]
[[Category:Individuals]]
[[Category:Abbasid people]]
[[Category:Arabs]]
[[Category:Merchants]]
[[Category:Businesspeople]]
[[Category:Slavers]]
[[Category:Order of the Ancients]]
[[fr:Massoud al-Ya'Koub]]