Rafiq

This article is about the Assassin rank. You may be looking for Rafik, the bureau leader of Damascus in 1190.

"Be sure to visit the city's Assassin Bureau when you arrive. I'll dispatch a bird to inform the Rafiq of your arrival. Speak with him, you'll find he has much to offer."

―Al Mualim to Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, 1191.

The Bureau, a Rafiq's home

A Rafiq, also known as a bureau leader or Keeper, was a graduated scholar of the Hidden Ones and their successive form, the Assassin Brotherhood. While the rank was first adopted by the organization's Levantine branch during the Middle Ages and is most commonly associated with it, bureau leaders have existed across many different time periods and geographical regions.

A Rafiq was responsible for coordinating Assassin missions in their assigned city or district from an Assassin bureau. In this capacity, the Rafiq provided valuable information for agents in their field work, such as the locations where information could be obtained about assassination targets, and determined whether or not the assassination could be conducted.

Role

The primary duties of a Rafiq was as a teacher and field contact to the Assassin visitors of their city, in turn providing them with suggestions on where and how to gather information. A Rafiq also coordinated and gathered the information gathered by the Assassin informers of the city, who also acted as contacts in specific city districts.

Altaïr and the Rafiq of Damascus

Upon receiving a contract from the Mentor, lower-ranked Assassins were required to report their findings about their target to the local Rafiq before being allowed to proceed with the assassination. If the Rafiq deemed that the Assassin possessed the proper information—including where, when, and how—to stage a successful assassination, he or she would present the agent with a feather marker to be stained with the target's blood. This would later be shown to the Rafiq as evidence of success, and as such simultaneously serves as a token of approval for the assassination.

Aside from bureau responsibilities, each Rafiq held a particular skill or talent that they could teach, in addition to philosophy, religious doctrine, or adherence to the Assassins' Creed. The skill would be translated into a profession, with the Rafiq establishing a business as a front for the Assassin bureau. For the Rafiq, this business was in itself legitimate, such that the store served not just to disguise Assassin operations, but also as a means to generate income for themself and the order. For instance, the bureau leader of Jerusalem in 1191, Malik Al-Sayf, was a cartographer; the Rafiq of Damascus in 1190, Rafik, was a silk merchant and his successor, a potter; Hamid of Tyre was a carpet merchant; and the Rafiq of Acre, Jabal, was a scribe.

Dai

The Dai was a rank only slightly higher than that of Rafiq. Though technically superior to a Rafiq, they possessed similar responsibilities and duties.

Altaïr with Malik, the Dai and leader of the Jerusalem bureau

When preparing for Majd Addin's assassination, Altaïr went to Jerusalem's bureau and addressed its leader Malik with the term "Dai". This suggests ^{[citation needed]} that Malik had been elevated to the rank of Dai after he had successfully completed the mission to retrieve the Templar treasure from Solomon's Temple, surpassing Altaïr's previously higher rank as Master Assassin and field instructor.

Some time before the retaking of Masyaf, while devising a plan on how to approach Al Mualim, Malik in turn referred to Altaïr as Dai, suggesting either that Altaïr had held this rank before his earlier demotion and had just re-attained it, or that he had surpassed his rank as Master Assassin in that moment.

Known bureau leaders

• 
  Tahira
  Klysma, Sinai
  (until 38 BCE)
• 
  Fuladh Al Haami
  Sharqiyah, Baghdad
  (860s)
• 
  Tabid Al-Nubi
  Abbasiyah, Baghdad
  (860s)
• 
  Rebekah
  Karkh, Baghdad
  (860s)
• 
  Mahaut
  Chinon
  (c. 870)
• 
  Basim Ibn Ishaq
  Constantinople
  (c. 870)
• 
  Hytham
  Ravensthorpe
  (873)
• 
  Marcella
  Lunden
  (878)
• 
  Rafik
  Damascus
  (c. 1190)
• 
  Hamid
  Tyre
  (c. 1190)
• 
  Kadar
  Jerusalem
  (c. 1190)
• 
  Damascus bureau leader
  Damascus
  (c. 1191)
• 
  Jabal
  Acre
  (c. 1191)
• 
  Malik Al-Sayf
  Jerusalem
  (c. 1191)
• 
  Diego de Alvarado
  Burgos
  (until c. 1492)
• 
  Opía Apito
  Cayman Islands
  (c. 1716)
• 
  Antó
  Kingston
  (c. 1716)
• 
  Rhona Dinsmore
  Havana
  (c. 1717)
• 
  Upton Travers
  Nassau
  (c. 1717)
• 
  Vance Travers
  Nassau
  (c. 1717)
• 
  Jayadeep Mir
  London
  (1865 – c. 1868)

Trivia

• Both Jabal and the leader of the Damascus bureau were addressed merely as "Rafiq", rather than by their name.
• Rafiqs did not appear in Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, but key members of the Cypriot Resistance, such as Alexander of Limassol and Markos, acted in a similar manner to them and were situated in Resistance safe houses similar to Assassin bureaus.
• Rafiq, رفيق, is an Arabic word meaning 'friend'.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles
• Assassin's Creed: The Fall (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• Assassin's Creed: Memories (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
• Assassin's Creed: Underworld
• Assassin's Creed: Origins
  • The Hidden Ones
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Sword of the White Horse
• Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage

References

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