Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob

Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob (died 860s), also known as Al-Ghul (English: The Ghoul), was a soap mill owner and a member of the Order of the Ancients who operated in the Abbasid Caliphate's capital of Baghdad in the 9th century.
==Biography==
===Early life===
A successful soap mill owner 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 the Order's cause and used his workers to search for Isu artifacts buried in the desert.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob 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.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – First Order
Ruthless and proud, Mas'ood treated his employees like slaves and frequently overworked them, sometimes to the point of death. 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.
===Meeting the Caliph===
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 in Anbar, where the caliph Al-Mutawakkil awaited them with a chest containing a Memory Seal. After verifying the artifact's authenticity and ordering the caliph to guard it until their return, the masked Ancients left.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – The Master Thief of Anbar
However, it was all for naught, as shortly after the meeting, Al-Mutawakkil was killed by a young thief, Basim Ibn Ishaq, who had broken into the Winter Palace to retrieve the Memory Seal on the Hidden Ones' behalf. 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.
===Search for Isu artifacts===
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 one southwest of the city and another near the Northern Oasis.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Find the Missing BrotherAssassin's Creed: Mirage – The Calling After his workers found several mysterious shards, Mas'ood believed they were connected to an 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.
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 ancient past he saw and encouraged Fazil to finish his device.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – The Great Symposium
In his own tasks, Mas'ood began bribing the guards of the Damascus Gate Prison to supply him with prisoners for his dig sites,Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Jailbreak and started frequenting the Caravanserai west of Baghdad to procure additional laborers.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – A Delicate Alliance However, he soon faced incursions from the Alamut Hidden Ones and their ally Ali ibn Muhammad, who investigated his operations. Infuriated by the interruptions, Mas'ood sent the Abbasid guards after them and they succeeded in capturing Ali, who was subsequently taken to the Damascus Gate Prison for interrogation.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Zeroing In
===Death===
Following Ali's capture, the Hidden Ones sent their newest initiate Basim Ibn Ishaq 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 a member of the Order. 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.
Basim subsequently infiltrated the Caravanserai and worked up the civilians' sentiments against Mas'ood to lure him out of his locked office. When the Ancient emerged onto the balcony to investigate the commotion, Basim leapt down and assassinated Mas'ood, stabbing him with his Hidden Blade before hanging his body in a public display. 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.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Gilded Butterflies
==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 reborn Isu, though it is unknown how he learned this fact. It is possible that it was revealed to him by Qabiha, but why she seemingly chose to only tell Mas'ood is not explained.
==Gallery==
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|Mas'ood dragged by Basim
ACMir First Order 16.png|Mas'ood hanged
ACMir First Order 18.png|Mas'ood's final moments
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed: Mirage
==References==
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