Assassin's Creed and the Real Nizari Isma'ilis
Updated: 6 November 2026
Short answer
Assassin's Creed draws on the Nizari Isma'ilis and on Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel Alamut. Masyaf, Alamut and Rashid al-Din Sinan are real, but the worldwide secret war with the Templars is fiction. National Geographic notes that the series' picture has no basis in reality.
Where the creed comes from
Nietzsche attributed a version of the saying to the Assassins in 1887. Bartol's novel has the motto "Nothing is an absolute reality; all is permitted". William S. Burroughs reworked it in Naked Lunch and later books, and the games made it famous as "nothing is true, everything is permitted". We found no medieval source attributing the saying to Hasan-i Sabbah.
How accurate is Bartol's Alamut?
It is a novel, not history. It uses real names and places, but the drugged garden at its centre belongs to the legend. Its Hasan is a philosophical manipulator of Bartol's own making, and critics have read the book as a political allegory.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the historical connection between Assassin's Creed and the Nizari Ismailis?
- The series borrows the name, Masyaf, Sinan and the legend, then builds a fictional universe on them.
- How accurate is Vladimir Bartol's novel Alamut?
- It is historical fiction. Key plot elements, such as the garden and the drugged fida'is, are legendary.
Sources
- “Alamut (Bartol novel)”, English Wikipedia
- “Rashid ad-Din Sinan”, English Wikipedia
- Erin Blakemore, “The medieval Order of Assassins”, National Geographic, 2020
- Farhad Daftary, “Assassin”, Institute of Ismaili Studies (from Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopaedia)
Medieval authors such as Juvayni, Rashid al-Din and Ibn al-Athir are cited here through the listed studies, not directly. Prepared by the hasansabbah.com editorial team.