The original Assassin's Creed is set during the Third Crusade.
The game takes place mainly in the Holy Land in 1191, during the conflict commonly known as the Third Crusade. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad travels among cities including Masyaf, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus while pursuing Templar targets and uncovering a larger political conspiracy.
The historical setting is inspired by the late twelfth-century struggle involving European crusader states, Muslim powers, and other regional forces. The game uses real locations and historical figures, but its Assassin–Templar storyline is fictionalized. Its version of the Assassins is also a dramatized interpretation rather than a complete account of the medieval Nizari Ismaili community.
The setting distinguishes the first game from later entries, which move to periods such as Renaissance Italy, colonial America, the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy, and Viking-era England.