Altair ibn La'Ahad(La-Ahad? Don't know which one is correct).

Everyone who is a fan of the first Assassin's Creed knows this name and the meaning of it......I bet.
According to the description by Ubisoft, ibn La'Ahad means son of none.

SON OF NONE?

When I was playing ACR, I happened to know that Altair had a father and he, Al-Mualim and all other assassins knew his father's name.
If so, why does he put "la'ahad(none)" after ibn(son of)?
If we keep the rule of Arabic name, his name should be Altair ibn Umar or something like this, shouldn't it?
Definitely not "Son of None" if he knows his birth parents' name. It makes no sense.

In addition Altair's sons' names should be Darim and Sef ibn Altair ibn Umar (as the case may be, followed by their tribe's name or/and village name).
Or simply Darim/Sef Altair Umar.
Why do all of them including Umar have the same last name?
As long as I know, Arabic last names change all the time since it depends on their fathers' names...
Technically they don't have *fixed* family names like Europeans and East Asians do.

Say, Russians have their fathers' names as their middle names (отчество - Patronymic names).
In Arabic naming rule, this "Patronymic names" work as their last names.  (To be precise, it's not a last name but kind of...if we consider their names in our manner.)

By the way, Altair is not a noble and I have heard that ibn/bin something are usually used for the person of noble/upper class origin.
If it's true, naming this character ibn something is not even accurate to begin with.
(Edited : Everyone can use ibn/bin regardless of his/her class. These are kind of out of fashion and rarely used nowadays. I got information from . Thank you so much for your insight, NeRo! )

When I first heard that our dear Alty's name was Altair - son of none, I thought he was a child born out of wedlock or simply an orphan/an abandoned child who had been adopted and raised by Al Mualim.
If the name "ibn La'Ahad" was given by Al Mualim by reason of being a child had no father, it does make sense, I think.
At least it looks more coherent than identifying himself as "Son of None" in spite of having Umar as his birth father.

His bio, written before ACR was released said that he was a son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, started training when he was a small child, trained and educated by Al Mualim, had very poor ties with his birth parents and this is why Altair worshiped Al Mualim as if he were his real father.

And then, with all information I got, my imagination went further. lol

Al Mualim could be a secret father of Altair.

He is irrefutably modeled on a legendary leader of Nizari Isma'ili in Syria, Rashid al-Din Sinan.
The greatest enemy of Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyubi and Nur ad-Din Mahmud Zengi, the powerful ruler of Aleppo.
(Note: Nur ad-Din Mahmud Zengi, the second son of the Turkish atabeg Imad ad-Din Zengi must be described as a true architect of "The victory against Crusaders" even though he is overshadowed by the glory of Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyubi.)

Most of the articles and books I referred to said that the assassin who left a dagger and a note in Saladin's tent was Sinan not his man(Umar in this case).
He's done this solely because his men failed to assassinate Saladin at the first try.
This could be a fairy tale and seriously no one knows what made Saladin withdraw his troops and leave Masyaf.
However I prefer the story that the final threat was given by Sinan himself.

This is a long story so I won't go further into detail now.

All I would like to say now is......A legendary assassin's father could (should?) be also legendary.
It's more interesting to have Sinan...well Al Mualim as a real father of Altair than to be a son of an unknown ordinary assassin.
And this is the reason Altair had to identify himself as "Son of None" because it must be secret. lol

Incidentally, Sinan was only 30-33 when Altair was born.
Young, energetic and strong enough to do something......productive.


Sorry for ranting.
History around the first AC is the most interesting amongst all AC series to me.
I love fantasising Altair's stories interweaving several episodes from history with the plot of Assassin's Creed.
It is a lot of fun.