Mosul

For other uses, see Mosul (disambiguation).
Mosul
الموصل

Tigris River and bridge in Mosul
Mosul
Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13
Country  Iraq
Governorate Nineveh Governorate
Occupation Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Government
 • Mayor Hussein Ali Khajem
Elevation[1] 223 m (732 ft)
Population (2015)
 • City 664,221
 • Urban Unknown (estimates range between 750,000 and 1,500,000[2]
  UNData 1987[3]
Demonym(s) Moslawi
Time zone AST (UTC+3)
Area code(s) 60

Mosul (/moʊˈsuːl/; Arabic: الموصل‎ – al-Mawṣil (local pronunciation: el-Mōṣul); Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ‎ – Nînwe; is a city of normally about two and a half million people (2014 est.) in northern Iraq, occupied since 10 June 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[4][5][6]

Mosul is completely ruled by the Islamic State terror group headquartered in Al-Raqqah, Syria. The current government of Iraq stopped paying salaries soon after the city was overrun by militants[7] (that ISIL allegedly exploited by stealing a generous percentage)[8] which it had previously paid to city workers, including nurses and doctors.[9]

Located some 400 km (250 mi) north of Baghdad, the original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas on both the "Left Coast" (east side) and the "Right Coast" (west side) as the two banks are described in the local language.

In the early 21st century, the majority of Mosul's population is Arab, Assyrian, with Iraqi Turkmen, Yazidis, Armenian, Shabaki and other minorities. The city's population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500.[10] An estimated half million persons fled Mosul in the second half of 2014, and while some returned, more fled in 2015 as ISIL violence in the city worsened.[11]

Historically, an important product of the area is Mosul marble and oil. ISIL is alleged to be making significant sums of money selling oil and automotive petrol to the inhabitants of Mosul as well as exporting oil products.[12]

The demonym for inhabitants of Mosul is "Moslawi". Many participated in vigilante resistance actions against ISIL and many have been killed for these actions.[13][14]

The city of Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, which together was one of the largest educational and research centres in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed but at the choice of the Islamic State's leadership in Mosul, the Medical College remains open but barely functional.

Until 2014 the city was a historic centre for the Assyrian Church of the East of the indigenous Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah which was destroyed by the Islamic State occupation army in July, 2014.[15]

Etymology

The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria (Athura) of 401 BC, during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in this region. There, he notes a small Assyrian town of "Mépsila" (Ancient Greek: Μέψιλα) on the Tigris somewhere about where modern Mosul is today (Anabasis, III.iv.10). It may be safer to identify Xenophon's Mépsila with the site of Iski Mosul, or "Old Mosul", about 30 km (19 mi) north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon's report, the Sasanian Persian center of Budh-Ardhashīr was built. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name.

In its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather "Mawsil", stands for the "linking point" – or loosely, the Junction City, in Arabic. Mosul should not be confused with the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh which is located across the Tigris from Mosul on the eastern bank, at the famed archaeological mound of Kuyunjik (Turkoman for "sheep's hill"). This area is known today as the town of Nebi Yunus ("prophet Jonah") and is populated largely by Kurds, which makes it the only fully-Kurdish neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died there, in the then capital of ancient Assyria. Today, this entire area has been absorbed into the Mosul metropolitan area. The indigenous Assyrians still refer to the entire city of Mosul as Nineveh (or rather, Ninweh).[16]

The ancient Nineveh gave its place to Mepsila after the fall of the Assyrian Empire between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians Sagartians, the Assyrians largely abandoning the city and building new settlements such as Mepsila nearby.[17]

Mosul is also named al-Faiha ("the Paradise"), al-Khaḍrah ("the Green") and al-Hadbah ("the Humped"). It is sometimes described as "The Pearl of the North"[18] and "the city of a million soldiers".[19]

History

Ancient era and early Middle Ages

St. Elijah's Monastery south of Mosul, Iraq's oldest Assyrian Christian monastery, dating from the 6th century

The area in which Mosul lies was an integral part of Assyria from as early as the 25th century BC, and after the Akkadian Empire (2335-2154 BC) and Neo-Sumerian Empire it again became a continuous part of Assyria proper from circa 2050 BC through to the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire between 612-599 BC.

In approximately 850 BC, King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria chose the city of Kalhu as his capital in place of Assur (Ashur), 30 km (19 mi) from present day Mosul. In approximately 700 BC, King Sennacherib made Nineveh the new capital of Assyria. The mound of Kuyunjik in Mosul is the site of the palaces of King Sennacherib and his grandson Ashurbanipal, who established the Library of Ashurbanipal.

Mosul later succeeded Nineveh as the Tigris bridgehead of the road that linked Assyria and Anatolia with the short lived Median Empire and succeeding Achaemenid Empire (546-332 BC) where it was a part of the geo-political province of Athura (Assyria).

It became part of the Seleucid Empire after Alexander’s conquests in 332 BC. While little is known of the city from the Hellenistic period, Mosul likely belonged to the Seleucid satrapy of 'Syria (the Greek term for Assyria), which was conquered by the Parthian Empire circa 150 BC where it once more became a part of Athura.

The city changed hands once again with the rise of Sassanid Persia in 225 AD and became a part of Assuristan (Sassanid Persian for Assyria). Christianity was present among the indigenous Assyrian people in Mosul as early as the 1st century. It became an episcopal seat of the Assyrian Church of the East in the 6th century.

In 637 (other sources say 641), during the period of the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, the city was annexed to the Rashidun Caliphate by Utba bin Farqad Al-Salami, during the Arab Islamic Conquest, after which Assyria/Athura/Assuristan was dissolved as a geo-political entity.

Mosul was promoted to the status of capital of Mesopotamia under the Umayyads in the 8th century, during which it reached a peak of prosperity. During the Abbassid era it was an important trading centre because of its strategic location astride the trade routes to India, Persia, and the Mediterranean. The Muslim general and conqueror of Sindh, Muhammad bin Qasim, is said to have died there in the 8th century AD.

9th century to 1535

Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, "Siege of Mosul in 1261–63", Jami' al-tawarikh, Bibliothèque Nationale de France .

In the late 9th century control over the city was seized by the Turkish dynasts Ishaq ibn Kundajiq and his son Muhammad, but in 893 Mosul came once again under the direct control of the Abbasid Caliphate. In the early 10th century Mosul came under the control of the native Arab Hamdanid dynasty. From Mosul, the Hamdanids under Abdallah ibn Hamdan and his son Nasir al-Dawla expanded their control over the Jazira for several decades, first as governors of the Abbassids and later as de facto independent rulers. A century later they were supplanted by the Uqaylids.

Mosul was conquered by the Seljuks in the 11th century. After a period under semi-independent atabeg such as Mawdud, in 1127 it became the centre of power of the Zengid dynasty. Saladin besieged the city unsuccessfully in 1182 but finally gained control of it in 1186. In the 13th century it was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, but was spared the usual destruction since its governor, Badr al-Din Luʾluʾ, helped the Khan in his following campaigns in Syria. After the Mongol defeat in the Battle of Ain Jalut against the Mamluks, Badr al-Din's son sided with the latter; this led to the destruction of the city, which later regained some importance but never recovered its original splendor. Mosul was thenceforth ruled by the Mongol Ilkhanid and Jalayrid dynasties, and escaped Tamerlan's destructions.

During 1165 Benjamin of Tudela passed through Mosul; in his papers he wrote that he found a small Jewish community estimated as 7000 people in Mosul, the community was led by rebbi Zakhi (זכאי) presumably connected to the King David dynasty. In 1288–1289, the Exilarch was in Mosul and signed a supporting paper for Maimonides.[20][21] In the early 16th century Mosul was under the Turkmen federation of the Ak Koyunlu, but in 1508 it was conquered by the Persian Safawids.

Ottomans: 1535 to 1918

In 1535, Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent added Mosul to his empire by capturing it from the Safavid Persia. Thenceforth Mosul was governed by a pasha. Mosul was celebrated for its line of walls, comprising seven gates with large towers, a renowned hospital (maristan) and a covered market (qaysariyya), and was also famous for its fabrics and flourishing trades.

Although Mesopotamia had technically been integrated within the Ottoman Empire since 1533, until the reconquest of Baghdad in 1638 the city of Mosul was considered "still a mere fortress, important for its strategic position as an offensive platform for Ottoman campaigns into Iraq, as well as a defensive stronghold and (staging post) guarding the approaches to Anatolia and to the Syrian coast. Then with the Ottoman reconquest of Baghdad, the liwa’ of Mosul became an independent wilaya."[22]:202

Despite being a part of the Ottoman Empire, during the four centuries of Ottoman rule Mosul was considered "the most independent district" within the Middle East, following the Roman model of indirect rule through local notables.[23]:203–4 "Mosuli culture developed less along Ottoman–Turkish lines than along Iraqi–Arab lines; and Turkish, the official language of the State, was certainly not the dominant language in the province."[22]:203

In line with its status as a politically stable trade route between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf the city developed considerably during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Similar to the development of the Mamluk dynasty in Baghdad, during this time "the Jalili family was establishing itself as the undisputed master of Mosul", and "helping to connect Mosul with a pre-Ottoman, pre-Turcoman, pre-Mongol, Arab cultural heritage which was to put the town on its way to recapturing some of the prestige and prominence it had enjoyed under the golden reign of Badr ad-Din Lu’lu’."[22]:203

Along with the al-Umari and Tasin al-Mufti families, the Jalilis formed an "urban-based small and medium gentry and a new landed elite", which proceeded to displace the control of previous rural tribes.[24] Such families proceed to establish themselves through private enterprise, solidifying their influence and assets through rents on land and taxes on urban and rural manufacturing.

As well as elected officials, the social architecture of Mosul was highly influenced by the Dominican fathers who arrived in Mosul in 1750, sent by Pope Benedict XIV (Mosul had a large Christian population, predominantly Assyrians).[25] They were followed by the Dominican nuns in 1873. They established a number of schools, health clinics, a printing press and an orphanage. The nuns also established workshops to teach girls sewing and embroidery.[26] A congregation of Dominican sisters, founded in the 19th century, still had its motherhouse in Mosul by the early 21st century. Over 120 Assyrian Iraqi Sisters belonged to this congregation.[25]

In the nineteenth century the Ottoman government started to reclaim central control over its outlying provinces. Their aim was to "restore Ottoman law, and rejuvenate the military" as well as reviving "a secure tax base for the government".[27]:24–26 In order to reestablish rule in 1834 the Sultan abolished public elections for the position of governor, and began "neutraliz[ing] local families such as the Jalilis and their class."[27]:28–29 and appointing new, non-Maslawi governors directly. In line with its reintegration within central government rule, Mosul was required to conform to new Ottoman reform legislation, including the standardization of tariff rates, the consolidation of internal taxes and the integration of the administrative apparatus with the central government.[27]:26

This process started in 1834 with the appointment of Bayraktar Mehmet Pasha, who was to rule Mosul for the next four years. After the reign of Bayraktar Mehmet Pasha, the Ottoman government (wishing still to restrain the influence of powerful local families) appointed a series of governors in rapid succession, ruling “for only a brief period before being sent somewhere else to govern, making it impossible for any of them to achieve a substantial local power base.”[27]:29 Mosul's importance as a trading center declined after the opening of the Suez canal, which enabled goods to travel to and from India by sea rather than by land across Iraq and through Mosul.

A coffee house in Mosul, 1914.

Mosul remained under Ottoman control until 1918 when it was taken by the British, with a brief break in 1623 when Persia seized the city, and was the capital of Mosul Vilayet one of the three vilayets (provinces) of Ottoman Iraq.

1918 to 2003

In 1916 a secret agreement was made between the French and the British governments, known as the Sykes–Picot Agreement. It was to draw a straight line from the Jordan heights to Iran: where the northern zone (Syria, and Mount Lebanon) would be under French influence, and the southern zone (Mesopotamia, and later, after re-negotiations in 1917, Palestine, which initially was planned to include Transjordan) would be under British military control. Mosul was in the northern zone, and would have become a French-controlled city; but early discoveries of oil in the region, just before the end of the war in 1918, pushed the British government to yet another negotiation with the French; to include the region of Mosul into the southern (British) zone.

At the end of World War I in October 1918, after the signature of the Armistice of Mudros, British forces occupied Mosul. After the war, the city and the surrounding area became part of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (1918–20), and shortly Mandatory Iraq (1920–32). This mandate was contested by Turkey which continued to claim the area based on the fact that it was under Ottoman control during the signature of the Armistice. In the Treaty of Lausanne, the dispute over Mosul was left for future resolution by the League of Nations. Iraq's possession of Mosul was confirmed by the League of Nations brokered agreement between Turkey and Great Britain in 1926. Former Ottoman Mosul Vilayet eventually became Nineveh Province of Iraq, but Mosul remained the provincial capital.

Mosul in 1932

The city's fortunes revived with the discovery of oil in the area, from the late 1920s onward. It became a nexus for the movement of oil via truck and pipeline to both Turkey and Syria. Qyuarrah Refinery was built within about an hour's drive from the city and was used to process tar for road-building projects. It was damaged but not destroyed during the Iran–Iraq War.

The opening of the University of Mosul in 1967 enabled the education of many in the city and surrounding areas.

After the 1991 uprisings by the Kurds Mosul did not fall within the Kurdish-ruled area, but it was included in the northern no-fly zone imposed and patrolled by the United States and Britain between 1991 and 2003.

Although this prevented Saddam's forces from mounting large-scale military operations again in the region, it did not stop the regime from implementing a steady policy of "Arabisation" by which the demography of some areas of Nineveh Governorate were gradually changed. Despite the program Mosul and its surrounding towns and villages remained home to a mixture of Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens, Shabaks, a few Jews, and isolated populations of Yazidis, Mandeans, Kawliya and Circassians. Saddam was able to garrison portions of the 5th Army within the city of Mosul, had Mosul International Airport under military control, and recruited heavily from the city for his military's officer corps; this may have been due to the fact that most of the officers and generals of the Iraqi Army were from Mosul long before the Saddam regime era.

American Invasion in 2003 to 2014

Saddam Hussein's sons Qusay and Uday were killed in a gun battle in Mosul on July 22, 2003

When the 2003 invasion of Iraq was being planned, the United States had originally intended to base troops in Turkey and mount a thrust into northern Iraq to capture Mosul. However, the Turkish parliament refused to grant permission for the operation. When the Iraq War did break out in March 2003, US military activity in the area was confined to strategic bombing with airdropped special forces operating in the vicinity. Mosul fell on April 11, 2003, when the Iraqi Army 5th Corps, loyal to Saddam, abandoned the city and eventually surrendered, two days after the fall of Baghdad. US Army Special Forces with Kurdish fighters quickly took civil control of the city. Thereafter began widespread looting before an agreement was reached to cede overall control to US forces.

On July 22, 2003, Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, were killed in a gunbattle with Coalition forces in Mosul after a failed attempt at their apprehension.[28] The city also served as the operational base for the US Army's 101st Airborne Division during the occupational phase of the Operation Iraqi Freedom. During its tenure, the 101st Airborne Division was able to extensively survey the city and, advised by the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, non-governmental organizations, and the people of Mosul, began reconstruction work by employing the people of Mosul in the areas of security, electricity, local governance, drinking water, wastewater, trash disposal, roads, bridges, and environmental concerns.[29] Other US Army units to have occupied the city include the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 172nd Stryker Brigade, the 3rd Brigade-2nd Infantry Division, 18th Engineer Brigade (Combat), Alpha Company 14th Engineer Battalion-555th Combat Engineer Brigade, 1st Brigade-25th Infantry Division, the 511th Military Police Company, the 812th Military Police Company and company-size units from Reserve components, an element of the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade, and the 404th Civil Affairs Battalion which covered the areas north of the Green Line.

A soldier from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, engages enemy targets with his machine gun on November 11, 2004

On June 24, 2004, a coordinated series of car-bombs killed 62 people, many of them policemen.

In November 2004, concurrently with the US and Iraqi attack on the city of Fallujah, the Battle of Mosul (2004) began. On November 10, insurgents conducted coordinated attacks on the police stations. The policemen who were not killed in the fighting fled the city, leaving Mosul without any civil police force for about a month. However, soon after the insurgents' campaign to overrun the city had begun, elements from the 25th Infantry Division and components from the Multinational force composed mainly of Albanian forces, took the offensive and began to maneuver into the most dangerous parts of the city. Fighting continued well into the 11th with the insurgents on the defensive and US forces scouring neighborhoods for any resistance.

After November 2004, the city of Mosul suffered tremendously due to deteriorated security conditions (including military actions as well as threats and killing of innocent civilians by insurgents and criminals), unprecedented violence levels (especially on an ethnic basis), continuous destruction of the main infrastructures of the city, and neglect and mismanagement by the occupation forces, by the Nineveh Governorate Council, by multiple political parties as well as by the central Iraqi Government in Baghdad.

The memorial that stands outside the entrance to the Dining Hall on FOB Marez where the December 21, 2004 suicide attack occurred.

On December 21, 2004, fourteen US soldiers, four American employees of Halliburton, and four Iraqi soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on a dining hall at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Marez next to the main US military airfield at Mosul. The Pentagon reported that 72 other personnel were injured in the attack carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest and the uniform of the Iraqi security services. The Islamist group Army of Ansar al-Sunna (partly evolved from Ansar al-Islam) declared responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement.

In early 2005, the head of Mosul's anti-corruption unit, Gen. Waleed Kashmoula, was killed by a bomb which exploded outside his office. In October 2005, the Iraq Interior Department attempted to fire the police chief of Mosul. Mosul Sunni leaders saw it as a Kurdish attempt to seize control over the police. In the end the police chief was replaced by a Sunni Arab, MG Wathiq Al Hamdani, who was a city resident.

U.S. Army soldiers patrol the streets of Mosul, January 2005

In December 2007, Iraq reopened Mosul International Airport. An Iraqi Airways flight carried 152 Hajj pilgrims to Baghdad, the first commercial flight since US forces declared a no-fly zone in 1993, although further commercial flight remained prohibited.[30] On January 23, 2008, an explosion in an apartment building killed 36 people. The following day, a suicide bomber dressed as a police officer assassinated the local police chief, Brig. Gen. Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the director of police for Ninevah province, as he toured the site of the blast.[31]

In May 2008, a military offensive of the Ninawa campaign was launched by US-backed Iraqi Army Forces led by Maj. Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, the commander of military operations in Mosul, in the hope of bringing back stability and security to the city.[32] Though the representatives of Mosul in the Iraqi Parliament, the intellectuals of the city, and other concerned humanitarian groups agreed on the pressing need for a solution to the unbearable conditions of the city, they still believed that the solution was merely political and administrative. They also questioned whether such a large scale military offensive would spare the lives of innocent people.[33]

All these factors deprived the city of its historical, scientific, and intellectual foundations in the last 4 years, when many scientists, professors, academics, doctors, health professionals, engineers, lawyers, journalists, religious clergy (both Muslims and Christians), historians, as well as professionals and artists in all walks of life, were either killed or forced to leave the city under the threat of being shot, exactly as happened elsewhere in Iraq in the years following 2003.[34][35][36][37]

Dead bodies in Mosul

In 2008, many Assyrian Christians (about 12,000) fled the city following a wave of murders and threats against their community. The murder of a dozen Assyrians, threats that others would be murdered unless they converted to Islam and the destruction of their houses sparked a rapid exodus of the Christian population. Some families crossed the borders to Syria and Turkey while others were given shelter in churches and monasteries. Accusations were exchanged between Sunni fundamentalists and some Kurdish groups for being behind this new exodus. For the time being the motivation of these acts is unclear, but some claims linked it to the imminent provincial elections which took place in January 2009, and the related Assyrian Christians' demands for broader representation in the provincial councils.[38][39]

As was predicted by the DIA and others,[40] Mosul was attacked on June 4, 2014 and after 6 days of fighting, on June 10, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant took over the city during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive.[41][42][43] As of August 2014, the city's new ISIL administration was initially dysfunctional with frequent power cuts, tainted water supply, collapse of infrastructure support and failing health care.[44]

Occupation by Islamic State (IS)

Further information: Fall of Mosul

On June 10, 2014, Mosul was occupied by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[45][46] Troop shortages and infighting among top officers and Iraqi political leaders played into Islamic State's hands and fueled panic that led to the city's abandonment.[47] Kurdish intelligence had been warned by a reliable source in early 2014 that Mosul would be attacked by ISIL and ex-Baathists (and had informed the US and UK)[48] however Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Defence Minister turned down repeated offers of help from the Peshmerga. Half a million people escaped on foot or by car in the next 2 days.[49] ISIL acquired three divisions' worth of up-to-date American arms and munitions—including M1129 Stryker 120-mm mortars and at least 700 armoured Humvee vehicles from the then fleeing, or since massacred, Iraqi army.[50] Many residents initially welcomed ISIL[51] and according to a member of the UK Defence Select Committee Mosul "fell because the people living there were fed up with the sectarianism of the Shia dominated Iraqi government."[50]

On 21 January 2015, the US began coordinating airstrikes with a Kurdish-launched offensive, to help them begin the planned operation to retake the city of Mosul.[52]

Once home to 70,000 Assyrian (Syriac) Christians there are possibly none left today in Mosul, any that do remain are forced to pay a tax for remaining Christian, and live under the constant threat of violence.[53][54][55] The indigenous Assyrians who have a history in the region dating back over 4,000 years suffered their Christian churches and monasteries being vandalised and burned down,[56] their ancient heritage sites dating back to the Iron Age destroyed, their homes and possessions stolen by ISIL,[57] and ultimatums to convert to Islam, leave their ancient homelands, or be murdered.[57][58]

During the ISIS occupation of Mosul, phone lines have been cut by ISIL and cell phone towers and internet access destroyed.[59] The residents of the city have been de facto prisoners,[60] forbidden to leave the city unless they post with ISIL a significant collateral of family members, personal wealth and property. They may then leave the city upon paying a significant "departure tax" [61] on a three-day pass (for a higher fee they can surrender their home, pay the fee and leave for good) and if those with a three-day pass fail to return in that time their assets will be seized and family will be killed.[62]

Most female Yazidis from Mosul and the greater Mosul region (Nineveh) are imprisoned and occasionally many are slaughtered because of their resistance[63] to being sold as sex slaves.[64] The Islamic State occupiers have murdered or driven out most minority groups and converted some Yazidi males and Christians to Islam. Women are required to cover their bodies from head to foot in a strict variant of Sharia rule and men are required to fully grow their beards and hair as does the members of the Islamic State. Life in Mosul is one of violent oppression where people suspected of activism against the occupiers, resistance activities, homosexuality, promiscuity or adultery are brutally and summarily tortured and murdered.[65]

The ISIS governor of Mosul, Alian Natiq Mabroush was killed on 18 March 2016 along with ten other jihadist leaders in a U.S. airstrike .[66]

Women

Women must be accompanied by a male guardian[49][67] and wear clothing that covers their body completely including gloves for the hands, niqab for the head and khimar for the full coverage of the body from shoulders to feet.[65]

According to Canadian-based NGO "The RINJ Foundation" which operates medical clinics in Mosul,[68] rape cases in the city prove a pattern of genocide and will lead to a conviction of genocide against the Islamic State, in the International Criminal Court, a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for war-time rape, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression.[69]

The Islamic State was in August 2015 reported to be selling captured women and girls to sex slave traders.[70]

Persecution of religious and ethnic minorities and destruction of cultural sites

ISIL issued an edict expelling (in effect ethnically cleansing) the remaining predominantly ethnic Assyrian and Armenian Christian Mosul citizens, after the Christians failed to attend a meeting to discuss their future status. According to Duraid Hikmat, an expert on minority relationships and resident of Mosul, the Christians were fearful to attend.[71] Emboldened ISIL authorities systematically destroyed and vandalised Abrahamic cultural artifacts such as the cross from St. Ephrem's Cathedral, the tomb of Jonah, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. ISIL militants destroyed and pillaged the Tomb of Seth in Mosul. Artifacts within the tomb were removed to an unknown location.[72]

Students from Muslim minorities have been abducted.[11]

According to a UN report ISIL forces are persecuting ethnic groups in and near Mosul. The Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Yazidis, Turcoman, Mandeans and Shabaks are victims of unprovoked religiously motivated murders, assaults, theft, kidnappings and the destruction of their cultural sites.[71]

Detention of diplomats

Turkish diplomats and consular staff were detained for over 100 days.[78]

Human rights

Scores of people have been executed without fair trial.[79][80] Civilians living in Mosul are not permitted to leave ISIS-controlled areas. ISIS has executed several civilians that were trying to flee Mosul.[81]

Armed opposition

The urban guerrilla warfare groups may be called the Nabi Yunus Brigade after the Nabi Yunus mosque, or the Kataeb al-Mosul (Mosul Brigade).[82] The brigade claims to have killed ISIL members with sniper fire.[83] In the countryside around Mosul, Kurdish and Assyrian militia have also taken up arms to resist ISIL oppression.[84][85]

Demography

A souk (traditional market) in Mosul, 1932

During the 20th century, Mosul city had been indicative of the mingling ethnic and religious cultures of Iraq. There used to be a Sunni Arab majority in urban areas, such as downtown Mosul on the Tigris; across the Tigris and further north in the suburban areas, thousands of Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens, Shabaks, Yazidis and Armenians made up the rest of Mosul's population.[86] Shabaks were concentrated on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Arabization plans in the 1980s by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath party forced some of those minorities to move outside the city, back into nearby Kurdish regions of Iraq. With the Islamic State occupation in 2014, only Sunni Arabs remained in the city. The total population of Mosul dropped to about one million from previous 1.5 million.

Religion

A church in Mosul in about 1850

The majority of people in Mosul are Sunni Muslims. Most people of other religions, including most Assyrian Christians and Shiite Muslims, were ethnically cleansed and driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Despite institutional ethnic persecution by various political powers, including the Ba'ath Party regime, Mosul maintained a multicultural and multi-religious mosaic until ISIL took over. The difficult history of Mosul, however, still contributed to tensions among its modern inhabitants.

Mosul had a significant community of Assyrian Christians who also had an ancient presence in the villages and towns around Mosul in the ancient Nineveh region since c. 2500 BC. The majority of Assyrian Christians follow the Assyrian Church of the East, its offshoots; the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Ancient Church of the East, together with the Syriac Orthodox Church, and a minority of Protestant followers of the Assyrian Pentecostal Church, and Assyrian Evangelical Church.

The Armenian Christian community largely followed the Armenian Orthodox Church.

There were also a small number of Arab Christians belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and a number of Protestant churches, including some Anglicans.

Long before the Muslim conquest of the seventh century, the old city of Nineveh was Christianized when the Assyrians converted to Christianity during the first and second centuries AD.

Other religions, such as Yazidism, Yarsan, Shabakism and Mandean religions also called Mosul home.[87][88]

Mosul had a Jewish population. Like their counterparts elsewhere in Iraq, most left in 1950–51. Most Iraqi Jews have moved to Israel, and some to the United States.[89] In 2003, during the Iraq War, a rabbi in the American army found an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue in Mosul dating back to the 13th century.[90][91]

Language

The Arabic of Mosul is considered to be much softer in its pronunciation than that of Baghdad Arabic, bearing considerable resemblance to Levantine dialects, particularly Aleppan Arabic.


Jaziran Arabic is the lingua franca of communication, education, business, and official work to the majority of the city's residents. Upper class and university-educated residents usually have varying degrees of proficiency in English as well.

Ethnic composition

Before 2014 takeover by ISIS, Mosul population comprised roughly of 90% Sunni Arabs, and the remaining 10% made up of Assyrians, Shabak, Yazidis and Turkmens, with smaller minorities of Armenians, Mandeans, Kawliya and Circassians also extant.

Following the takeover by ISIS, it is believed that most of the population who were not Sunni Arabs (coreligionists of ISIS) were forced out by ISIS, that is, 35% of the residents or just over half a million people.

Government

There are sometimes impromptu checkpoints. Beginning in 2014, there were public executions held by ISIL.[92]As of September 2014, ISIL had a strict hierarchy in place for all areas under the control of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.[93]

Plans to recapture

Between Summer 2014 and January 2015, the Iraqi government was planning to retake the city with the help of the Kurdish Peshmerga, Assyrian militia, Sunni Arab tribes and US-led coalition air support.[94] On 21 January 2015, the Peshmerga, aided by US airstrikes, began a preemptive offensive.

Economy

Inflation and unemployment are high.[95]

Infrastructure

Water supply cuts are common[96] and mobile phone networks have been shut down.[92]

The city is served by Mosul International Airport, which hosts three airlines but had all services suspended after ISIL took over the city during 2014.

Climate

Mosul experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh) with extremely hot, almost rainless summers and cool, rainy winters. Mosul, although not at a particularly high elevation, still receives much more rain than most of Iraq. Rainfall is close to three times that of Baghdad and over twice that of Basra, despite being much further from the Persian Gulf than either. It is in fact adequate for rain-fed cropping of wheat and barley. The Kurdish regions to the north are even wetter.

Snow fell on 23 February 2004,[97] 9 February 2005[98] and 10 January 2013.[99]

Climate data for Mosul
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 21.1
(70)		 26.9
(80.4)		 31.8
(89.2)		 35.5
(95.9)		 42.9
(109.2)		 44.1
(111.4)		 47.8
(118)		 49.3
(120.7)		 46.1
(115)		 42.2
(108)		 32.5
(90.5)		 25.0
(77)		 49.3
(120.7)
Average high °C (°F) 12.4
(54.3)		 14.8
(58.6)		 19.3
(66.7)		 25.2
(77.4)		 32.7
(90.9)		 39.2
(102.6)		 42.9
(109.2)		 42.6
(108.7)		 38.2
(100.8)		 30.6
(87.1)		 21.1
(70)		 14.1
(57.4)		 27.76
(81.98)
Average low °C (°F) 2.2
(36)		 3.4
(38.1)		 6.8
(44.2)		 11.2
(52.2)		 16.2
(61.2)		 21.3
(70.3)		 25.0
(77)		 24.2
(75.6)		 19.1
(66.4)		 13.5
(56.3)		 7.2
(45)		 3.8
(38.8)		 12.83
(55.09)
Record low °C (°F) −17.6
(0.3)		 −12.3
(9.9)		 −5.8
(21.6)		 −4.0
(24.8)		 2.5
(36.5)		 9.7
(49.5)		 11.6
(52.9)		 14.5
(58.1)		 8.9
(48)		 −2.6
(27.3)		 −6.1
(21)		 −15.4
(4.3)		 −17.6
(0.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 62.1
(2.445)		 62.7
(2.469)		 63.2
(2.488)		 44.1
(1.736)		 15.2
(0.598)		 1.1
(0.043)		 0.2
(0.008)		 0.0
(0)		 0.3
(0.012)		 11.8
(0.465)		 45.0
(1.772)		 57.9
(2.28)		 363.6
(14.316)
Average precipitation days 11 11 12 9 6 0 0 0 0 5 7 10 71
Source #1: World Meteorological Organisation (UN)[100]
Source #2: Weatherbase (extremes only)[101]

Historical and religious buildings

Mosul is rich in old historical places and ancient buildings: mosques, castles, churches, monasteries, and schools, many of which have architectural features and decorative work of significance. The town center is dominated by a maze of streets and attractive 19th-century houses. There are old houses here of beauty. The markets are particularly interesting not simply for themselves alone but for the mixture of people who jostle there: Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Iraqi Jews, Kurdish Jews, Iraqi Turkmens, Armenians, Yazidi, Mandeans, Romani and Shabaks.

The Mosul Museum contains many interesting finds from the ancient sites of the old Assyrian capital cities Nineveh and Nimrud. The Mosul Museum is a beautiful old building, around a courtyard and with an impressive facade of Mosul marble containing displays of Mosul life depicted in tableau form. Recently, On February 26, 2015, ISIS militants destroyed the ancient Assyrian artifacts of the museum.

The famous English writer, Agatha Christie, lived in Mosul whilst her second husband, an archaeologist, was involved in the excavation in Nimrud.

Mosques and shrines

Mosque in Mosul

Churches and monasteries

Mosul had the highest proportion of Assyrian Christians of all the Iraqi cities outside of the Kurdish region, and contains several interesting old churches, some of which originally date back to the early centuries of Christianity. Its ancient Assyrian churches are often hidden and their entrances in thick walls are not easy to find. Some of them have suffered from overmuch restoration.

Other Christian historical buildings:

Other sites

Arts

Painting

The so-called Mosul School of Painting refers to a style of miniature painting that developed in northern Iraq in the late 12th to early 13th century under the patronage of the Zangid dynasty (1127–1222). In technique and style the Mosul school was similar to the painting of the Seljuq Turks, who controlled Iraq at that time, but the Mosul artists had a sharper sense of realism based on the subject matter and degree of detail in the painting rather than on representation in three dimensions, which did not occur. Most of the Mosul iconography was Seljuq—for example, the use of figures seated cross-legged in a frontal position. Certain symbolic elements however, such as the crescent and serpents, were derived from the classical Mesopotamian repertory.

Most Mosul paintings were illustrations of manuscripts—mainly scientific works, animal books, and lyric poetry. A frontispiece painting, now held in the Bibliothèque National, Paris, dating from a late 12th century copy of Galen's medical treatise, the Kitab al-diriyak ("Book of Antidotes"), is a good example of the earlier work of the Mosul school. It depicts four figures surrounding a central, seated figure who holds a crescent-shaped halo. The painting is in a variety of whole hues; reds, blues, greens, and gold. The Küfic lettering is blue. The total effect is best described as majestic. Another mid-13th century frontispiece held in the Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, to another copy of the same text suggests the quality of later Mosul painting. There is realism in its depiction of the preparation of a ruler's meal and of horsemen engaged in various activities, and the painting is as many hued as that of the early Mosul school, yet it is somehow less spirited. The composition is more elaborate but less successful. By this time the Baghdad school, which combined the styles of the Syrian and early Mosul schools, had begun to dominate. With the invasion of the Mongols in the mid-13th century the Mosul school came to an end, but its achievements were influential in both the Mamluk and the Mongol schools of miniature painting.

Metalwork

From the 13th-century metal craftsmen centred in Mosul influenced the metalwork of the Islamic world, from North Africa to eastern Iran. Under the active patronage of the Zangid dynasty, the Mosul School developed an extraordinarily refined technique of inlay—particularly in silver—far overshadowing the earlier work of the Sāmānids in Persia and the Būyids in Iraq.

Mosul craftsmen used both gold and silver for inlay on bronze and brass. After delicate engraving had prepared the surface of the piece, strips of gold and silver were worked so carefully that not the slightest irregularity appeared in the whole of the elaborate design. The technique was carried by Mosul metalworkers to Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Persia; similar pieces from those centres are called Mosul bronzes.

Among the most famous surviving Mosul pieces is a brass ewer inlaid with silver from 1232, and now in the British Museum, by the artist Shujā’ ibn Mana. The ewer features representational as well as abstract design, depicting battle scenes, animals and musicians within medallions. Mosul metalworkers also created pieces for Eastern Christians. A candlestick of this variety from 1238 and housed in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, attributed to Dà’ūd ibn Salamah of Mosul, is bronze with silver inlay. It displays the familiar medallions but is also engraved with scenes showing Christ as a child. Rows of standing figures, probably saints, decorate the base. The background is decorated with typically Islamic vine scrolls and intricate arabesques, giving the piece a unique look.

Education

As per ISIS policy, even primary schools are gender segregated, putting a strain on educational resources.[92] Previously the city's largest university, the University of Mosul was closed in 2014.[110]

Health

The most important hospitals in Mosul are: Al Jamhuri hospital, Ibn seena hospital, Al Khansaa teaching hospital, Al-Salam teaching hospital, Ibn Alatheer hospital, Mosul General hospital, Al Batool hospital, Oncology and Nuclear medicine hospital, Al Shifaa hospital for infections.

Sport

The city has one football team capable of competing in the top-flight of Iraqi football – Mosul FC.

On the 28 May 2010, Mosul FC beat the Iraqi champions Arbil, in front of a full crowd at the Al Mosul University Stadium by a single goal scored by Anmar Ismaeil.

Notable Moslawis

See also

References

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  4. ↑ "UN News - Security Council calls for eradicating ISIL safe havens in Syria and Iraq". UN News Service Section. 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  5. ↑ "U.S. State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations".
  6. ↑ Akyol, Mustafa (21 December 2015). "A Medieval Antidote to ISIS". New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2016. and therefore a major city in its self-declared caliphate.
  7. ↑ Isabel Coles (2 October 2015). "Despair, hardship as Iraq cuts off wages in Islamic State cities". Reuters.
  8. ↑ Damian Paletta and Adam Entous (24 March 2015). "Militants in Iraq Siphon State Pay". Wall Street Journal.
  9. ↑ Larry Hart (April 7, 2015). "American nurse rescued from IS, Mosul underground, and IS general killed". Times of Israel.
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  16. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie (1993) Nineveh After 612 BC Alt-Orientanlische Forshchungen 20 p.134
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  43. ↑ "Iraq, Islamic State, Baghdad, War", Al monitor, Sep 2014
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  46. ↑ "Militant group seizes cities in Iraq". CNN. 11 June 2014.
  47. ↑ "How Mosul fell - An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad's story". Reuters. 14 October 2014.
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  54. ↑ Leo Hohmann. "Bishop tells West: Defeat ISIS or give Christians asylum". WorldNetDaily.
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  94. ↑ "Iraqi army readies for assault on Mosul". Al Jazeera. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
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  96. ↑ "In Mosul, Water, Electricity Shortages, And Warnings Of Disease".
  97. ↑ "Snow in Mosul". travbuddy.com.
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  104. ↑ Clark, Heather (27 July 2014). "Muslim Militants Blow Up Tombs of Biblical Jonah, Daniel in Iraq". Christian News Network. Retrieved 28 July 2014. Al-Sumaria News also reported on Thursday that local Mosul official Zuhair al-Chalabi told the outlet that ISIS likewise “implanted explosives around Prophet Daniel's tomb in Mosul and blasted it, leading to its destruction.”
  105. ↑ Hafiz, Yasmine. "ISIS Destroys Jonah's Tomb In Mosul, Iraq, As Militant Violence Continues". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 July 2014. The tomb of Daniel, a man revered by Muslims as a prophet though unlike Jonah, he is not mentioned in the Quran, has also been reportedly destroyed. Al-Arabiya reports that Zuhair al-Chalabi, a local Mosul official, told Al-Samaria News that "ISIS implanted explosives around Prophet Daniel's tomb in Mosul and blasted it, leading to its destruction."
  106. ↑ "ISIS destroys beloved mosque in central Mosul". Rudaw.
  107. ↑ Gianluca Mezzofiore. "Iraq: Isis destroys 19th century Ottoman mosque in central Mosul". International Business Times UK.
  108. ↑ Chaplains Struggle to Protect Monastery in Iraq. NPR's Morning Edition, 21 November 2007. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.
  109. ↑ Retrieved on 2016-01-19
  110. ↑ "ISIS Takeover In Iraq: Mosul University Students, Faculty Uncertain About The Future Of Higher Education". International Business Times. 3 December 2014.

Further reading

Published in the 19th century
Published in the 20th century
Published in the 21st century

External links

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