Mosul
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Mosul (Şablon:Lang-ar Şablon:Transl, North Mesopotamian Arabic: Şablon:Transl; Şablon:Lang-ku,Şablon:Lang-syr, Şablon:Lang-tr) is a city in northern Iraq. Since October 2016 it has been the site of a military operation led by the Iraqi Government, under Haider al-Abadi, in an effort to dislodge and defeat militant forces. The city has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since June 2014, and no westerner has entered the city until the latest initiative. The Battle of Mosul, a military offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U.S. and coalition forces.<ref>Şablon:Cite news</ref>
Located some Şablon:Convert north of Baghdad, the city stands on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas on both the "Left Bank" (east side) and the "Right Bank" (west side), as the two banks are described by the locals compared to the flow direction of Tigris.
At the start of the 21st century, Mosul and its surrounds had an ethnically and religiously diverse population; the majority of Mosul's population were Arabs, with Assyrians,<ref>Soane, E.B. To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise. John Murray: London, 1912. p. 92.</ref><ref>Rev. W.A. Wigram (1929). The Assyrians and Their Neighbours. London.</ref><ref>Unrepresented Nations and People Organization (UNPO). Assyrians the Indigenous People of Iraq [1]</ref> Armenians, Turkmens, Kurds, Yazidis, Shabakis, Mandaeans, Kawliya, Circassians in addition to other, smaller ethnic minorities. In religious terms, mainstream Sunni Islam was the largest religion, but with a significant number of followers of the Salafi movement and Christianity (the latter followed by the Assyrians and Armenians), as well as Shia Islam, Sufism, Yazidism, Shabakism, Yarsanism and Mandaeism.
The city's population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500.<ref>Şablon:Cite web</ref> An estimated half million people fled Mosul in the second half of 2014 when the IS fought with government forces for control of the city. On November 17, 2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, ultimately killing seven civilians, two soldiers, and wounding 35 others.<ref name="ohchr">Şablon:Cite web</ref> While some residents returned, more fled in 2015 as fighting and violence increased, and US bombings pounded the city.
Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil. 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 centers in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed. The Islamic State's leadership in Mosul has kept the Medical College open but it is reported to be barely functional.
Until 2014, the city, together with the nearby Nineveh plains, was one of the historic centers for the Assyrians<ref>Dalley, Stephanie (1993). "Nineveh After 612 BC." Alt-Orientanlische Forshchungen 20. p.134.</ref><ref>Robert D Biggs - "Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Assyria and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of modern Assyrians of the area."</ref> and their churches; the Assyrian Church of the East; its offshoot, the Chaldean Catholic Church; and the Syriac Orthodox Church, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, which was destroyed by Islamic State occupation army in July 2014.<ref>Şablon:Cite news</ref>
İçindekiler
Etymology
The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. There, he notes a small Assyrian town of "Mépsila" (Şablon:Lang-grc) 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 Şablon:Convert north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon's report, the Sasanian Empire's center of Budh-Ardhashir 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 now populated largely by Kurds. It is the only fully-Kurdish neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died 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).<ref>Dalley, Stephanie (1993) "Nineveh After 612 BC," Alt-Orientanlische Forshchungen 20, p.134</ref>
The ancient Nineveh was succeeded by Mepsila after the fall of Assyria between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians. The Assyrians largely abandoned the city, building new smaller settlements such as Mepsila nearby.<ref>Reuters article - reprinted in Nabu Magazine, Vol. 3, Issue 1 (1997)</ref>
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"<ref name="AtlasTours">"Mosul, Iraq" from AtlasTours.net</ref> and "the city of a million soldiers".<ref>Şablon:Cite news</ref>
History
Ancient era and early Middle Ages
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) which united all of the peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule, 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. However, it remained within the geopolitical province of Assyria for a further thirteen centuries (as a part of Achaemenid Assyria, Seleucid Syria, Roman Assyria and Sasanian Asōristān) until the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, after which the region saw a gradual influx of Muslim Arab, Kurdish and Turkic peoples, although the Assyrians continue to use the name Athura for the ecclesiastical province.
Nineveh is mentioned in the Old Assyrian Empire (2025-1750), and during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809-1776 BC) it is listed as a centre of worship of the goddess Ishtar, and it remained as such during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1056 BC). During the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC) Nineveh grew in size and importance, particularly from the reigns of Tukulti-Ninurta II and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) onward, however he chose the city of Kalhu (the Biblical Calah, modern Nimrud) as his capital in place of the ancient traditional capital of Aššur (Ashur), Şablon:Convert from present day Mosul. Thereafter successive Assyrian emperor- monarchs such as Shalmaneser III, Adad-nirari III, Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V and Sargon II continued to expand the city. In approximately 700 BC, King Sennacherib made Nineveh the new capital of Assyria. Immense building work was undertaken, and Nineveh eclipsed Babylon, Kalhu and Aššur in both size and importance, making it the largest city in the world. A number of scholars believe the true location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were in fact at Nineveh.<ref>Dalley, Stephanie, (2013) The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: an elusive World Wonder traced, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-966226-5</ref> The mound of Kuyunjik in Mosul is the site of the palaces of King Sennacherib, and his successors Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal, (who established the Library of Ashurbanipal) and Ashur-etil-ilani. The Assyrian Empire began to unravel from 626 BC onwards, being consumed by a decade of brutal internal civil wars, greatly weakening it. A war ravaged Assyria was subsequently attacked in 616 BC by a vast coalition of its former subjects; most notably the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians. Nineveh fell after a siege and bitter house to house fighting in 612 BC during the reign of Sinsharishkun who was killed defending his capital. His successor, Ashur-uballit II, fought his way out of Nineveh and formed a new Assyrian capital at Harran (now southeastern Turkey).
Mosul (then Mepsila) 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 geopolitical province of Athura, where the region saw a significant economic revival.
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, Syria originally meaning Assyria rather than the modern nation of Syria, which was conquered by the Parthian Empire circa 150 BC.
The city changed hands once again with the rise of the Sasanian Empire in 225 and became a part of the Sasanian province of Asōristān. Christianity was present among the indigenous Assyrian people in Mosul as early as the 1st century, although the ancient Mesopotamian religion remained strong until the 4th 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, the city was annexed to the Rashidun Caliphate by Utba bin Farqad Al-Salami, during the early Muslim conquests, after which it was dissolved as a geopolitical entity.
9th century to 1535
In the late 9th century control over the city was seized by the Turkish dynasts Ishaq ibn Kundaj 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 Upper Mesopotamia for several decades, first as governors of the Abbassids and later as de facto independent rulers. A century later they were supplanted by the Uqaylid dynasty.
Mosul was conquered by the Seljuq Empire 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 Hulagu Khan, 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 Ilkhanate and Jalairid Sultanate and escaped Timur'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 Rabbi Zakkai, presumably connected to the Davidic line. In 1288–1289, the Exilarch was in Mosul and signed a supporting paper for Maimonides.<ref name="jews_of_musul_1981">עזרא לניאדו, יהודי מוצל, מגלות שומרון עד מבצע עזרא ונחמיה, המכון לחקר יהדות מוצל, טירת-כרמל: ה'תשמ"א.</ref><ref>Şablon:Cite book</ref> In the early 16th century, Mosul was under the Turkmen federation of the Ağ Qoyunlu, but in 1508 it was conquered by the Safavid dynasty of Iran.
Ottomans: 1517 to 1918
What started as irregular attacks in 1517 was finalized in 1538, when Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent added Mosul to his empire by capturing it from his archrivals — Safavid Persia.Şablon:Sfn 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 been conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1533, gains which were confirmed by the Peace of Amasya (1555) until the reconquest of Baghdad in 1638, and the resulting treaty of the year after, Ottoman control over Mesopotamia was not decisive,<ref>Şablon:Cite book</ref> and 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 (1638), the liwa’ of Mosul became an independent wilaya."<ref name="Kemp1983">Şablon:Cite journal</ref>Şablon:Rp After the Peace of Amasya, the Safavids recaptured most of Mesopotamia one more time during the reign of king Abbas I (r. 1588-1629). Amongst the newly appointed Safavid governors of Mesopotamia during those years, was Qasem Sultan Afshar, who was appointed governor of Mosul in 1622.Şablon:SfnŞablon:Sfn
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.<ref>Şablon:Cite journal</ref>Şablon:Rp "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."<ref name="Kemp1983" />Şablon:Rp
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’."<ref name="Kemp1983" />Şablon:Rp
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.<ref>Şablon:Citation</ref> 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 indigenous Assyrians).<ref name="Woods 2006">Şablon:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Şablon:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Woods 2006" />
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".<ref name="Shields2000">Şablon:Cite book</ref>Şablon:Rp 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."<ref name="Shields2000" />Şablon:Rp 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.<ref name="Shields2000" />Şablon:Rp
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.”<ref name="Shields2000" />Şablon:Rp 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.
Mosul was the capital of Mosul Vilayet one of the three vilayets (provinces) of Ottoman Iraq,with a brief break in 1623 when Persia seized the city.
During World War I the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria against the British Empire, France and the Russian Empire. In northern Mesopotamia, northern Syria and south east Turkey the Ottomans held the armed support of the Kurds, Turcomans, Circassians and some Arab groups, while the British and Russians were militarily supported by the Assyrians and Armenians (particularly in the wake of the Armenian genocide and Assyrian genocide), and some Arab groups. The Ottomans were defeated, and in 1918 the British occupied Mosul, and indeed the whole of Iraq.
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