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History of Mosul |
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Preamble Mosul (pronounced Almawsil
in standard Arabic ÇáãæÕá , Mosl or
Mosool in colloquial dialect) is the
capital of Naynawa (Nineveh) Governorate äíäæì, in north-western Iraq, some
396 km (250 miles) north-west of Baghdad. It flanks both banks of the Tigris
River, with five bridges linking the two sides. The city's population in 1987 was 664,221 people which had risen to
900,000 by 1979 and
by 2002 had risen to an estimated 1,739,800. It was the nation's second largest city,
after Baghdad, but is now third after Basrah.
About 80% of the population of Mosul is Arab, with a minority of
Kurds,
Assyrians,
and Turkomans.
However, the region to the north is predominantly Kurdish. It is the
largest city in the north of Iraq and the commercial centre of the Muhafadhah
(governorate). The
city is linked by road and rail connections with Baghdad and other Iraqi
cities and nearby Syria and Turkey; it also has an airport. Mosul grew more prosperous after
World War II with increased trade and the development of nearby important oil
fields to the east and north with a refinery in Mosul. It is now a centre for
the production of cement, textiles, sugar etc and a marketplace for
agricultural products. Mosul
Ancient and Modern
The area around Mosul has been inhabited continuously for at least 8,000
years. The first settlement of
Nineveh, a small Neolithic hamlet, was probably founded not later than the 7th
millennium BC. Hassuna-Sāmarā’ and Tall Halaf painted
pottery of the subsequent Early Chalcolithic phases, are characteristic of
the north. This
was succeeded by grey wares such as occur westward in the Jabal Sinjār. Additionally,
farmers during the 4th millennium used clay sickles of a type
found in the Ubaid period which implies contact with the south. From time immemorial,
roads from the foothills of Kurdistan debouched there, and a tributary of the
Tigris, the Khawşar River, added to the value of the fertile
agricultural and pastoral lands in the district. Mosul itself was founded by the Assyrians
in approximately 850 BC by King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria who chose the
city of Nimrud in which to build his capital city, where present day Mosul is
located. It was originally an outpost or citadel
located on the hill of Q'leat on the right bank of the Tigris
across from the ancient city of Nineveh which expanded
onto the left bank to enclose the ruins of Nineveh, the oldest and most populous city of
the ancient Assyrian Empire. Nineveh had been the made the new capital
of Assyria by King Sennacherib in approximately 700 BC. Al-Mosul (meaning the link)
succeeded Nineveh as the Tigris bridgehead between the west and the east. The mound of Kuyunjik
in Mosul is the site of the palaces of King Sennacherib and his grandson Ashurbanipal. Mosul became an important commercial center in the 6th century
BC and was conquered briefly by the Roman
Empire before falling under Muslim
rule in 637
AD. It became the 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. In succeeding centuries a number of
independent dynasties ruled the city which reached its political zenith under
the Zengid dynasty (1127-1222 AD) and Sultan Badr
ad-Din Lu’Lu (1222-37 AD). Saladin
besieged the city unsuccessfully in 1182 AD although the
Ayyubids, the dynasty of Saladin, made a great capital in Mosul, building new
quareter outside the gates, new markets, schools, caravanserais and
mosques. When the traveller Yaqut
visited the city in the thirteenth century, he proclaimed, ‘I have often
heard that the great cities of the world are three; Nishapur because it is
the door to the east, Damascus because it is the door to the west and Mosul
because it is the short way to the two directions through which few do not
pass’. However in 1258 the region’s prosperity ended when it was conquered and
destroyed by the Mongols
under Hülegü who ravaged the entire region.
Mosul itself was finally taken in 1262 after a year-long seige by the
warriors of Gengiz Khan who plundered its wealth, killing its inhabitants and
ending the rule of Saladin’s descendants.
It was next occupied by Shah Ismail in 1508 AD. Shah
Ismail was followed by the Ottomans, who ruled Mosul from 1534 to 1918, with
a brief break in 1623 when Persia seized the city for a short time, and was
the capital of one of the three vilayets (provinces) of Ottoman Iraq
(the other two being Baghdad and Basra). During the Ottoman period Mosul
became a trade centre of their empire and the headquarters of a political
subdivision. It was made famous by the production of fine cotton goods (hence
the word ‘muslin’ in English). Although it was rebuilt under
the rule of the Ottoman Empire and remained important, it did
not regain its earlier grandeur. Under
the British occupation and mandate (1918-32) it regained its stature as the
chief city of the region. Following World War I and
Iraqi independence from Turkey, the city’s commercial importance declined
because it was cut off from the rest of the former Ottoman Empire although
Turkey continued to claim the Mosul area until 1926 when the League of
Nations sent a commission to decide on the conflicting claims of Turkey and
Britain who had forces occupying parts of the province. The League finally attached the
province to the fledgling state of Iraq.
Mosul
held enormous fascination for Europeans in the nineteenth century. They sought in
Nineveh, right across the river, the origins of civilization itself. Many well known
visitors were also attracted to Mosul who left written records of their
visits; they include Gertrude Bell who wrote of her visit in her book Amurath
to Amurath in which she describes something of the history of Mosul, its
people and its political makeup together with a meeting with one of the
notables. The famous crime writer, Agatha Christie, lived in Mosul whilst her
second husband, Max Mallowen the archaeologist, was involved in the
excavation in Nimrud. Like bees building unconventional cells, Mosul's
people innovated during the nineteenth century. They worked to incorporate
new methods, new products, and new interactions into networks that they had
already constructed in their crafts, their commerce, their city, and their
region. Mosul's importance as a strategic trading centre declined following the
opening of the Suez Canal. The canal
resulted in cargoes travelling to and from India by sea rather than by land
across Iraq. However, the city's fortunes revived greatly following the
discovery and exploitation of oil in the area from the late 1920s onwards.
This resulted in it becoming a nexus for the movement of oil via road and
pipeline to both Turkey and Syria.
Approximately one hour’s drive from the City is the Qyuarrah Refinery
which was used for the purpose of processing oil for roadbuilding projects. Since World War II the
city has been enlarged several times in area by new constructions including
The University of Mosul (1967) and a modern five-span bridge stretching
across the Tigris to the new suburb of Nineveh. The Mosul Museum contains
many interesting finds from the ancient sites of Nineveh and Nimrud. The
Mosul House is a beautiful, old-style building, constructed around a central
courtyard and with an impressive facade of Mosul marble. It contains displays
of Mosul life depicted in tableau form. 2 Today your first sight of
Mosul from the south is still a bit disappointing: the buildings are modern
and have a utilitarian look, nearer you can cheer up. You begin to see better
things: the river, the comiche and the old houses that still stand on the
water's edge, and the parks. Also you can see minarets and church spires and
domes above the rooftops. Mosul improves the closer you get to it and it is a
centre for the tourist resorts of northern Iraq. Mosul’s Religious Diversity
Mosul is a religious and
ethnically diverse city.
It has the highest proportion of Christians of all the Iraqi
cities and contains several interesting old churches, including the Clock and
Latin Church, which contains some fine marble and stained glass. The Chaldean
Catholic Church of Al-Tahira was built as a monastery in AD300 and became a
church in 1600 when various additions were built. The Chamoun al Safa church
dates from the thirteenth century and has a most interesting and intricate
approach. It
also has a deep underground courtyard and a cemetery between high walls
containing some ornate tombstones of Moslawi merchants. The city is a historic center of Nestorian
Christianity
containing the tombs of several Old
Testament prophets such as Jonah who is commemorated in a rare
joint Muslim/Christian shrine (originally a Nestorian church, now a mosque),
and the somewhat more obscure Nahum. Also within Mosul is the
Mosque of Nebi Yunus.
This is believed to be the burial place of the Biblical Jonah. The mosque is
built atop a mound beneath which are thought to be part of the ruins of the
ancient city of Nineveh although this is impossible to verify as the
site is sacred and cannot be disturbed. Other monuments are the Great Nuriddine Mosque, built in 1172 with it’s famously crooked minaret standing 52 metres high. It is built of very elaborate brickwork and is named after its builder Nuriddin Zanqi. This is together with the Red Mosque, the mosque of Nabi Jarjis and various other shrines and mausoleums. Nineveh and Assyria
Assyria took its name from
its chief city, Assur, on the upper Tigris. Lying north of Babylonia, on the
great trade route of the Fertile Crescent, the country was frequently invaded
from the north as well as from the south. Constant warfare made the Assyrians
fierce fighters, and traders who passed their way were forced to pay them
tribute for protection. The Assyrians had long been under the control of
Babylon and had absorbed Babylonian culture. Like the Babylonians they were
Semites, and their language was almost identical with the Babylonian. From the Hittites
of Anatolia they learned the use of iron and developed powerful weapons to
build up a military state.
Also from them they acquired horses and were the first
to use them in war as cavalry instead of for drawing chariots. Assyria's greatest period
of expansion took place as the power of the Hittites and Egyptians over Syria
and Palestine gradually weakened. The Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III
(745-727 BC) took Damascus in Syria. Sargon II (722-705 BC), most famous
of Assyrian kings, made Palestine an Assyrian province. His son Sennacherib
(705-681 BC) conquered Sidon, in Phoenicia, but Tyre resisted his assault. Esarhaddon
(681-668 BC) conquered Egypt. Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC), the last of the
great Assyrian kings, subdued Elam, east of Mesopotamia, and extended the
empire to its greatest size. Roads were built to enable the Assyrian armies
to subdue rebels quickly. A highly organized mail service carried messages
from the court to faraway governors. North of Nineveh, Sargon
II built a palace far surpassing anything seen before his day. It covered 25
acres (10 hectares) and had nearly 1,000 rooms. Near it stood a seven-story
ziggurat temple. Sennacherib put up three
magnificent palaces in his capital at Nineveh. The Babylonians had covered
their brick walls with glazed brickwork of many colors, but the Assyrians
faced theirs with delicately carved slabs of limestone or glowing alabaster.
Colossal human-headed winged bulls or lions, carved in alabaster, stood guard
outside the main gates of palaces and temples. The Assyrians produced little
literature, but in great libraries they preserved copies of Babylonian and
Sumerian works. They worshiped the old Babylonian gods but gave their own
god, Assur, first place. After the death of Ashurbanipal in 626 BC, Assyria's
enemies joined forces and in 612 BC the Babylonians and Medes completely
destroyed Nineveh. Six years later the Assyrian Empire collapsed. Archeological History of NinevehThe first person to survey
and map Nineveh was the archaeologist Claudius J Rich in 1820, a work later
completed by Felix Jones and published by him in 1854. Since that time numerous excavations
have been undertaken by archeologists. Austen Henry (later Sir Henry)
Layard during 1845-51 discovered the palace of Sennacherib and took back to
England an unrivalled collection of stone bas-reliefs together with thousands
of tablets inscribed in cuneiform from the great library of Ashurbanipal. The work was
continued in 1852 by Hormuzd Rassam and it was during 1929-32 that R.
Campbell Thompson excavated the temple of Nabu (Nebo) on behalf of the
British Museum and discovered the site of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II. In 1931-32,
together with M.E.L. (later Sir Max) Mallowan, Thompson for the first time
dug a shaft from the top of the Quyunjik (Acropolis), 90 feet (30 metres)
above the level of the plain, down through strata of accumulated debris of
earlier cultures to virgin soil proving that more than four-fifths of this
great accumulation is prehistoric. One of the most remarkable
discoveries that Mallowan and Thompson made in the prehistoric strata
consisted of roughly made bevelled bowls, overturned in the soil and filled
with vegetable matter.
These may have been intended as magical offerings to expel evil
spirits from houses.
Their typology conforms exactly
with that of Uruk (Erech) pottery, widespread throughout the
Tigris-Euphrates Valley in the late 4th millennium. Also in these
levels large metal vases occur, again characteristic of southern Babylonia
and technologically this district of the Tigris had much in common with the
cities of the lower Euphrates Valley of the same period. This similarity is of particular
interest because it indicates that some time before 3000 BC a period of
economic prosperity had united the commercial interests of north and south
although later these two civilizations diverged widely. A little before and after
3000 BC, unpainted
Ninevite pottery was similar to that used at Sumerian sites and from
approximately the same period belongs a series of attractively painted and
incised ware known as Ninevite V, which is a home product distinct from that
of the south. Beads
found in these strata may be dated c. 2900 BC. The most remarkable object
of the 3rd millennium BC is a realistic bronze head; it is life-size, cast and chased of a
bearded monarch. This,
the finest piece of metal sculpture ever recovered from Mesopotamia may
represent the famous king Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334 - c.2279 BC). This bronze head, however (now in
the Iraq Museum, Baghdad), because of its brilliant technique and elaborately
modelled features, is thought by some authorities to belong to a rather later
stage of the Akkadian Period (c. 2334 - c.2154 BC); if so, the head might represent King Naram-Sin (c.
2254 - c. 2218 BC). The hypothesis
for the earlier period seems preferable, for metal work advanced more rapidly
in style in Mesopotamia at that period than did stone sculpture and it is
known from inscriptions that Sargon’s second son, Manishtusu, had built the
temple of E-Mashmash at Nineveh by virtue of being the “son of Sargon” and
thus a model of the founder of the dynasty would have been appropriately
placed there. Surprisingly, there is no
large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs build at all
extensively in Nineveh during the 2nd millennium BC.
Later monarchs whose
inscriptions have appeared on the Acropolis include Shalmaneser I and
Tiglath-pileser I, both of whom were active builders in Ashur; the former had
founded Calah (Nimrūd). Nineveh had to wait for the
neo-Assyrians, particularly from the time of Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883-859 BC) onward, for a considerable architectural
expansion. Thereafter
successive monarchs kept in repair and founded new palaces and temples to
Sin, Nergal, Nanna, Shamash, Ishtar, and Nabu (Nebo). Unfortunately, severe depredations
have left few remains of these edifices. It was Sennacherib who
made Nineveh a truly magnificent city (c. 700 BC). He laid out fresh streets and
squares and built within it the famous “palace without a rival”, the plan of
which has been mostly recovered and has overall dimensions of about 600 by
630 feet. It
comprised at least 80 rooms, of which many were lined with sculpture. A large part of
the famous “K” collection of tablets were found there (see below) and some of
the principal doorways were flanked by human-headed bulls. At this time the total area of
Nineveh comprised about 1,800 acres (700 hectares), and 15 great gates
penetrated its walls.
An elaborate system of 18 canals brought water from the hills
to Neneveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct
erected by the same monarch were discovered at Jerwan, about 25 miles (40
kilmetres) distant. His successor Esarhaddon
built an arsenal in the Nabī Yūnus mound, south of Quyunjik, and
either he or his successor set up statues of the pharaoh Taharqa (Tarku) at
its entrance as trophies to celebrate the conquest of Egypt. These were discovered by Fuad Safar
and Muhammad ‘Alī Muştafā on behalf of the Iraqi Department of
Antiquities in 1954. Later in the 7th
century BC, Ashurbanipal
constructed a new palace at the northwest end of the Acropolis. He also founded
the great library and ordered his scribes to collect and copy ancient texts
throughout the country.
The “K” collection included more than 20,000 tablets or
fragments of tablets and incorporated the ancient lore of Mesopotamia. The subjects are
literary, religious, and administrative, and a great many tablets are in the
form of letters. Branches
of learning represented include mathematics, botany, chemistry, and
lexicology. The
library contains a mass of information about the ancient world and will
exercise scholars for generations to come. Fourteen years after the
death of Ashurbanipal, however, Nineveh suffered a defeat from which it never
recovered. Extensive
traces of ash, representing the sack of the city by Babylonians, Scythians,
and Medes in 612 BC, have
been found in many parts of the Acropolis. After 612 BC the city ceased to be important, although there
are some Seleucid and Greek remains. Xenophon in the Anabasis recorded
the name of the city as Mespila. In the 13th
century AD the city seems
to have enjoyed some prosperity under the atabegs of Mosul. Subsequently, houses continued to be
inhabited at least as late as the 16th century AD.
In these later levels
imitations of Chinese wares have been found. Outline of the city From the ruins it has been established that the
perimeter of the great Assyrian city wall was about 7.5 miles (12 km) long
and in places up to 148 feet (45 m) wide; there was also a great unfinished
outer rampart, protected by a moat, and the Khawşar River flowed through
the centre of the city to join the Tigris on the western side of it. The 15 great gates that
intersected the Acropolis walls were built partly of mud brick and partly of
stone. The
long eastern sector, measuring about 3 miles (5 km) contained six gates; the
southern sector, measuring 2,624 feet (800 m), contained only one, the Ashur
Gate; the western sector, measuring about 2.5 miles (4 km) had five gates and
the northern sector, measuring about 1.2 miles (1.9 km), three gates, Adad,
Nergal, and Sin. Several
of these entrances are known to have been faced with stone colossi (lamassu). In the Nergal
Gate two winged stone bulls, attributable to Sennacherib, have been
reinstalled and a site museum was
erected adjacent to it by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities. The Adad Gate
contained many inscribed tiles and what may prove to be the Sin Gate
contained a corridor that led through an arched doorway into a ramp or
stairwell giving access to the battlements. Most impressive was the
Shamash Gate, which had been thoroughly excavated by Tariq Madhloum on behalf
of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities. It was found to have been approached
across two moats and a watercourse by a series of bridges in which the arches
were cut out of the natural conglomerate. The wall was faced with limestone
and surmounted by a crenellated parapet, behind which ran a defence causeway. The structure was
constructed of mud as well as burnt bricks which bore the stamp of
Sennacherib. There
was an entrance 14.8 feet (4.5 m) wide in the centre of a long, projecting
bastion which was further strengthened by six towers. Crudely incised stone slabs on the
inner side of the gateway depicted the burning of a tower and it is possible
that these carvings represented the
fall of Nineveh and are post-Assyrian. The internal plan of the gate
includes six great chambers lined with uncarved orthostats (upright slabs),
which were discovered by Layard and Rassam. Archeologists have also been active within the Quyunjik (Acropolis). Since 1966 restoration has proceeded on the throne room of Sennacherib’s palace and some of the adjoining chambers. All the entrances to the two main chambers were found to be flanked by winged bull colossi, and a series of orthostats not recorded by any of the 19th century excavators were recovered. One such slab illustrates a foreign city, heavily defended by towers, surrendering to the Assyrian army. Adjoining the throne room is a stone-paved bathroom, and the great ante-hall contained no fewer than 40 carved orthostats. The subjects represented include Sennacherib’s campaigns against mountain-dwelling peoples, besieged cities, and unites of the Assyrian army. Mosul Contributions to Art, Science and Industry
ArtMosul School of Painting
This is 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
solid colours; 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 colourful 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 Mamlük and the Mongol schools of
miniature painting. Mosul School of MetalworkThis was a group of 13th-century
metal craftsmen centred in Mosul who, for centuries to follow, 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; a class of similar metalwork from these centres is 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 flavour.
Mosul in the 20th century
Tigris River and bridge in Mosul. References: 1.
Mosul. Encyclopaedia Britannica
1974, 8; 335 2.
http://www.mideasttravelling.net/iraq/mosul/mosul_history.htm
3.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mosul.htm 4.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul 5.
http://www.arab.net/iraq/iq_mosul.htm 6.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mosul.htm 7.
Jalili
translation of Olson 8.
Mosul
Before Iraq – Like Bees Making Five-Sided Cells, Sarah D Shields 2000 Abbreviation: CE Current Era
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