View source for Place:Mosul

{{Short description|City in Nineveh, Iraq}}
{{Infobox settlement
| official_name            = Mosul
| native_name              = {{lang|ar|الموصل}}
| settlement_type          = City
| image_skyline            = {{Photomontage
| photo1a = مدينة الموصل.jpg 
| photo2a = St. Thomas Church-Mosul.jpg
| photo2b = اثار الحضر.jpg
| photo3a = Mosul river.jpg
| photo3b = Mosul - The river's gate.jpg 
| photo4a = Views around the Mosul Museum in the old city of Mosul in 2019 during the summer, following war with the Islamic State 01.jpg
| photo4b = احد البيوت التراثية في مدينة الموصل.jpg
| photo5a = 
| spacing = 2
| size = 280
}}
| imagesize                = 275
| image_caption            = '''Top to bottom, left to right''':{{br}}View over Tigris river {{br}} Church of Saint Thomas • [[Place:Hatra|Hatra]]  {{br}} Mosul Rural area
 • The river's gate {{br}}Mosul Museum • Heritage house
| image_flag               = 
| image_seal               = 
| image_shield             = 
| nickname                 = Nīnwē ܢܝ݂ܢܘܹܐ <br />
The Pearl of the North
| motto                    = 
| image_map                = 
| map_caption              = 
| pushpin_map              = Iraq#West Asia
| pushpin_label_position   = left
| pushpin_relief           = yes
| pushpin_mapsize          = 
| pushpin_map_caption      = Location in Iraq
| coordinates              = {{coord|36.34|N|43.13|E|region:IQ|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type         = Country
| subdivision_name         = {{flag|Iraq}}
| subdivision_type2        = Governorate
| subdivision_name2        = [[Place:Nineveh Governorate|Nineveh]]
| established_title        = 
| established_date         = 
| government_type          = 
| leader_title             = 
| leader_name              = 
| area_footnotes           = 
| area_magnitude           = 
| area_total_km2           = 180
| area_land_km2            = 
| area_water_km2           = 
| area_urban_km2           = 
| area_metro_km2           = 
| area_blank1_title        = 
| area_blank1_km2          = 
| area_water_percent       = 
| elevation_footnotes      = <ref>{{Cite web |last=Gladstone |first=Philip |date=10 February 2014 |title=Synop Information for ORBM (40608) in Mosul, Iraq |url=http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/ORBM |access-date=16 June 2014 |website=Weather Quality Reporter}}</ref>
| elevation_m              = 223
| elevation_ft             = 732
| population_total         = 1,792,000<!--Note: use population_footnotes for refs, use only unformatted numbers here -->
| population_as_of         = 2023
| population_footnotes     = 
| population_demonym       = Mosuli<br />Maslawi
| population_note          = Macrotrends<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mosul, Iraq Metro Area Population 1950-2023 |url=https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/21536/mosul/population#:~:text=The%20metro%20area%20population%20of,a%203.32%25%20increase%20from%202017. |website=Macrotrends}}</ref>
| postal_code_type         = 
| postal_code              = 
| area_code                = 60
| website                  = 
| footnotes                = 
| unemployment_rate        = 
| timezone                 = AST
| utc_offset               = +3
| timezone_DST             = 
| utc_offset_DST           = 
| name                     = 
| subdivision_type3        = District
| subdivision_name3        = Mosul
}}
[[File:Map of Mosul.svg|thumb|A map of Mosul and its quarters]]
[[File:Views around the Mosul Museum in the old city of Mosul in 2019 during the summer, following war with the Islamic State 01.jpg|thumb|Mosul Museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It contains ancient Mesopotamian  artifacts, mainly Assyrian.]]
[[File:مرقد الإمام يحيى أبو القاسم قبل تفجيره من قبل داعش.jpg|thumb|Shrine of Imam Yahya Abu Al Qasim]]
[[File:Nineveh - Mashki Gate.jpg|thumb|Nineveh - Mashki Gate]]
'''Mosul''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|oʊ|s|əl|,_|m|oʊ|ˈ|s|uː|l}} {{respell|MOH|səl|,_|moh|SOOL}}; {{lang-ar|الموصل|al-Mawṣil}}, {{IPA-ar|alˈmawsˤil|pron|LL-Q13955 (ara)-Zinou2go-الموصل.wav}}, {{IPA-all|ɪlˈmoːsˤɪl|locally}}; {{lang-ku|مووسڵ|translit=Mûsil}};<ref>{{Cite news |title=Nêçîrvan Barzanî: Serxwebûn Mafê Gelê Kurd E |language=ku |agency=Voice of America |url=https://www.dengeamerika.com/a/3432783.html |access-date=13 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=ئەمساڵ كۆنسۆڵخانەى توركيا لە مووسڵ دووبارە دەكرێتەوە |language=ku |agency=Anadolu Agency |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/ks/سياسەت/ئەمساڵ-كۆنسۆڵخانەى-توركيا-لە-مووسڵ-دووبارە-دەكرێتەوە/1697237 |access-date=13 March 2020}}</ref> {{lang-tr|Musul}}; {{lang-syr|ܡܘܨܠ|Māwṣil}}<ref>Thomas A. Carlson et al., "Mosul — ܡܘܨܠ " in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified June 30, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/139.</ref>) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of [[Place:Nineveh Governorate|Nineveh Governorate]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Coker|first=Margaret|date=2017-12-10|title=After Fall of ISIS, Iraq's Second-Largest City Picks Up the Pieces|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-mosul.html|access-date=2021-04-25|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The city is considered the second-largest city in Iraq in terms of population and area after the capital Baghdad, with a population of over 3.7 million. Mosul is approximately {{convert|400|km|abbr=on}} north of [[Place:Baghdad|Baghdad]] on the [[Place:Tigris|Tigris]] river. The Mosul metropolitan area has grown from the old city on the western side to encompass substantial areas on both the "Left Bank" (east side) and the "Right Bank" (west side), as locals call the two riverbanks. Mosul encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of [[Place:Nineveh|Nineveh]] – once the [[History:List of largest cities throughout history|largest city in the world]] – on its east side.

Mosul is considered among the larger and more historically and culturally significant cities of the [[Place:Arab world|Arab world]]. Due to Mosul's strategic location, it has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel. The North Mesopotamian dialect of Arabic, commonly known as Moslawi, is named after Mosul and is widely spoken in the region. Together with the nearby [[Place:Nineveh Plains|Nineveh Plains]], Mosul is one of the historical centers of the Assyrian people.<ref name="Dalley">Dalley, Stephanie (1993). "Nineveh After 612 BC." ''Alt-Orientanlische Forshchungen 20''. p.134.</ref>

Mosul and its surroundings have an ethnically and religiously diverse population; a large majority of its population are Arabs, with Assyrians, Turkmens, Kurds and other minorities comprising the rest of the city's population. Sunni Islam is the largest religion, but there are a significant number of [[Religion:Christians|Christians]], as well as adherents of other sects of [[Religion:Islam|Islam]] and other minority religions.

Historically, essential products of the area include Mosul [[Chemistry:Marble|marble]] and [[Chemistry:Oil|oil]]. Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, one of the Middle East's largest educational and research centers.

==Etymology==
The city's name is first mentioned by [[Biography:Xenophon|Xenophon]] in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, during the reign of the Persian [[Place:Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Empire]]. There, he notes a small Assyrian town of "Mépsila" ({{lang-grc|Μέψιλα}}) on the Tigris around where 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 {{convert|30|km|abbr=on}} north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon's report, the Sasanian Empire's center of Budh-Ardhashir was built. In any case, "Mepsila" is doubtless the root of the current name.

In its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather "Mawsil," means "linking point"—or, loosely, "Junction City," in [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]]. On Mosul's eastern side are the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, and Assyrians still call the entire city ''Nineveh'' (or Ninweh).<ref name = Dalley/>

Mosul is also nicknamed ''al-Faiha'' ("the Paradise"), ''al-Khaḍrah'' ("the Green"), and ''al-Hadbah'' ("the Humped"). It is sometimes called "The Pearl of the North"<ref name="AtlasTours">{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120415094145/http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/mosul.html|url = http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/mosul.html|title =Mosul, Iraq |website = AtlasTours.net |archive-date = 15 April 2012 }}</ref> and "the city of a million soldiers."<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 April 2015 |title=The war against Islamic State (2): Mosul beckons |newspaper=[[Finance:The Economist|The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21648055-it-will-not-be-easy-retake-iraqs-second-city-mosul-beckons |access-date=22 April 2015}}</ref>

==History==
===Ancient era and early Middle Ages===
[[File:Saint Elijah's Monastery 1.JPG|300px|thumb|Dair Mar Elia south of Mosul, Iraq's oldest monastery of the Assyrian Church of the East, dating from the 6th century. It was destroyed by ISIS in 2014.]]
The area where Mosul lies was an integral part of [[Place:Assyria|Assyria]] from as early as the 25th century BC. After the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC), which united all the peoples of [[Place:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]] under one rule, Mosul again became a continuous part of Assyria proper from circa 2050 BC through the fall of the [[History:Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian Empire]] between 612 and 599 BC. Mosul remained within the [[Earth:Geopolitics|geopolitical]] province of Assyria for another 13 centuries (as a part of Achaemenid Assyria, [[Place:Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]], Roman Assyria and Sasanian Asōristān) until the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century. After the Muslim conquests, the region saw a gradual influx of Muslim Arab, Kurdish, and Turkic peoples, although indigenous Assyrians continued to use the name ''Athura'' for the ecclesiastical province. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

[[Place:Nineveh|Nineveh]] was one of the oldest and most significant cities in antiquity and was settled as early as 6000 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nineveh |date=9 July 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Nineveh-ancient-city-Iraq |first=Max|last= Mallowan|website = Britannica}}</ref> The city is mentioned in the Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750 BC) and during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809–1776 BC) it was listed as a center of worship of the goddess Ishtar, remaining so during the [[History:Middle Assyrian Empire|Middle Assyrian Empire]] (1365–1056 BC). During the [[History:Neo-Assyrian Empire|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; he chose the city of Kalhu (the Biblical ''Calah'', modern Nimrud) as his capital in place of the ancient traditional capital of [[History:Assur|Aššur]] ([[History:Assur|Ashur]]), {{convert|30|km|abbr=on}} from present-day Mosul. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

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. Around 700 BC, King Sennacherib made [[Place:Nineveh|Nineveh]] Assyria's new capital. Immense building work was undertaken, and Nineveh eclipsed Babylon, Kalhu and Aššur in size and importance, making it the largest city in the world. Many scholars believe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were 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),  Ashur-etil-ilani, Sin-shumu-lishir and Sin-shar-ishkun. The Assyrian Empire began to unravel in 626 BC, being consumed by a decade of brutal internal civil wars, significantly weakening it. A war-ravaged Assyria was attacked in 616 BC by a vast coalition of its former subjects, most notably their [[History:Babylonia|Babylonia]]n relations from southern Mesopotamia, together with the Medes, Persians, [[History:Chaldea|Chaldea]]ns, [[History:Scythians|Scythians]], [[Social:Cimmerians|Cimmerians]], and Sagartians. Nineveh fell after a siege and bitter house-to-house fighting in 612 BC during the reign of Sin-shar-ishkun, 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 in southeastern Turkey). {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Mosul (then the Assyrian town of Mepsila, founded by the former inhabitants out of the ruins of their former capital) later succeeded Nineveh as the Tigris bridgehead of the road that linked Assyria and [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]] with the short-lived Median Empire and succeeding [[Place:Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Empire]] (546–332 BC), where it was a part of the geopolitical province of Athura (Assyria), where the region, and Assyria in general, saw a significant economic revival. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Mosul became part of the [[Place:Seleucid Empire|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 [[Place:Syria|Syria]]), which the [[History:Parthian Empire|Parthian Empire]] conquered circa 150 BC. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Mosul changed hands 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 [[Religion:Ancient Mesopotamian religion|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. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 637 (other sources say 641), during the period of the Caliph Umar, Mosul was annexed to the [[Place:Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun Caliphate]] by Utba ibn Farqad al-Sulami during the early Arab Muslim invasions and conquests, after which Assyria dissolved as a geopolitical entity. {{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

===9th century to 1535===
[[File:Siège de Mossoul (1261-1262).jpeg|thumb|300px|A Persian miniature depicting the siege of Mosul in 1261–63 from: {{Citation |last=Hamadani |first=Rashid-al-Din |title=Jami' al-tawarikh |author-mask=Rashid-al-Din Hamadani |publisher=Bibliothèque Nationale de France}}.]]
In the late 9th century the Turkic dynasts Ishaq ibn Kundaj and his son Muhammad seized control over Mosul, but in 893 Mosul came once again under the direct control of the [[Place:Abbasid Caliphate|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 [[Place:Upper Mesopotamia|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. Ibn Hawqal, who visited Mosul in 968, described it as a beautiful town inhabited mainly by Kurds.<ref name = bosworth>{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Edmund |title=Historic Cities of the Islamic World |publisher=Brill |year=2007 |isbn=9789047423836 |pages=414}}</ref>

Mosul was conquered by the Seljuk 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 of Mosul unsuccessfully in 1182 After his conquest of Aleppo in 1183, ending Zending rule in Syria, Saladin made a last offensive against Mosul in late 1185, hoping for an easy victory over the presumably demoralized Zengid Emir of Mosul Mas'ud, but failed due to the city's unexpectedly stiff resistance and a serious illness which caused Saladin to withdraw to Harran. Upon Abbasid encouragement, Saladin and Mas'ud negotiated a treaty in March 1186 that left the Zengids in control of Mosul, but under the obligation to supply the Ayyubids with military support when requested.<ref name="BosworthDonzelHeinrichsPellat781">{{harvnb|Humphreys|1991|p=781}}</ref> The city remained in control of the Zengids, until Badr al-Din Lu'lu' took over from 1234 to 1259.  

During the final stages of the [[Social:Mongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia|Mongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia]], in 1258, while about 80 years old, Badr al-Din Lu'lu' went in person to Meraga to offer his submission to the Mongol invader Hulagu.<ref name="EB122">{{cite book |last1=Bretschneider |first1=E. |title=Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century: Volume II |date=5 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-38056-3 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQT_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |language=en}}</ref> Badr al-Din helped the Khan in his following campaigns in Syria. Mosul was spared destruction, but Badr al-Din died shortly thereafter in 1259.<ref name="EB122"/> Badr al-Din's son continued in his father's steps, but after the Mongol defeat in the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260) against the Mamluks, he sided with the latter and revolted against the Mongols. Hulagu then besieged the city of Mosul for nine month, and destroyed it in 1262.<ref name="EB122"/><ref>Kreyenbroek and Rashow, p. 4</ref><ref>Bloom and Blair (eds.), pp. 249, 499</ref> Later Mosul 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.

In 1165, Benjamin of Tudela passed through Mosul. He wrote about a Jewish community of about  7,000 people led by Rabbi Zakkai, presumed to be a scion of the [[Religion:Davidic line|Davidic line]]. In 1288–89, when the Exilarch was in Mosul, he signed a supporting paper for [[Biography:Maimonides|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>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Herbert A. |title=Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-19-517321-X |location=New York |page=560}}</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.

====Metalworking industry====
{{Undue weight|section|date=November 2022}}
[[File:The Blacas ewer from Mosul.png|thumb|left|The Blacas ewer, made by Shuja' ibn Man'a in Mosul in 1232, is one of the most famous brass pieces from Mosul.]]
In the 13th century, Mosul had a flourishing industry making luxury brass items that were ornately [[Engineering:Inlay|inlaid]] with silver.<ref name="Rice 1957">{{cite journal |last1=Rice |first1=D.S. |title=Inlaid Brasses from the Workshop of Aḥmad al-Dhakī al-Mawṣilī |journal=Ars Orientalis |date=1957 |volume=2 |pages=283–326 |jstor=4629040 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629040 |access-date=17 November 2022}}</ref>{{rp|283–6}} Many of these items survive today; in fact, of all medieval Islamic artifacts, Mosul brasswork has the most epigraphic inscriptions.<ref name="Raby 2012">{{cite book |last1=Raby |first1=Julian |editor1-last=Porter |editor1-first=Venetia |editor2-last=Rosser-Owen |editor2-first=Mariam |title=Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World |date=2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85773-343-6 |url=https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/19550/fsg_Julian%20Raby_%202012%20Mosul_watermarked.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=18 November 2022 |chapter=The Principle of Parsimony and the Problem of the 'Mosul School of Metalwork' |pages=11–85}}</ref>{{rp|12}} However, the only reference to this industry in contemporary sources is the account of Ibn Sa'id, an Andalusian geographer who traveled through the region around 1250.<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|283–4}} He wrote that "there are many crafts in the city, especially inlaid brass vessels which are exported (and presented) to rulers".<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|284}} These were expensive items that only the wealthiest could afford, and it wasn't until the early 1200s that Mosul had the demand for large-scale production of them.<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|285}} Mosul was then a wealthy, prosperous capital city, first for the Zengids and then for Badr al-Din Lu'lu'.<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|285}}

The origins of Mosul's inlaid brasswork industry are uncertain.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|52}} The city had an iron industry in the late 10th century, when al-Muqaddasi recorded that it exported iron and iron goods like buckets, knives and chains.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|52}} However, no surviving metal objects from Mosul are known before the early 13th century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|52}} Inlaid metalworking in the Islamic world was first developed in Khurasan in the 12th century by silversmiths facing a shortage of silver.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|52–3}} By the mid-12th century, [[Place:Herat|Herat]] in particular had gained a reputation for its high-quality inlaid metalwork.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} The practice of inlaying "required relatively few tools" and the technique spread westward, perhaps by Khurasani artisans moving to other cities.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}}

By the turn of the 13th century, the silver-inlaid-brass technique had reached Mosul.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} A pair of engraved brass ''flabella'' found in Egypt and possibly made in Mosul are dated by a Syriac inscription to the year 1202, which would make them the earliest known Mosul brasses with a definite date (although they are not inlaid with anything).<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|49–50}} One extant item may be even older: an inlaid ewer by the master craftsman Ibrahim ibn Mawaliya is of an unknown date, but D.S. Rice estimated that it was made around 1200.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} Production of inlaid brasswork in Mosul may have already begun before the turn of the century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53–4}}

The body of Mosul metalwork significantly expands in the 1220s - several signed and dated items are known from this decade, which according to Julian Raby "probably reflects the craft's growing status and production."<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54}} In the two decades from roughly 1220 to 1240, the Mosul brass industry saw "rapid innovations in technique, decoration, and composition".<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54}} Artisans were inspired by miniature paintings produced in the Mosul area.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54}}

Mosul seems to have become predominant among Muslim centers of metalwork in the early 13th century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} Evidence is partial and indirect - relatively few objects which directly state where they were made exist, and in the rest of cases it depends on ''nisbah''s.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} However, al-Mawsili is by far the most common ''nisbah''; only two others are attested: al-Is'irdi (referring to someone from Siirt) and al-Baghdadi.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}} There are, however, some scientific instruments inlaid with silver that were made in Syria during this period, with the earliest being 1222/3 (619 AH).<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|53}}

Instability after the death of Badr al-Din Lu'lu' in 1259, and especially the Mongol siege and capture of Mosul in July 1262, probably caused a decline in Mosul's metalworking industry.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54}} There is a relative lack of known metalwork from the Jazira in the late 1200s; meanwhile, an abundance of metalwork from [[Place:Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] Syria and Egypt is attested from this same period.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54}} This doesn't necessarily mean that production in Mosul ended, though, and some extant objects from this period may have been made in Mosul.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|54–5}}

[[File:Ewer from Mosul, 1246-1247 CE.jpg|thumb|Ewer from Mosul, 1246-1247 CE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ewer The Walters Art Museum |url=https://art.thewalters.org/detail/22888/ewer-4/ |website=Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs - MetPublications - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=2016 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |page=Page 138, item 68 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Court_and_Cosmos |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Homberg ewer. Inlaid Brass with Christian Iconography. probably Mosul, dated 1242–43.jpg|thumb|Homberg ewer. Inlaid Brass with Christian Iconography. probably Mosul, dated 1242–43.<ref>{{cite book |title=Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs - MetPublications - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=2016 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |page=265 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Court_and_Cosmos |language=en}}</ref>]]
The earliest definite evidence of Mawsili craftsmen emigrating westward to Mamluk Syria and Egypt dates from the 1250s.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|23, 54}} Extant Mawsili works from these regions seem to be the result of one particular family setting up workshops in [[Place:Damascus|Damascus]] and then [[Place:Cairo|Cairo]] rather than a mass movement of Mosul artisans to those cities.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|37}} Five Mawsili craftsmen are known from these two cities in the late 13th century, of which 3 or 4 are members of this same family.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|37}} The first is Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Mawsili, who produced the earliest known silver-inlaid work from Damascus in the late 1250s.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|39}} His presumed son, Ali ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Mawsili, was active in Cairo several decades later.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|37–9}} However, the earliest known silver-inlaid brasswork from Cairo belongs to another presumed member of this family, Muhammad ibn Hasan.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|37–9}} His one known work, a candlestick dated to 1269, has an inscription which suggests he died before it was completed.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|39}} The "key figure" for early Mamluk metalwork in Cairo, however, was Ali ibn Husayn.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|39}} His works from the 1280s both show Mosul influence as well as a different "early Mamluk" style.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|39}} A final member was Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Husayn, a grandson of Husayn ibn Muhammad, who was active at the turn of the 14th century and made "a major work" for the Rasulid sultan al-Mu'ayyad Hizabr al-Din Dawud ibn Yusuf.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|42–4}} This family appears to have initiated "two of the most characteristic features of 14th-century Mamluk metalwork: large-scale inspirational candlesticks, and large multi-lobed medallions with a wide border that eventually became filled with flying ducks".<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|42}}

Mosul metalwork eventually influenced a tradition of metal inlay in Fars and elsewhere in western Iran in the 14th century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|55}} The Ilkhanids rounding up artisans and gathering them in their capital of [[Place:Tabriz|Tabriz]] for centralized royal production may have played a role in this transmission.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|55}}

Only two items are definitively known to have been produced in Mosul.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|23}} The first is the Blacas ewer, made by Shuja' ibn Man'a in 1232, and the second is a silver-inlaid pen box made by Ali ibn Yahya in 1255/6 (653 AH).<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|12, 23}} No other works by either craftsman are known.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|23}} They form part of the broader Mosul work which consists of 35 known surviving brasses made by artisans with the ''nisbah'' al-Mawsili, by some 27 different makers.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|22}} 80% of them are from the years 1220 to 1275, and the remaining 20% are from 1275 to about 1325.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|23}}

Modern western scholarship has termed this body of metalwork attributed to Mosul the "Mosul School", although the validity of this grouping is disputed.<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|283}} The "indiscriminate" attribution of silver-inlaid brasses to Mosul,<ref name="Rice 1957"/>{{rp|283}} particularly by Gaston Migeon at the turn of the 20th century, led to a reaction against the term.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|13}} Later scholars such as Max van Berchem, Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu, and D.S. Rice all took a more skeptical view; van Berchem in particular argued that only six known items could be definitely attributed to Mosul, and others were likely made elsewhere.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|13–5}} Souren Melikian-Chirvani remarked in 1973 that Mosul had been famous in the west for a century for metalwork it did not make.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|11}} However, Julian Raby has defended the concept of the Mosul School, arguing that the city did have a distinct metalworking tradition with its own techniques, styles and motifs, and sense of community.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|11–2}} He compared Mosul's metalwork to Kashan's pottery and wrote that "Mawsili metalworkers displayed a conscious sense of community and tradition and, at least in the early years, a proud acknowledgement of tradition" and that the city's metalwork gained a wide reputation or "[[Social:Brand|brand]] value" lasting for over a century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|57}}

Part of Raby's argument was that many items shared one or two recurring symbols that "served no practical purpose" and may have been meant as a "brand", "workshop mark", a "guild emblem", or "perhaps as a mark of master craftsmanship".<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|12, 31, 33, 56}} The first one is an octagon filled with complex geometric patterns, which appears on at least 13 items over the course of three decades: the 1220s through the 1240s.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|30–2}} Several of the most important Mosul artists from what Raby terms the "second generation of Mosul metalwork" all used this symbol: Ahmad al-Dhaki, Ibn Jaldak, Shuja' ibn Man'a, Dawud ibn Salama, and Yunus ibn Yusuf.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|32}} A notable absence is Ibrahim ibn Mawaliya, a member of the first generation.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|32}} The octagon disappears after about 1250, and is also not used by workers known to have been outside Mosul.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|32}}

Another recurring symbol is a rosette with either 10 or 12 leaves found at the bottom of the item - either the base of a ewer or the bottom of the shaft of a candlestick.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|33}} This is not normally visible, and perhaps because it served no practical purpose, it was eventually abandoned around the middle of the century.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|33}} The last example of this rosette is the bottom of a candlestick made by Dawud ibn Salama in 1248/9 (646 AH).<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|33}}

Raby suggested that Ibrahim ibn Mawaliya "may have been a seminal figure" in the Mosul brasswork industry.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|33}} The particular phrasing of the "benedictory inscriptions" on his objects, bestowing good luck on their owners, is repeated in several works by other Mosul craftsmen.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|33}} Two assistants of Ibrahim ibn Mawaliya's are known: his ''tilmidh'' (apprentice) Isma'il ibn Ward, and his ''ghulam'' Qasim ibn Ali.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|24}} Ahmad al-Dhaki's workshop was possibly also "intimately connected to others in Mosul".<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|35}}

The Mosul metalwork is the only example in the Muslim world where metalworkers recorded their relationships between masters and apprentices (''tilmidh'') and hirelings (''ajir'').<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|56}} This was apparently a point of pride for Mosul artisans.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|56}} Julian Raby speculated that two elaborate but impractically tiny Mosuli objects, a tiny 6x4&nbsp;cm box made by Isma'il ibn Ward and an anonymous 8-cm-tall bucket, were made as "credential work" by apprentice or journeyman metalworkers as part of a test to be accepted into a craftsman's guild.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|56–7}}

According to Raby, the Mosul metalwork may have been part of the gifts that Badr al-Din Lu'lu' gave to other rulers to appease them as part of his ''[[Social:Realpolitik|realpolitik]]'' diplomacy.<ref name="Raby 2012"/>{{rp|29}}

===Ottoman period===
[[File:Conquest of Mosul by Mustafa Pasha in 1631, a Turkish soldier in the foreground holding a severed head.jpg|alt=|thumb|Conquest of Mosul (Nineveh) by Mustafa Pasha in 1631, a Turkish soldier in the foreground holding a severed head. L., C. (Stecher) 1631 -1650]]
[[File:Niebuhr1778bd2 Mosul.jpg|thumb|Map of Mosul in 1778, by Carsten Niebuhr]]
What started as irregular attacks in 1517 were finalized in 1538, when [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Religion:Sultan|Sultan]] Suleiman the Magnificent added Mosul to his empire by capturing it from his archrival, Safavid Persia.{{sfn|Rothman|2015|page=236}} 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 its fabrics and flourishing trades.

[[Place:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]] had been acquired by the [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Empire]] in 1555 by the Peace of Amasya, but until the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 Ottoman control over Mesopotamia was not decisive.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Stanford J. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan/page/199 |title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280–1808 |last2=Shaw |first2=Ezel Kural |date=1976 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-29163-7 |location=Cambridge |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan/page/199 199]}}</ref> After the Peace of Amasya, the Safavids recaptured most of Mesopotamia one more time during the reign of king Abbas I (r. 1588–1629). Among the newly appointed Safavid governors of Mesopotamia during those years was Qasem Sultan Afshar, who was appointed governor of Mosul in 1622.{{sfn|Nasiri|Floor|2008|page=248}}{{sfn|Oberling|1984|pages=582–586}} Before 1638, the Ottomans considered Mosul "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 [[Earth:Anatolia|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">{{Cite journal |last=Kemp |first=Percy |year=1983 |title=Power and Knowledge in Jalili Mosul |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=201–12 |doi=10.1080/00263208308700543}}</ref>{{rp|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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Al-Tikriti |first=Nabil |year=2007 |title=Ottoman Iraq |journal=Journal of the Historical Society |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=201–11 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5923.2007.00214.x}}</ref>{{rp|203–204}} "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" />{{rp|203}}

In line with its status as a politically stable trade route between the [[Place:Mediterranean Basin|Mediterranean]] and the Persian Gulf, Mosul developed considerably during the 17th and early 18th centuries. Like 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 that 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" />{{rp|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.<ref>{{Citation |last=Khoury |first=Dina Rizk |title=State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire. Mosul, 1540–1834 |page=19 |year=1997 |series=Studies in Islamic Civilization |publisher=Cambridge}}</ref> Such families establish themselves through private enterprise, solidifying their influence and assets through rents on land and taxes on manufacturing.

As well as by elected officials, Mosul's social architecture 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">{{Cite web |last=Woods |first=Richard |year=2006 |title=Iraq Perspectives: Catholics and Dominicans in Iraq |url=http://www.domlife.org/Justice/Iraq/PerspectivesJanuary06.htm |access-date=2009-09-13 |publisher=Dominican Life}}</ref> In 1873 they were followed by the Dominican nuns, who established schools, health clinics, a printing press, an orphanage, and workshops to teach girls sewing and embroidery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rasam |first=Suha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYC93sfHXAEC&pg=PA138 |title=Christianity in Iraq: Its Origins and Development to the Present Day |publisher=Gracewing |year=2005 |isbn=9780852446331 |access-date=2009-09-13}}</ref> A congregation of Dominican sisters founded in the 19th century still had its motherhouse in Mosul in the early 21st century. Over 120 Assyrian Iraqi Sisters belonged to this congregation.<ref name="Woods 2006" />

In the 19th century the Ottoman government started to reclaim central control over its outlying provinces. Their aim was to "restore Ottoman law, and rejuvenate the military" and to revive "a secure tax base for the government".<ref name="Shields2000">{{Cite book |last=Shields |first=Sarah D. |title=Mosul Before Iraq: Like Bees Making Five-Sided Cells |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-7914-4487-2 |location=Albanay}}</ref>{{rp|24–26}} In order to reestablish rule, in 1834 the sultan abolished public elections for governor, and began "neutraliz[ing] local families such as the Jalilis and their class"<ref name="Shields2000" />{{rp|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 [[Finance:Tariff|tariff]] rates, the consolidation of internal taxes and the integration of the administrative apparatus with the central government.<ref name="Shields2000" />{{rp|26}}

This process started in 1834 with the appointment of Bayraktar Mehmed Pasha, who was to rule Mosul for the next four years. After his reign, 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" />{{rp|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 through Mosul.
[[File:Mosul.jpg|thumb|A coffee house in Mosul, 1914.]]

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.

===1918 to 1990s===
At the end of World War I in October 1918, after the Armistice of Mudros, British forces occupied Mosul. After the war, the city and surrounding area became part of the British-occupied Iraq (1918–1920) and then Mandatory Iraq (1920–1932). This mandate was contested by Turkey, which continued to claim the area on the grounds 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. In 1926, Iraq's possession of Mosul was confirmed by the League of Nations' brokered agreement between Turkey and Great Britain. Former Ottoman Mosul Vilayet became the [[Place:Nineveh Governorate|Nineveh Governorate]] of Iraq, but Mosul remained the provincial capital.

[[File:Hadba-16200v.jpg|thumb|Mosul in 1932. The leaning minaret of Great Mosque of al-Nuri gave the city its nickname "the hunchback" (الحدباء al-Ḥadbāˈ)]]
Mosul's fortunes revived with the discovery of [[Chemistry:Petroleum|oil]] in the area, from the late 1920s onward. It became a nexus for the movement of oil via truck and pipeline to 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 area.
[[File:Mosul, 1968.jpg|thumb|Mosul, 1968]]
[[File:Iraqi police, U.S. Soldiers patrol neighborhood in Mosul DVIDS40282.jpg|thumb|228x228px|Iraqi police, U.S. Soldiers patrol neighborhood in Mosul, March 19, 2007]]
After Iraq's 1991 uprisings, Mosul 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 his regime from implementing a steady policy of "Arabisation" by which the demography of some areas of Nineveh Governorate were gradually changed. Despite this program, Mosul and its surrounding towns and villages remained home to a mixture of Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens, Shabaks, a few [[Religion:Jews|Jews]], and isolated populations of Yazidis, Mandeans, Kawliya and Circassians.

Saddam was able to garrison portions of the 5th Army within Mosul, had Mosul International Airport under military control, and recruited heavily from Mosul for his military's officer corps. This may have been because most of the Iraqi Army officers and generals were from Mosul long before the Saddam regime.

===2003 American led invasion===
[[File:Defense.gov News Photo 030722-A-3450H-043.jpg|thumb|300px|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, but the Turkish parliament refused to grant permission for the operation. When the Iraq War broke out in March 2003, U.S. military activity in the area was confined to strategic bombing with airdropped [[Social:Special forces|special forces]] in the vicinity. Mosul fell on 11 April 2003, when the Iraqi Army 5th Corps, loyal to Saddam, abandoned the city and surrendered two days after the fall of Baghdad. U.S. 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 U.S. forces.

On 22 July 2003, Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, were killed in a gun battle with Coalition forces in Mosul after a failed attempt at their capture.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/22/sprj.irq.sons/index.html Pentagon: Saddam's sons killed in raid ]. CNN.com (2003-07-22). Retrieved on 2011-07-02.</ref> Mosul 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 security, electricity, local governance, drinking water, wastewater, trash disposal, roads, bridges, and environmental concerns.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sheridan |first1=Mary Beth |title=For Help in Rebuilding Mosul, U.S. Turns to Its Former Foes |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/04/25/for-help-in-rebuilding-mosul-us-turns-to-its-former-foes/ca1a1ff0-f5b3-421f-97a5-0c8a49f43364/ |access-date=27 September 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=25 April 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=Coalition helps rebuild more than 800 schools in northern Iraq - Iraq {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/coalition-helps-rebuild-more-800-schools-northern-iraq |access-date=27 September 2023 |work=reliefweb.int |agency=US Department of State |date=11 October 2003 |language=en}}</ref>

Other U.S. Army units to have occupied the city include the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 172nd [[Engineering:Stryker|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.{{clarify|date=October 2014}} The 67th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) from January 2004 to January 2005, running split based operations in Mosul and Tikrit. The Task Force (TF) 67 Headquarters and Company B operated out of Forward Operating Base (FOB) Diamondback (Mosul), and Company A operating out of FOB Speicher (Tikrit).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stripes.com/news/w%C3%BCrzburg-hospital-team-is-home-from-iraq-1.28212 |title=Würzburg hospital team is home from Iraq - News - Stripes |website=www.stripes.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019221649/https://www.stripes.com/news/w%C3%BCrzburg-hospital-team-is-home-from-iraq-1.28212 |archive-date=2020-10-19}}</ref>

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

On 21 December 2004, 14 U.S. soldiers, four American employees of [[Company:Halliburton|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 U.S. 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 [[Religion:Islamism|Islamist]] group Army of Ansar al-Sunna (partly evolved from Ansar al-Islam) took responsibility for the attack in an online statement.

In December 2007, Iraq reopened Mosul International Airport. An Iraqi Airways flight carried 152 [[Religion:Hajj|Hajj]] pilgrims to Baghdad, the first commercial flight since U.S. forces declared a no-fly zone in 1993, though further commercial flight remained prohibited.<ref name="Forbes.com">{{Cite web |title=Iraq reopens Mosul airport after 14 years – US military |website={{wipe|Forbes}}|url=https://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2007/12/04/afx4401017.html}}{{dead link|date=January 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> On 23 January 2008, an explosion in an apartment building killed 36 people. The next day, a suicide bomber dressed as a police officer assassinated the local police chief, Brigadier General Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the director of police for Nineveh province, as he toured the site of the blast.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gamel |first=Kim |date=January 25, 2008 |title=Provincial Police Chief Killed in Mosul |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2008Jan24/0,4675,Iraq,00.html}}</ref>

In May 2008, US-backed Iraqi Army Forces led by Major General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, the commander of military operations in Mosul, launched a military offensive of the Ninawa campaign in hopes of bringing stability and security to the city.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 11, 2008 |title=Sadrists and Iraqi Government Reach Truce Deal |work={{wipe|New York Times}} |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html}}</ref> 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 city's unbearable conditions, but still believed the solution was political and administrative. They also questioned whether such a large-scale military offensive would spare the lives of innocent people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://almosul.org/Action4Mosul/Almosul_Dirk.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011204327/http://almosul.org/Action4Mosul/Almosul_Dirk.pdf |archive-date=October 11, 2013 |access-date=2009-03-12}}</ref>

All these factors deprived the city of its historical, scientific and intellectual foundations between 2003 and 2008, when many scientists, professors, academics, doctors, health professionals, engineers, lawyers, journalists, religious clergy (both Muslim and Christian), historians, as well as professionals and artists, were either killed or forced to leave the city under the threat of being shot, exactly as happened elsewhere in Iraq in those years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plight of Iraqi Academics |url=http://www.iraqis.org.uk/Contents/HR/pia_ppp_605.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515183228/http://www.iraqis.org.uk/Contents/HR/pia_ppp_605.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2006 |access-date=2008-05-10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Human Rights in Iraq |url=http://almosul.org/Contents/HR/0_FP_HR.htm |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629172718/http://almosul.org/Contents/HR/0_FP_HR.htm |archive-date=June 29, 2006 |access-date=2009-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Iraq's deadly brain drain |publisher=France 24 |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20080510-iraqs-deadly-brain-drain-iraq |url-status=dead |access-date=2011-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521200915/http://www.france24.com/en/20080510-iraqs-deadly-brain-drain-iraq |archive-date=2011-05-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=October 16, 2004 |title=Losing Mosul? |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,725055,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041019000438/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,725055,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 19, 2004 |access-date=May 13, 2010}}</ref>

===Christian exodus===
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 fled to Syria and Turkey; others were given shelter in churches and monasteries. Accusations were exchanged between Sunni fundamentalists and some Kurdish groups of being behind this new exodus. Some claims linked it to the provincial elections of January 2009, and the related Assyrian Christians' demands for broader representation in the provincial councils.<ref>Muir, Jim. (2008-10-28) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7696242.stm "Iraqi Christians' fear of exile"]. BBC News. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.</ref><ref>"[http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.violence/index.html Christians flee Iraqi city after killings, threats, officials say] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012122918/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.violence/index.html |date=2008-10-12 }}." CNN. 11 October 2008.</ref>

Mosul was attacked on 4 June 2014. After six days of fighting, on 10 June the Islamic State took over the city during the June 2014 Northern Iraq offensive.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Abdulrahim |first=Raja |date=5 October 2014 |title=Iraqi Kurdish forces moving toward complex battle in Mosul |work=The {{wipe|Los Angeles Times}} |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-mosul-front-20141005-story.html |access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Iraq's battles need sense of resolve |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29516539|first = Lyse|last = Doucet|date = 6 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Iraq, Islamic State, Baghdad, War |date=Sep 2014 |url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/iraq-islamic-state-baghdad-war.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019181057/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/iraq-islamic-state-baghdad-war.html |publisher=Al monitor |access-date=2014-10-19 |archive-date=2014-10-19 |url-status=dead}}</ref> By August, the city's new ISIL administration was dysfunctional, with frequent power cuts, a tainted water supply, collapse of infrastructure, and failing health care.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Laila Ahmed |title=Since Islamic State swept into Mosul, we live encircled by its dark fear |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/29/islamic-state-isis-mosul-encircled-fear-trapped-in-dark-ages |website=The Guardian|date=29 August 2014 }}</ref>

===Government by the Islamic State===
On June 10, 2014, the [[Religion:Islamic State|Islamic State]] captured Mosul, after the Iraqi troops stationed there withdrew.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 June 2014 |title=How can militants take over Iraqi cities? |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25588623}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=12 June 2014 |title=Recording: ISIS promises more fighting in more Iraqi cities |publisher=CNN |url= http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/11/world/meast/iraq-violence/|first1 = Jim |last1=Sciutto|first2= Nic|last2= Robertson |first3= Laura|last3= Smith-Spark}}</ref><ref name= "aljazeera.net">{{Cite web|title=قائد عسكري سابق: المالكي أمر بسحب القوات من الموصل|url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2015/6/20/قائد-عسكري-سابق-المالكي-أمر-بسحب |access-date=2022-02-09 |website= www.aljazeera.net |language=ar}}</ref> Troop shortages and infighting among top officers and Iraqi political leaders played into ISIL's hands and fueled panic that led to the city's abandonment.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 October 2014 |title=How Mosul fell – An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad's story |work= Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-gharawi-special-report-idUSKCN0I30Z820141014}}</ref> Half a million people escaped on foot or by car during the next two days.<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news |date=29 August 2014 |title=Since Islamic State swept into Mosul, we live encircled by its dark fear |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/29/islamic-state-isis-mosul-encircled-fear-trapped-in-dark-ages}}</ref> According to western and pro-Iraqi government press, Mosul residents were de facto prisoners,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Loveday morris |date=October 19, 2015 |title=Isis in Iraq: Mosul residents are paying traffickers and risking their lives to escape cruel grip of Islamic State |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-iraq-mosul-residents-are-paying-traffickers-and-risking-their-lives-to-escape-cruel-grip-of-a6700441.html}}</ref> forbidden to leave the city unless they left ISIL a significant collateral of family members, personal wealth and property. They could then leave after paying a significant "departure tax"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sinan Salaheddin |date=March 13, 2015 |title=ISIS Blocks Trapped Residents From Leaving Iraq's Mosul |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/isis-mosul-residents-trapped_n_6862898.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825111019/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/isis-mosul-residents-trapped_n_6862898.html |archive-date=August 25, 2015 |website=Huffington Post}}</ref> for a three-day pass (for a higher fee they could surrender their home, pay the fee and leave for good) and if those with a three-day pass failed to return within that time, their assets would be seized and their family killed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Abdelhak Mamoun |date=Mar 11, 2015 |title=ISIS warns people of Mosul not to leave city |publisher=Iraqi News |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/islamic-state-introduces-new-restrictions-to-prevent-mosul-residents-from-fleeing-city/article23443591/}}</ref> 

{{Multiple image
| image1            = Humvee down after isis attack.jpg
| caption1          = Humvee down after Islamic State attack in 2014.
| image2            = ISOF APC on the street of Mosul, Northern Iraq, Western Asia. 16 November, 2016.jpg
| caption2          = ISOF on the street of Mosul, 16 November 2016. The city was liberated in 2017.
}}

Ali Ghaidan, a former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, accused al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city.<ref name="aljazeera.net"/> A short period of time after, Al-Maliki called for a national [[Social:State of emergency|state of emergency]] on 10 June following the attack on Mosul, which had been seized overnight. Despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers, since his reign has been described as sectarian by both Iraqis and western analysts, as well allegations of corruption, with hundreds of billions of dollars allegedly vanishing from government coffers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Obama's Iraq dilemma: Fighting ISIL puts US and Iran on the same side|url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/13/obamaa-s-iraq-dilemmafightingisilputsusandiranonthesameside.html|access-date=2022-02-09|website=america.aljazeera.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Alzalzalee|first=Assad|title=Iraq's Troubled School Building Lesson|url=https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/iraqs-troubled-school-building-lesson|access-date=2022-02-09|website=OCCRP|language=en}}</ref>

After more than two years of ISIL occupation of Mosul, Iraqi forces, with the help of American and French forces, launched a joint offensive to recapture it on 16 October 2016.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 October 2016 |title=Battle for Mosul: Iraq and Kurdish troops make gains |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37679325 |access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Blau |first1=Max |last2=Park |first2=Madison |last3=McLaughlin |first3=Eliott C. |date=17 October 2016 |title=Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces close in |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/17/middleeast/mosul-isis-operation-begins-iraq/index.html |access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref> The battle for Mosul was considered key in the military intervention against ISIL.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Yan |first1=Holly |last2=Muaddi |first2=Nadeem |date=17 October 2016 |title=Why the battle for Mosul matters in the fight against ISIS |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/17/middleeast/battle-for-mosul/ |access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref> A military offensive to retake the city was the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U.S. and coalition forces<ref>{{Cite journal |date=August 11, 2017 |title=In 'liberated' Mosul, ISIS still imperils the path to city's revival |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2017/0811/In-liberated-Mosul-ISIS-still-imperils-the-path-to-city-s-revival |journal=Christian Science Monitor}}</ref> On 9 July 2017, Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi arrived in preparation to announce the full liberation and reclamation of Mosul after three years of ISIL control.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40549333 Mosul: Iraq PM to celebrate victory over IS in the city] BBC, 9 July 2017</ref> A formal declaration was made on the next day.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 July 2017 |title=Battle for Mosul: Iraq PM Abadi formally declares victory |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40558836 |access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref> The battle continued for another couple of weeks in the Old City before Iraqi forces regained full control of Mosul on 21 July 2017.<ref name="last ISIS stronghold">{{Cite web |last=Ivor Prickett |date=1 August 2017 |title=In Mosul, Revealing the Last ISIS Stronghold |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/world/middleeast/mosul-isis-survivors-rights.html |access-date=5 November 2017 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="residual">{{Cite web |date=21 July 2017 |title=Civilians return to Mosul as Iraqi forces mop up residual ISIS fighters |url=https://www.stripes.com/news/civilians-return-to-mosul-as-iraqi-forces-mop-up-residual-isis-fighters-1.479136 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721230747/https://www.stripes.com/news/civilians-return-to-mosul-as-iraqi-forces-mop-up-residual-isis-fighters-1.479136 |archive-date=21 July 2017 |access-date=22 July 2017 |website=Stars and Stripes |df=dmy-all}}</ref> According to Kurdish intelligence, tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the battle, and most of the city was destroyed by Coalition airstrikes and Iraqi shelling.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mosul-massacre-battle-isis-iraq-city-civilian-casualties-killed-deaths-fighting-forces-islamic-state-a7848781.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170719234812/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mosul-massacre-battle-isis-iraq-city-civilian-casualties-killed-deaths-fighting-forces-islamic-state-a7848781.html|url-status=dead|title=True civilian death toll in Mosul feared to be 40,000 – eight times higher than previous estimates|date=19 July 2017|archive-date=19 July 2017|website=The Independent}}</ref>

==Demographics==
[[File:Crowded marketplace (Mosul, 1932).jpg|right|thumb|A souk (traditional market) in Mosul, 1932]]

According to Salahuddin Khuda Bakhsh, the Arab geographer Ibn Hawqal was at Mosul in 969 AD (358 AH) He called it a "fine town with excellent markets, surrounded by fertile districts of which the most celebrated was that round Nineveh where the Prophet Jonah was buried. In the tenth century, the population consisted of both Kurds and Arabs, and the numerous districts round Mosul, occupying all [[Place:Diyar Rabi'a|Diyar Rabi'a]], are carefully enumerated by Ibn Hawkal."<ref name="bosworth" /><ref name="Bakhsh">{{cite book|author=Salahuddin Khuda Bakhsh|title=A History of the Islamic Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ot1RzQEACAAJ|year=1914|publisher=University of Calcutta}}</ref>

In 1813, James Playfair, the author of the book ''A System of Geography: Ancient and Modern'' wrote, 
{{blockquote|Mosul Is chiefly peopled by Curds [Kurds],<ref>Playfair, James (1813). ''A System of Geography: ancient and Modern.''</ref> a sober and industrious race.}}
In the 20th century, Mosul was indicative of Iraq's mingling ethnic and religious cultures. Today Mosul has a Sunni Arab majority in urban areas, such as downtown Mosul west of the [[Place:Tigris|Tigris]]; across the Tigris and further north in the suburban areas, thousands of Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens, Shabaks, [[Unsolved:Yazidis|Yazidis]], Armenians and Mandeans made up the rest of Mosul's population.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Mosul.html Mosul|Encyclopedia.com: Facts, Pictures, Information]. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.</ref> Shabaks were concentrated on the city's eastern outskirts.

===Religion===
[[File:SyriacChurch-Mosul.jpg|thumb|upright|Celebration at the Syriac Orthodox Monastery in Mosul, early 20th century]]
Mosul has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population. The city also had an ancient Jewish population. Like their counterparts elsewhere in Iraq, most were forced out in 1950–51. Most Iraqi Jews have moved to Israel, and some to the United States.<ref>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_14308.html Mosul]. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.</ref> In 2003, during the Iraq War, a rabbi in the American army found an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue in Mosul dating to the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last= Huerta |first=Carlos |title=Jewish Mosul Revisited: Jewish heartbreak and hope in Nineveh |url=http://www.almosul.org/History/MosulHistory/MosulJews_HuertaCC.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101119025208/http://www.almosul.org/History/MosulHistory/MosulJews_HuertaCC.htm |archive-date=19 November 2010 |publisher=almosul.org}}</ref>

During ISIL's occupation, religious minorities were targeted to convert to Islam, pay tribute (''[[Religion:Jizya|jizya]]'') money, leave, or be killed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=19 July 2014 |title=Iraq: ISIS Abducting, Killing, Expelling Minorities |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities |access-date=20 October 2016 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref> The persecution of Christians in Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plains removed a Christian community that had been present in the region since the 1st century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Logan |first=Lara |date=22 March 2015 |title=Iraq's Christians persecuted by ISIS |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iraq-christians-persecuted-by-isis-60-minutes/ |access-date=20 October 2016 |publisher=CBS News}}</ref>

==Infrastructure==
[[File:منطقة غابات الموصل.JPG|thumb|View of the Tigris river in Mosul]]
The Mosul Dam was built in the 1980s to supply Mosul with hydroelectricity and water. Despite this, water supply cuts are still common.<ref>{{Cite news |title=In Mosul, Water, Electricity Shortages, And Warnings Of Disease |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/mosul-disease-water-electricity-shortage/26650210.html |newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=22 October 2014 }}</ref>

Five bridges cross the Tigris in Mosul, known from north to south as:<ref name="BBCbridges">{{Cite news |date=27 December 2016 |title=Mosul battle: Last bridge 'disabled by air strike' |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38442811 |access-date=2 March 2017}}</ref>
*Al Shohada Bridge (or "Third Bridge")
*Fifth Bridge
*Old Bridge (or "Iron Bridge", or "First Bridge")
*Al Huriya Bridge (literally "Freedom Bridge", also known as "Second Bridge"): located about 1&nbsp;km north of the 4th bridge and 0.8&nbsp;km south of the 1st bridge, the al-Huriya Bridge connects the neighborhoods of Bab at-Tawb on the west bank and al-Faisaliyyah on the east bank.<ref name="2nd Bridge">{{cite book |last1=Harith |first1=Mustafa |last2=Khalil-Slim |first2=Linda |title=Site Specific Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (Limited ESIA) for the Rehabilitation of Al-Mosul Second Bridge (Al-Huriya Bridge) in Nineveh Governorate |date=2018 |publisher=Republic of Iraq Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities, and Public Works - Roads and Bridges Directorate |url=https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/136081544683943554/pdf/AL-MOSUL-SECOND-BRIDGE-ALHURIYA-IN-NINEVEH-GOVERNORATE-FINAL-ESIA-DOCUMENT-ilovepdf-compressed-1.pdf |access-date=13 March 2023}}</ref>{{rp|8, 20}} It was built between 1955-58 by German, French, and Dutch companies.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|4}} Made of steel with concrete supports, the bridge has 6 spans and is 340&nbsp;m long.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|4}} A two-way street with one lane in each direction goes across the bridge, and there is also a sidewalk on both sides.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|4}} Before the bridge's destruction in 2016, an estimated 10,495 vehicles crossed the bridge per day, for a total of some 3.8 million vehicles per year.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|17-8}} In October 2016, a US airstrike destroyed the bridge's first span (starting from the left) along with the left-bank approach.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|4}} Later, bombings by the Islamic State destroyed three more spans (the 4th, 5th, and 6th) and damaged the last two (2nd and 3rd spans).<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|4}} In the aftermath, Iraqi Army forces installed a temporary pontoon bridge 0.2&nbsp;km north of the al-Huriya Bridge to provide an alternate route for commuters.<ref name="2nd Bridge"/>{{rp|18}}
*Fourth Bridge
During the Battle of Mosul (2016–17) between ISIL and the Iraqi Army supported by an international coalition, two bridges were 'damaged' by coalition airstrikes in October 2016, two others in November, and the Old Bridge was 'disabled' in early December.<ref name="BBCbridges" /> According to the BBC, in late December the bridges were targeted to disrupt the resupply of ISIL forces in East Mosul from West Mosul.<ref name="BBCbridges" /> In January 2017, CNN reported that ISIL itself had 'destroyed' all bridges to slow the Iraqi ground troops' advance, citing Iraqi commander Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mohammed Tawfeeq |date=13 January 2017 |title=ISIS destroys Mosul bridges as troops advance |work=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/13/middleeast/iraq-mosul-troops-advance/ |access-date=2 March 2017}}</ref>

During the last stages of the battle to retake Mosul, Lise Grande stated that per an initial assessment, basic infrastructure repair would cost over 1 billion USD. She stated that while stabilization in east Mosul could be achieved in two months, in some districts of Mosul it might take years, with six out of 44 districts almost completely destroyed. Every district of Mosul received light or moderate damage.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 July 2017 |title=Basic infrastructure repair in Mosul will cost over $1 billion: U.N. |work=BBC |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN19Q28F |access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref> Per the {{wipe|United Nations}}, 15 of the 54 residential districts in the western half of Mosul were heavily damaged while at least 23 were moderately damaged.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 July 2017 |title=Mosul: US commander says Iraq must stop Islamic State 2.0 |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40564159 |access-date=11 July 2017}}</ref>

Mosul is served by Mosul International Airport.

== Geography ==

Mosul stands 223 meters above sea level in the [[Place:Upper Mesopotamia|Upper Mesopotamia]] region of the Middle East. To the south west of Mosul is the [[Place:Syrian Desert|Syrian Desert]] and to the East is the Zagros Mountains.

=== Climate ===
Mosul has a [[Earth:Semi-arid climate#Hot semi-arid climates|hot semi-arid climate]] (''BSh''), verging on the [[Earth:Mediterranean climate|Mediterranean climate]] (''Csa''), with extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers, brief  mild shoulder seasons, and moderately wet, relatively cool winters.

{{Weather box
| width = auto
| location = Mosul
| metric first = Y
| single line = Y

| Jan record high C = 21.1
| Feb record high C = 26.9
| Mar record high C = 31.8
| Apr record high C = 35.5
| May record high C = 42.9
| Jun record high C = 44.1
| Jul record high C = 47.8
| Aug record high C = 49.3
| Sep record high C = 46.1
| Oct record high C = 42.2
| Nov record high C = 32.5
| Dec record high C = 25.0

| Jan high C = 12.4
| Feb high C = 14.8
| Mar high C = 19.3
| Apr high C = 25.2
| May high C = 32.7
| Jun high C = 39.2
| Jul high C = 42.9
| Aug high C = 42.6
| Sep high C = 38.2
| Oct high C = 30.6
| Nov high C = 21.1
| Dec high C = 14.1

|Jan mean C =  7.3
|Feb mean C =  9.1
|Mar mean C = 13.1
|Apr mean C = 18.2
|May mean C = 24.5
|Jun mean C = 30.3
|Jul mean C = 34.0
|Aug mean C = 33.4
|Sep mean C = 28.7
|Oct mean C = 22.1
|Nov mean C = 14.2
|Dec mean C =  9.0

| Jan low C =  2.2
| Feb low C =  3.4
| Mar low C =  6.8
| Apr low C = 11.2
| May low C = 16.2
| Jun low C = 21.3
| Jul low C = 25.0
| Aug low C = 24.2
| Sep low C = 19.1
| Oct low C = 13.5
| Nov low C =  7.2
| Dec low C =  3.8

| Jan record low C = -17.6
| Feb record low C = -12.3
| Mar record low C =  -5.8
| Apr record low C =  -4.0
| May record low C =   2.5
| Jun record low C =   9.7
| Jul record low C =  11.6
| Aug record low C =  14.5
| Sep record low C =   8.9
| Oct record low C =  -2.6
| Nov record low C =  -6.1
| Dec record low C = -15.4

| precipitation colour = green
| Jan precipitation mm = 62.1
| Feb precipitation mm = 62.7
| Mar precipitation mm = 63.2
| Apr precipitation mm = 44.1
| May precipitation mm = 15.2
| Jun precipitation mm =  1.1
| Jul precipitation mm =  0.2
| Aug precipitation mm =  0.0
| Sep precipitation mm =  0.3
| Oct precipitation mm = 11.8
| Nov precipitation mm = 45.0
| Dec precipitation mm = 57.9

| Jan precipitation days = 11
| Feb precipitation days = 11
| Mar precipitation days = 12
| Apr precipitation days =  9
| May precipitation days =  6
| Jun precipitation days =  0
| Jul precipitation days =  0
| Aug precipitation days =  0
| Sep precipitation days =  0
| Oct precipitation days =  5
| Nov precipitation days =  7
| Dec precipitation days = 10

|Jan sun = 158
|Feb sun = 165
|Mar sun = 192
|Apr sun = 210
|May sun = 310
|Jun sun = 363
|Jul sun = 384
|Aug sun = 369
|Sep sun = 321
|Oct sun = 267
|Nov sun = 189
|Dec sun = 155

| source 1 = World Meteorological Organisation (UN)<ref name="WMO">{{Cite web |title=World Weather Information Service – Mosul |url=http://worldweather.wmo.int/154/c01467.htm |access-date=1 January 2011 |publisher=United Nations}}</ref>
| source 2 = ''Weatherbase'' (extremes only)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mosul, Iraq Travel Weather Averages |url=http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=80604 |access-date=2012-12-19 |publisher=Weatherbase}}</ref>
| date     = October 2014}}

==Historical and religious buildings==
Mosul is rich in old historical places and ancient buildings: mosques, castles, [[Engineering:Church (building)|churches]], monasteries, and schools, many of which have architectural features and decorative work of significance. The town centre is dominated by a maze of streets and 19th-century houses. The markets are known for the mixture of people who jostle there: Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Iraqi Jews, Kurdish Jews, Iraqi Turkmens, Armenians, Yazidi, Mandeans, Romani and Shabaks.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The Mosul Museum contains many finds from the ancient sites of the old Assyrian capital cities Nineveh and Nimrud. It is laid-out around a courtyard and with a façade of Mosul marble containing displays of Mosul life depicted in tableau form.{{clarify|date=November 2014}} On February 26, 2015, ISIL militants [[Religion:Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL|destroyed]] the museum's ancient Assyrian artifacts.

The English writer Agatha Christie lived in Mosul while her second husband, Max Mallowan, an archaeologist, was involved in the excavation in Nimrud.<ref>[https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-iraq-agathachristie/in-the-ruins-of-an-iraqi-city-memories-of-agatha-christie-idUKKBN1AK1GW Reuters]</ref>

===Mosques and shrines===
[[File:Grand mosque of Mosul .jpg|thumb|260x260px|Mosul Grand Mosque]]
* Umayyad Mosque: The first ever in the city, built in 640 AD by Utba bin Farqad al-Salami after he conquered Mosul in the reign of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. The only original part extant to recent times was the remarkably elaborate brickwork 52m high [[Engineering:Minaret|minaret]] that leans like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, called Al-Hadba (The Humped). It was largely destroyed during the Battle of Mosul.{{which|date=September 2021}}
* The Great (Nuriddin) Mosque: Built by Nuriddin Zangi in 1172 AD next door to the Umayyad Mosque. Ibn Battuta (the great Moroccan traveller) found a marble fountain there and a mihrab (the niche that indicates the direction of [[Place:Mecca|Mecca]]) with a Kufic inscription. It was destroyed during the Battle of Mosul.{{which|date=September 2021}}
* Mujahidi Mosque: The mosque dates back to 12th century AD, and is distinguished for its shen {{clarify|date=October 2014}} dome and elaborately wrought [[Mihrab|mihrab]].
* Prophet Younis Mosque and Shrine: Located east of the city, and included the tomb of Prophet Younis (Jonah), dating back to the 8th century BC, with a tooth of the whale that swallowed and later released him. It was completely demolished by IS in July 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 July 2014 |title=ISIS destroys 'Jonah's tomb' in Mosul |url=http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/25/ISIS-destroys-tombs-of-two-prophets-in-Mosul.html |publisher=Al Arabiya}}</ref>
* Prophet Jirjis Mosque and Shrine: The late 14th century mosque and shrine honoring Prophet Jirjis (George) was built over the Quraysh cemetery. It was destroyed by IS in July 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 July 2014 |title=Islamic State destroys ancient Mosul mosque, the third in a week |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/28/islamic-state-destroys-ancient-mosul-mosque |website=The Guardian |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>
* Prophet Daniel Shrine: A Tomb attributed to Prophet Daniel was destroyed by IS in July 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clark |first=Heather |date=27 July 2014 |title=Muslim Militants Blow Up Tombs of Biblical Jonah, Daniel in Iraq |url=http://christiannews.net/2014/07/27/muslim-militants-blow-up-tombs-of-biblical-jonah-daniel-in-iraq/ |access-date=28 July 2014 |publisher=Christian News Network |quote=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."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hafiz |first=Yasmine |title=ISIS Destroys Jonah's Tomb In Mosul, Iraq, As Militant Violence Continues |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/25/isis-jonah-tomb_n_5620520.html |access-date=28 July 2014 |website=The Huffington Post |date=25 July 2014 |quote=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."}}</ref>
* Hamou Qado (Hema Kado) Mosque: An [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]-era mosque in the central Maydan area built in 1881, and officially named Mosque of Abdulla Ibn Chalabi Ibn Abdul-Qadi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ISIS destroys beloved mosque in central Mosul |url=http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/060320151 |publisher=Rudaw}}</ref> It was destroyed by IS in March 2015 because it contained a [[Earth:Tomb|tomb]] that was revered and visited by local Muslims on Thursdays and Fridays.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gianluca Mezzofiore |title=Iraq: Isis destroys 19th century Ottoman mosque in central Mosul |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/iraq-isis-destroys-19th-century-ottoman-mosque-central-mosul-1490786 |website=International Business Times UK|date=6 March 2015 }}</ref>

===Churches and monasteries===
[[File:Mor-mattai.png|thumb|Mar Mattai Monastery of the Syriac Orthodox Church]]
[[File:Church St. Thomas in Mosul.jpg|thumb|Church of Saint Thomas, Mosul]]
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 excessive restoration.
* Shamoun Al-Safa (St. Peter, Mar Petros): This church dates from the 13th century is and named after Shamoun Al-Safa or St. Peter (Mar Petros in Assyrian Aramaic). Earlier it had the name of the two Apostles, Peter and Paul, and was inhabited by the nuns of the Sacred Hearts.
* Church of St. Thomas (Mar Touma in Assyrian Aramaic): One of the oldest historical churches, named after St. Thomas the Apostle who preached the Gospel in the East, including India. The exact time of its foundation is unknown, but it was before 770 AD, since Al-Mahdi, the Abbasid Caliph, is mentioned as listening to a grievance concerning this church on his trip to Mosul.
* Mar Petion Church: Mar Petion, educated by his cousin in a monastery, was martyred in 446 AD. It is the first Chaldean Catholic church in Mosul, after the union of many Assyrians with Rome in the 17th century. It dates back to the 10th century, and lies 3 m below street level. This church suffered destruction, and it has been reconstructed many times. A hall was built on one of its three parts in 1942. As a result, most of its artistic features have been severely damaged.
* Ancient Tahira Church (The Immaculate): Near Bash Tapia, considered one of the most ancient churches in Mosul. No evidence helps to determine its exact area. It could be either the remnants of the church of the Upper Monastery or the ruined Mar Zena Church. Al-Tahira Church dates back to the 7th century, and it lies 3 m below street level. Reconstructed last in 1743.
* Al-Tahera Church: Syriac Catholic Church completed in 1862.
* Mar Hudeni Church: It was named after Mar Ahudemmeh (Hudeni) Maphrian of Tikrit who was martyred in 575 AD. Mar Hudeni is an old church of the Tikritans in Mosul. It dates back to the 10th century, lies 7 m below street level and was first reconstructed in 1970. People can get mineral water from the well in its yard. The chain, fixed in the wall, is thought to cure epileptics.
* St. George's Monastery (Mar Gurguis): One of the oldest churches in Mosul, named after St. George, located to the north of Mosul, was probably built late in the 17th century. Pilgrims from different parts of the North{{clarify|date=October 2014}} visit it yearly in the spring, when many people also go out to its whereabouts on holiday.{{clarify|date=October 2014}} It is about 6 m below street level. A modern church was built over the old one in 1931, abolishing much of its archeological significance. The only monuments left are a marble door-frame decorated with a carved Estrangelo (Syriac) inscription, and two niches, which date back to the 13th or 14th century.
* Mar Matte: This monastery is situated about {{convert|20|km|abbr=on}} east of Mosul on the top of a high mountain (Mount Maqloub). It was built by Mar Matte, a monk who fled with several other monks in 362 AD from the Monastery of Zuknin near the City of Amid (Diyarbakir) in the southern part of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the north of Iraq during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363 AD). It has a precious library containing Syrianic scriptures.
* Monastery of Mar Behnam: Also called Deir Al-Jubb (The Cistern Monastery) and built in the 12th or 13th century, it lies in the Nineveh Plain near Nimrud about {{convert|32|km|abbr=on}} southwest of Mosul. The monastery, a great fort-like building, rises next to the tomb of Mar Behnam, a prince who was killed by the Sassanians, perhaps during the 4th century AD. A legend made him a son of an Assyrian king.
* St. Elijah's Monastery (Dair Mar Elia): Dating from the 6th century, it was the oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq, until its destruction by IS in January 2016.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16493810 Chaplains Struggle to Protect Monastery in Iraq]. NPR's ''Morning Edition'', 21 November 2007. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/only-ap-oldest-christian-monastery-072331055.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122120037/https://news.yahoo.com/only-ap-oldest-christian-monastery-072331055.html | archive-date=January 22, 2016 |title=Only on AP: Islamic State razing of Iraq monastery condemned |website=news.yahoo.com |access-date=2016-01-19}}{{SemiBareRefNeedsTitle|date=May 2022}}</ref>

Other Christian historical buildings:
* The Roman Catholic Church (built by the Dominican Fathers in Nineveh Street in 1893)
* Mar Michael
* Mar Elias
* Mar Oraha
* Rabban Hormizd Monastery, the monastery of Notre-Dame des Semences, near the Assyrian town of Alqosh

===Other sites===
* Bash Tapia Castle: A ruined castle rising high over the Tigris, which was one of the few remnants of Mosul's old walls until it was blown up by IS in 2015.
* Qara Saray (The Black Palace): The remnants of the 13th-century palace of Sultan Badruddin Lu'lu'.

===Painting===
[[File:احد البيوت التراثية في مدينة الموصل.jpg|thumb|Old house in Mosul.]]
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 manuscript illustrations—mainly scientific works, animal books, and lyric poetry. A frontispiece painting, now held in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, dating from a late 12th century copy of [[Biography:Galen|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.

==Education==
The University of Mosul is the largest university in Mosul.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2018-11-21|title=Iraqi university rebuilds after IS 'dark age'|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46208714|access-date=2021-03-17}}</ref>Other schools of higher education include Ninevah University, Al-Hadbaa University College, and the Northern Technical University.

Mosul also has multiple highschools some of which are coeducational while others are gender segregated. These include but are not limited to:

* Al-Hafsah School<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-02-10|title=Responding to Iraq's learning crisis|url=https://blogs.unicef.org/blog/responding-iraq-learning-crisis/|access-date=2021-03-17|website=UNICEF Connect|language=en-US}}</ref>
* Al-Haj Secondary School for Girls<ref>{{Cite web|title="Education will help us build a future." - Iraq|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/education-will-help-us-build-future|access-date=2021-03-17|website=ReliefWeb|date=26 February 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
* Kourtoba High School for Girls
* Al-Mouhobeen Secondary School for Boys and Girls
* Al-Mustaqbal High School for Boys
* Al-Mutamaizat High School for Girls
* Al-Mutamaizeen High School for Boys
* Al-Resalah Al-Islamia (Al-Resalah) High School for Boys
* Al-Sharqiya High School for Boys

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

Al Mosul University Stadium is the home stadium to Mosul FC and can hold up to 20,000 people.
[[File:ملعب جامعة الموصل.jpg|thumb|Mosul university Stadium]]

The University of Mosul contains a College of Physical Education and Sports Science which teaches undergraduate and graduate students and performs research in three scientific departments.<ref>{{Cite web|title=College of Physical Education and Sport Science|url=https://www.uomosul.edu.iq/en/physicalEducation|access-date=2021-08-22|website=University of Mosul}}</ref>

==Media==
===Newspapers===
*''Ash-Shabibah'', a defunct daily newspaper<ref>{{cite book|author=Yitzhak Oron|title=Middle East Record Volume 1, 1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LooyExir7EC&pg=PA243|year=1960|publisher=The Moshe Dayan Center|page=243|id=GGKEY:3KXGTYPACX2}}</ref>

==Notable people==

<!-- Alphabetical order please -->
* Abdulahad AbdulNour, physician and humanitarian
* Thabit AbdulNour, Iraqi Politician, Government Administrator, and Diplomat<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Basri |first=Mir |title=Notable Iraqi Personalities in the New Iraq |year=2004 |location=London |language=Arabic}}</ref>
* Zaha Hadid, noted architect and first woman to win the Pritzker award. Was named "dame" by Queen Elizabeth II.
* Al Jalili, Hussein Pasha, raised and led army to defend Mosul against Persian Shah Nadir Shah, 1743.
* Al Jalili, Ismael, Eye doctor who discovered and researched the [[Medicine:Jalili syndrome|Jalili syndrome]].
* Al Jamil, Sayyar, Historian and political analyst.
* Abu Al Soof, Behnam, Archeologist, anthropologist, historian and writer of Christian ancestry.
* Tariq Aziz, Assyrian Deputy Prime Minister 1979–2003 (real name Michael Youkhanna) (from [[Place:Tel Keppe|Tel Keppe]])
* Munir Bashir, Assyrian musician who had several successes in the Mideast during the 20th century
* Asenath Barzani, first Jewish female rabbi
* Vian Dakhil, Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament.
* Hawar Mulla Mohammed, Kurdish Iraqi soccer player for the national team
* Paulos Faraj Rahho, Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, assassinated 2008
* Taha Yassin Ramadan, Kurdish former Vice President of Iraq
* Hormuzd Rassam, Assyrian Archaeologist and diplomat of the 19th century
* Kathem Al Saher, Arab Iraqi pop singer, songwriter, and musician
* Adnan Koucher, Iraqi scholar
* Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh, Arab Iraqi Army officer
*Salah Salim Ali, Norwegian Iraqi Writer and translator, author of Ibsen i Arabia.
* Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni, Assyrian Patriarch of Antioch and all east for the Syriac Catholic Church between 1929 and 1968, Church Father of the Second Vatican Council and the first Eastern Rite [[Religion:Prelate|prelate]] to be raised to the College of Cardinals since the reign of Pope Pius IX
* Behnam Afas, Iraqi-New Zealander author and researcher into the role of Christian scholars and missionaries
* Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, Arab Interim President of Iraq during 2004–05
* Ignatius Zakka I, Assyrian Patriarch of Antioch and all east for the [[Organization:Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac Orthodox Church]]
* Mosul Eye, Mosul Eye (Arabic: عين الموصل) is a news blog created and maintained by historian and citizen journalist Omar Mohammed.
* Loris Ohannes Chobanian, Armenian-American composer and professor at [[Organization:Baldwin Wallace University|Baldwin Wallace University]]

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* List of largest cities of Iraq
* List of rulers of Mosul
* University of Mosul
* Iraq
* [[Place:Nineveh Governorate|Nineveh Governorate]]
* Mosul District
* [[Place:Assyrian homeland|Assyrian homeland]]
* Asteroid [[Astronomy:22292 Mosul|22292 Mosul]] named after the city in 2018
* Battle of Mosul (2016–2017)
* Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul
* Mosul question
* [[Place:Nineveh Plains|Nineveh Plains]]{{Div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite book |last1=Nasiri |first1=Ali Naqi |title=Titles and Emoluments in Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration |last2=Floor |first2=Willem M. |date=2008 |publisher=Mage Publishers |isbn=978-1933823232 |page=309}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=1984 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afsar-one-of-the-twenty-four-original-guz-turkic-tribes-t |last=Oberling |first=P. |pages=582–586 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429162916/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afsar-one-of-the-twenty-four-original-guz-turkic-tribes-t |archive-date=2011-04-29 |article=AFŠĀR |url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rothman |first=E. Nathalie |title=Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects between Venice and Istanbul |date=2015 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801463129 }}

==External links==
{{wikivoyage|Mosul}}
* [https://archive.today/20121216094525/http://www.iraqimage.com/pages/browse/Mosul.html Iraq Image – Mosul Satellite Observation]
* [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/mosul_2003.jpg Detailed map of Mosul] by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, from lib.utexas.edu
* {{Cite web |last=ArchNet.org |title=Mosul |url=http://archnet.org/library/places/one-place.jsp?place_id=1944 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121210073507/http://archnet.org/library/places/one-place.jsp?place_id=1944 |archive-date=2012-12-10 |access-date=2013-04-15 |publisher=MIT School of Architecture and Planning |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, US}}



[[Category:District capitals of Iraq]]

{{Sourceattribution|Mosul}}