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| The Mar Elia Monastery in Mosul, courtesy, Wikipedia |
Mosul is a major city in the Assyrian
heartland, the Nineveh plains. As such, it is the
ancient home of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Presently, this heartland is under illegal Arab occupation (and to an extent,
colonization) in the north of Arab-occupied Iraq. Located approximately 250 miles north of Baghdad, Mosul stands on
the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on
the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas
on both sides of the river, including Nineveh. The indigenous people of the
city are, of course, the Assyrian Christians, descendants of the ancient
Assyrians. Alongside, live the Kurds who live mainly in the neighborhood of Nebi Yunus, surrounding the Tomb of Jonah, not far from the
supposed Tombs of Daniel and Seth.
Both were destroyed by ISIL in 2014. The other non-Arab communities in the city
are made up of Armenians, Turkmens, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Circassians, and Shabaks.
It also had a sizable Jewish population but they either fled, or were driven
out by the Arabs in the 1950s.
Nineveh was one of
the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. It was settled as early as 6000 BCE
and was an integral part of Assyria from as
early as the 25th century BCE. Beginning in 2335 BCE, it became part of the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154
BCE) which united all the peoples of Mesopotamia under
one rule. During the period of the Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750), and during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809–1776
BCE), Nineveh was listed as a center of worship of the goddess Ishtar. It remained as
such also during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1056 BCE). Under the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BCE) Nineveh grew in size and importance,
particularly under the Kings Tukulti-Ninurta II, Ashurnasirpal II, Shalmaneser III, Adad-nirari III, Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V and Sargon II. In
approximately 700 BCE, King Sennacherib made Nineveh the new
capital of Assyria and immense building work was undertaken. Eventually, the
city eclipsed the great city of Babylon, as well as Kalhu
and Aššur, making it the largest city in the world. A number of scholars
believe the true location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were in fact at Nineveh. The mound of Kuyunjik in Mosul has been described as the site of the palaces of Sennacherib and his
successors including Ashurbanipal who established
the Library of Ashurbanipal.
Many artifacts from Nineveh from this period had been housed at the Mosul Museum until its destruction by
ISIL. In 612 BCE, under Sin-shar-ishkun, Nineveh severely
declined as a result of a bloody civil war, a siege, and bitter house to house
fighting. Sin-shar-ishkun, himself, was killed defending his capital. His successor, Ashur-uballit II, fought
his way out of Nineveh and formed a new Assyrian capital at Harran (today in southeastern
Turkey). After the crisis period had ended, the remaining inhabitants of
Nineveh built a new city nearby, from its ruins. They called it Mepsila and it succeeded
Nineveh as the Tigris bridgehead of the road that linked Assyria and Anatolia with the
short lived Median Empire and
succeeding Achaemenid Empire (546–332 BCE), thus experiencing a significant
economic revival. Mepsila became part of the Seleucid Empire after
Alexander's conquests in 332 BCE. While little is known of the city from the
Hellenistic period, Mepsila likely belonged to the Seleucid satrapy of Syria,
the Greek term for Assyria. Soon,
it changed hands once again with the rise of the Sasanian Empire in 225 BCE
and became a part of the Sasanian province of Asōristān. Christianity was introduced among the Assyrian people, including in Mepsila,
by the apostle Saint Thomas as early as the 1st century, although the ancient
Mesopotamian religion remained
strong until the 4th century. Since then, the building of churches and
monasteries proliferated in and around the city which became an episcopal seat
of the Assyrian Church of the East in the 6th century. In 595 St. Elijah's Monastery (Dair Mar Elia) was built, becoming the oldest
Christian Monastery in present-day Iraq. The ancient Tahira Church (The Immaculate), established in the 7th
century near Bash Tapia, was considered
one of the most ancient churches in Mosul. Its exact location has been disputed
by modern archaeologists. Some suggest the remnants of the church of the Upper Monastery, and others, the ruined
Mar Zena Church.
In c. 637, the Nineveh Plains, as with
the rest of Assyria and Mesopotamia came under the occupation of the Arab
Rashidun Caliphate. Under the occupation, Mepsila became the city of Mosul. Its
majority population was Kurdish but with a sizable Assyrian presence. During
this time, the historic Church of St. Thomas (Mar Touma) was established. In the 10th
century, the Mar Petion Church,
named after Petion, a 5th century martyr, and the Mar Hudeni Church, named after the 6th
century martyr Hudeni, Maphrian of Tikrit, were established. Mar Hudeni served
the Tikrit community in Mosul for many centuries. The Church of Shamoun Al-Safa, named after Saint Peter, dates from the 13th
century and was inhabited by the nuns of the Sacred Hearts.
In the early 16th century,
Mosul came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. At mid-century, part of the
Assyrian people left the Assyrian church and joined the Catholic church and
became known as Chaldeans. This was the beginning of the decline, but not a
total decline, of the Assyrian church. The Mar Petion Church became Chaldean in
the late 17th century and the Chaldean St. George's Monastery (Mar Gurguis) was built on the ruins of an earlier
Assyrian church. In 1743, the Persians invaded
Mesopotamia and the Persian leader Tahmaz Nadir
Shah damaged the
Assyrian Mar Elia monastery. 150 of the resident monks were killed after they
refused to convert to Islam. The monastery lay in ruins until
the beginning of the 20th century, when some restoration was completed. As the spread of Chaldean Catholicism progressed, the community’s
social structure became highly influenced with the arrival in Mosul by
the Dominican fathers who were sent by Pope Benedict XVI in 1750. Five
years later, they established a library
on the grounds of St. George’s. In 1828, Mosul became
the residence of the head of the Chaldean
Catholic Church until
the transfer to Baghdad in the mid-20th century. Meanwhile,
the ancient Al-Tahira Church became Catholic of the western
Syrian rite. Beginning in 1873, the
Dominican nuns established a number of schools, health clinics, a printing
press, an orphanage, and also workshops to teach girls sewing and embroidery. Over
120 Assyrian Sisters belonged to this congregation. In 1893, another Catholic
church, the Roman Catholic Church,
was built by the Dominican Fathers on Nineveh
Street.
Toward the
end of World War I in the area in
and around Assyria and Kurdistan, and after the Assyrian genocide (which
happened at the same time as the Armenian genocide) at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks, the British defeated the Ottomans, and in 1918, occupied Mosul, and
indeed the whole of Mesopotamia.
In
1918, after a massacre of Assyrians by Kurds near Salmas, resulting in the
assassination of the Patriarch Shimun XIX Benyamin, his brother Shimun XX Paulos succeeded him and moved the patriarchal
seat to Mosul. By this time, the Arab state of Iraq was created by the British
and by 1923, half of Mosul’s population was
Kurdish. In 1980, Ignatius Zakka I, a
native of Mosul, became Assyrian Patriarch of Antioch and all east for
the Syriac Orthodox
Church.
After the 1991 uprisings by the Kurds, Mosul did not fall within the Kurdish-ruled area, but was included in the northern no-fly zone imposed and patrolled by the United States and
Britain. Although this prevented Saddam's forces from
mounting large-scale military operations again in the region, it did not stop
the regime from implementing a steady policy of "Arabization" by
which the demography of some areas of Nineveh Governorate were gradually
changed. Mosul fell to US and Kurdish forces on April 11, 2003, when the Iraqi
Army 5th Corps, loyal to Saddam, abandoned the city and eventually surrendered,
two days after the fall of Baghdad.
In 2008, the murder of a dozen Assyrians, including the Chaldean
Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, threats that others would be murdered
unless they converted to Islam, and the destruction of their houses, sparked a
rapid exodus of the Assyrian population from the city. Accusations were
exchanged between Sunni fundamentalists and some Kurdish groups for being
behind this new exodus. But some claims linked it to the imminent provincial
elections that took place in January 2009, and the related Assyrian Christians'
demands for broader representation in the provincial councils.
Early in
2014, Kurdish intelligence received word that ISIL would attack and occupy Mosul.
They, in turn, notified the Americans, British, and new Iraqi government and
even offered Iraq military help in the form of the Peshmerga, but was turned
down. On June 10, 2014, the Islamic State took over the city. Few Assyrians were left in Mosul following ISIL's
takeover. Those that did remain were forced to pay a tax for remaining
Christian, and they lived under the constant threat of violence. Churches and
monasteries, including the ancient Mar Elia, were vandalized and burned down, their
ancient heritage sites dating back to the Iron Age were destroyed,
and their homes and possessions seized. They also faced ultimatums to
convert to Islam, leave their ancient homelands, or be murdered. Most local female
Yazidis were imprisoned and occasionally killed for resistance to being
sold as sex slaves. Islamic State either killed or expelled most the
males, or forcibly converted some Yazidis and Christians to Islam. In addition,
ISIL issued an edict ethnically cleansing the
remaining predominantly ethnic Assyrian and Armenian Christian
Mosul citizens, after they refused to attend a meeting to discuss their future
status. On January 21, 2015, the U.S. began coordinating airstrikes with a
Kurdish-launched offensive, to help them begin the planned operation to retake
the city. In the countryside around Mosul, Kurdish and Assyrian militia also took up
arms to resist ISIL oppression, and successfully repelled ISIL attacks on
Kurdish and Assyrian towns and villages. On October 16, 2016, after more than
two years of ISIL occupation of Mosul, Iraqi, Kurdish, American and French
forces launched a joint offensive to recapture the city.
.JPG)
