MOSUL

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 7^th 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 10^th century, the Mar Petion Church, named after Petion, a 5^th century martyr, and the Mar Hudeni Church, named after the 6^th 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 16^th 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 17^th 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.