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Mosul
Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh—once the largest city in the world—on its east side.
Due to its strategic and central location, the city has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel in the region. It is considered as one of the historically and culturally significant cities of the Arab world. The North Mesopotamian Arabic spoken in Mosul is known as Maslawi and is widely spoken in the region. Together with the Nineveh Plains, Mosul is a historical center of the Assyrians. The surrounding region is ethnically and religiously diverse; a large majority of the city is Arabs, with Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, Shabaks, and other minorities comprising the population. Sunni Islam is the largest religion but there are a sizeable number of Christians and Yazidis as well as adherents of other Muslim sects such as Twelver Shi'ism and Shabakism, and in the past, Iraqi Jews. Mosul and its surrounding region are significant in biblical history.[citation needed]
The 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 respective sides of the Tigris. Historically, essential products of the area included marble and oil. The region around Mosul is rich in oil reserves. Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, one of the Middle East's largest educational and research centers. The city is also home to historic mosques, Christian sites, synagogues and Yazidi temples.[citation needed]
In its current Arabic form and spelling (الموصل), the term Mosul (or rather Mawsil) means "linking point", or, loosely, "Junction City". On the city's eastern side are the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, and Assyrians still call the entire city Nineveh (or Ninweh).
An early settlement, possibly on the site of the current city of Mosul, was first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs of Achaemenid Assyria in 401 BC, during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. There, he notes a small Assyrian town of "Mépsila" (Ancient Greek: Μέψιλα) on the Tigris, near 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 30 km (19 mi) north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon's report, the Sasanian Empire's center of Budh-Ardhashir was built.[where?]
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" and "the city of a million soldiers."
The area where Mosul lies was an integral part of Assyria from as early as the 25th century BC. After the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC), which united all the peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule, Mosul again became a continuous part of Assyria proper from circa 2050 BC through the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire between 612 and 599 BC. Mosul remained within the geopolitical province of Assyria for another 13 centuries (as a part of Achaemenid Assyria, Seleucid, Roman Assyria) until the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century. During the Roman–Parthian period, the Arab Kingdom of Hatra rose to prominence, flourishing as a major political and cultural center and serving as a buffer state between the two empires, before being destroyed by the Sasanian Empire. Afterward, the region became part of the Sasanian province of Arbāyistān. 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]
Nineveh was one of the oldest and most significant cities in antiquity and was settled as early as 6000 BC. 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 Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1056 BC). During the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Nineveh grew in size and importance, particularly from the reigns of Tukulti-Ninurta II and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) onward; he chose the city of Kalhu (the Biblical Calah, modern Nimrud) as his capital in place of the ancient traditional capital of Aššur (Ashur), 30 km (19 mi) from present-day Mosul.[citation needed]
Mosul
Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh—once the largest city in the world—on its east side.
Due to its strategic and central location, the city has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel in the region. It is considered as one of the historically and culturally significant cities of the Arab world. The North Mesopotamian Arabic spoken in Mosul is known as Maslawi and is widely spoken in the region. Together with the Nineveh Plains, Mosul is a historical center of the Assyrians. The surrounding region is ethnically and religiously diverse; a large majority of the city is Arabs, with Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, Shabaks, and other minorities comprising the population. Sunni Islam is the largest religion but there are a sizeable number of Christians and Yazidis as well as adherents of other Muslim sects such as Twelver Shi'ism and Shabakism, and in the past, Iraqi Jews. Mosul and its surrounding region are significant in biblical history.[citation needed]
The 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 respective sides of the Tigris. Historically, essential products of the area included marble and oil. The region around Mosul is rich in oil reserves. Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, one of the Middle East's largest educational and research centers. The city is also home to historic mosques, Christian sites, synagogues and Yazidi temples.[citation needed]
In its current Arabic form and spelling (الموصل), the term Mosul (or rather Mawsil) means "linking point", or, loosely, "Junction City". On the city's eastern side are the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, and Assyrians still call the entire city Nineveh (or Ninweh).
An early settlement, possibly on the site of the current city of Mosul, was first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs of Achaemenid Assyria in 401 BC, during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. There, he notes a small Assyrian town of "Mépsila" (Ancient Greek: Μέψιλα) on the Tigris, near 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 30 km (19 mi) north of modern Mosul, where six centuries after Xenophon's report, the Sasanian Empire's center of Budh-Ardhashir was built.[where?]
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" and "the city of a million soldiers."
The area where Mosul lies was an integral part of Assyria from as early as the 25th century BC. After the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC), which united all the peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule, Mosul again became a continuous part of Assyria proper from circa 2050 BC through the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire between 612 and 599 BC. Mosul remained within the geopolitical province of Assyria for another 13 centuries (as a part of Achaemenid Assyria, Seleucid, Roman Assyria) until the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century. During the Roman–Parthian period, the Arab Kingdom of Hatra rose to prominence, flourishing as a major political and cultural center and serving as a buffer state between the two empires, before being destroyed by the Sasanian Empire. Afterward, the region became part of the Sasanian province of Arbāyistān. 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]
Nineveh was one of the oldest and most significant cities in antiquity and was settled as early as 6000 BC. 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 Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1056 BC). During the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Nineveh grew in size and importance, particularly from the reigns of Tukulti-Ninurta II and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) onward; he chose the city of Kalhu (the Biblical Calah, modern Nimrud) as his capital in place of the ancient traditional capital of Aššur (Ashur), 30 km (19 mi) from present-day Mosul.[citation needed]
