Mosul: Iraq’s Second City on the Edge of Kurdistan
- Jamal Latif
- 58 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Introduction
Mosul (Kurdish: Mûsil) is the second-largest city in Iraq and the capital of Nineveh Governorate, straddling the Tigris River in the north of the country. It is not a Kurdish-majority city — its population is mostly Sunni Arab — but it sits on the edge of the disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, has long had a substantial Kurdish minority, and is bound up with Kurdish history, so it belongs in any honest survey of the lands around Greater Kurdistan.
This is the latest entry in our geographic series, profiling the cities and towns of the region — where they are, who controls them, who lives in them, and why they matter to the Kurdish story.
Quick Facts
Common Name: Mosul (Arabic: al-Mawsil)
Kurdish Name: Mûsil
Country: Iraq — capital of Nineveh Governorate
Population: Around 1.7–1.9 million (2024 census era), Iraq’s second city
People: Majority Sunni Arab, with a significant Kurdish minority plus Turkmen, Assyrian Christians, Shabak and others
Setting: On both banks of the Tigris, across from the ruins of ancient Nineveh
Status: Outside the Kurdistan Region, on the edge of the disputed territories
Recent History: Held by ISIS 2014–2017; heavily damaged and since rebuilt
Contents
Location and Geography
Mosul lies about 400 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, on both banks of the Tigris River in northern Iraq. The older, denser west bank and the more modern east bank are linked by bridges across the river, and the ruins of ancient Nineveh, once one of the greatest cities of the Assyrian Empire, lie on the eastern side. The city is the hub of a large, fertile and strategically important region, close to the borders with both Syria and Turkey and just beyond the southern edge of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
People and Population
With a population of roughly 1.7 to 1.9 million, Mosul is Iraq’s second-largest city after Baghdad. Its people are predominantly Sunni Arab, and the local dialect, Maslawi, is a well-known form of North Mesopotamian Arabic. But Mosul has always been mixed: it has a significant Kurdish minority — historically a quarter or more of the population — along with Turkmen, Assyrian and other Christians, Shabak, Yazidis and, in earlier times, a Jewish community. That diversity was deliberately altered in the twentieth century, when Ba’athist “Arabization” policies from the 1970s pushed many Kurds out and settled Arabs in their place, and again under ISIS, which drove out or killed much of the Christian and minority population.
History
Mosul is one of the oldest continuously settled places in the world, growing up beside ancient Nineveh and becoming a major centre under Arab, Turkic and Ottoman rule. Under the Ottomans it was the capital of the Mosul Vilayet, a province whose fate was hotly contested after the First World War: both the new Turkish Republic and British-controlled Iraq claimed it, and the “Mosul question” was settled only in the 1920s when it was awarded to Iraq. The province at that time stretched north to include what is now Iraqi Kurdistan, and the disputes over who should control this borderland have never fully gone away.
ISIS and Liberation
In June 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) seized Mosul, making it the largest city in its self-declared caliphate and the place where its leader proclaimed the caliphate from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri. The occupation was brutal, especially for the city’s Christians, Yazidis and other minorities. A massive military campaign by Iraqi government forces, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga, a US-led coalition and other groups, retook the city in a devastating battle that ended in July 2017. Large parts of Mosul, above all the historic west bank and its old city, were left in ruins, and around a million people were displaced.
Mosul Today
Since 2017 Mosul has been rebuilding. The population has returned to near its pre-war level, markets and bridges have reopened, and landmark sites such as the al-Nuri Mosque have been undergoing restoration with international support. Reconstruction has been slow and at times marred by corruption and disputes over property, and the surrounding province remains a patchwork of competing security forces. The city is firmly under Iraqi federal control rather than the Kurdistan Region, but it remains tied to its Kurdish hinterland and to the unresolved question of the disputed territories.
Timeline of Key Events
Antiquity — The city grows beside ancient Nineveh on the Tigris.
Ottoman era — Mosul is the capital of the Mosul Vilayet.
1920s — The “Mosul question” is settled; the province is awarded to Iraq.
1970s — Ba’athist Arabization policies reduce the Kurdish presence in the city.
June 2014 — ISIS captures Mosul and declares its caliphate there.
July 2017 — Iraqi and allied forces, with Kurdish Peshmerga, retake the city.
2024 — The census era records a population near 1.9 million as the city rebuilds.
Debates and Controversies
Mosul’s status is genuinely contested. Some Kurdish accounts describe it as a historically Kurdish or mixed city whose Kurdish character was suppressed by Arabization; Arab and Iraqi nationalists see it as a fundamentally Arab city and a symbol of Iraqi unity. The city itself was not incorporated into the Kurdistan Region, but parts of the surrounding Nineveh plains fall within the disputed territories that both Erbil and Baghdad claim, and control there has shifted between the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga and various militias. Add to this the wounds of the ISIS years — the displacement of Christians and Yazidis, and the destruction of the old city — and Mosul becomes a place whose past and future are argued over by many communities at once. This profile treats it as what it is: a great Iraqi city, mostly Arab, on the contested edge of the Kurdish lands.
Significance for the Kurds
For the Kurds, Mosul matters less as a Kurdish city than as the great metropolis on their southern doorstep — a place of trade, work and migration, a city with a real Kurdish community, and the centre of the borderland whose status remains one of the central unresolved questions between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi state. Its history, from the Ottoman Mosul Vilayet to the disputed territories of today, is woven into the larger story of where the Kurdish homeland begins and ends.
Related Places and Topics
Erbil, the nearby capital of the Kurdistan Region. Other cities of Bashur such as Amedi and Rawandiz. The Yazidi heartland of Sinjar and the Nineveh plains. The wider question of the disputed territories between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mosul a Kurdish city?
No. Mosul is a majority Sunni Arab city and the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate. It has a significant Kurdish minority and sits near the disputed territories, but it is not part of the Kurdistan Region and is not Kurdish-majority.
Where is Mosul and how big is it?
Mosul is in northern Iraq, on the Tigris River about 400 km north-west of Baghdad. With around 1.7 to 1.9 million people, it is Iraq’s second-largest city.
Who controls Mosul?
Mosul is under the control of the Iraqi federal government, not the Kurdistan Region. Parts of the surrounding Nineveh province lie within the disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.
What happened to Mosul under ISIS?
ISIS captured the city in 2014 and ruled it harshly until a major military campaign, including Kurdish Peshmerga, retook it in 2017. The battle destroyed much of the old city and displaced around a million people; the city has since been rebuilding.
References and Further Reading
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