It has been a banner year for the restoration of heritage in Mosul, a city rising from the ashes of war and still recovering from three years of occupation by Islamic State (Isis). When it was liberated in 2017, the northern Iraqi city lay in ruins at a level of destruction Unesco described as unequalled since the Second World War.
A multitude of reconstruction projects began in 2018 after landmines and debris were cleared. Dozens of these were completed in the past year, among them, Unesco’s programme to restore Ottoman houses in the old city. The Isis-ravaged Mosul Central Library opened on 1 January. The Al-Nouri Mosque, Al-Tahera Church and Al-Saa’a Convent are among the sites to have been restored under Unesco’s $115m Revive the Spirit of Mosul programme. In October, two more churches and a mosque restored by the Geneva-based NGO Aliph (International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage) were inaugurated.
It remains to be seen whether rebuilding churches and mosques will encourage social cohesion and religious peace in a still-fractured society. There are fewer than 70 Christian families living in Mosul, down from a pre-2014 population of 50,000. Reports say Isis sleeper cells have been emboldened by the overthrow last year of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
David Sassine, the project manager of Mosul Mosaic, an initiative launched by Aliph in 2018, tells The Art Newspaper that the NGO’s primary reason for restoring churches and mosques is their heritage value. But it is also, he says, “a message that the international community is supporting the presence of all communities in Mosul”, Displaced communities can be encouraged to return by building schools and restoring monuments, he says, although of course “you can’t force anyone to return”.
From explosives factory to cultural centre
In addition to preserving the cultural heritage of Mosul in its religious diversity (including documentation of the historic Jewish community), Mosul Mosaic also provides on-the-job training in heritage restoration and employment to locals. The bulk of Aliph’s $30m, 50-project programme in Iraq is centred in the city, the country’s second-biggest.
Last year, Aliph reopened the historic Tutunji House—an Ottoman home used by Isis as an explosives factory that is now a cultural centre. This year, it completed the rebuilding of the House of Prayer at the Al-Saa’a Church and the Al-Masfi Mosque, one of Mosul’s oldest, likewise damaged during occupation by Isis, was also inaugurated.
Sassine says he has noticed that “more Christian families now based in Erbil come to Mosul for the weekend and to attend church”. At the first public mass at the exquisitely restored Al Tahera Church in May, most of the Christians in attendance no longer lived in Mosul. After the service, attended by perhaps three dozen worshippers, everyone left quickly. Few were inclined to speak to The Art Newspaper, including the priest. “I don’t feel comfortable,” he said.
One young man said he had moved back to Mosul to take a job as the church verger, and because his old family home was still standing in the old city. The rent in Erbil (about 90km east of Mosul), where he and his family had fled in 2014, was unaffordable, he said.
A Muslim construction worker outside the church, said he was “proud to be rebuilding Mosul’s heritage.” He fondly remembered his old Christian classmates at the Catholic school he attended in his youth. “I haven’t seen them in many years,” he said.
But Shams Majid, who returned to Mosul a few years ago to rebuild his family home, was optimistic. He recently transformed his traditional moslawi house with several storeys that overlooks the al-Nuri Mosque in the old city into the Mosul Heritage Art House, open to visitors.
“Everything in Mosul is great now,” he said. “They are rebuilding all the monuments, the tourists are coming back, and the economy is improving.”
Saved fingertip
On 15 October, the Mar Toma Church celebrated its restoration by Aliph in the presence of the Syriac Orthodox archbishop Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf. Hours before Isis invaded Mosul in June 2014, the archbishop saved the fingertip of St Thomas—a beloved relic of the saint who brought Christianity to Iraq in the first century. The relic has now been restored to its rightful place in the church, which dates back to the seventh century and is said to stand on the site of saint’s home.
An initiative of Aliph, carried out with its implementing partner L’Œuvre d’Orient in partnership with the French Institut National du Patrimoine, Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and the Syriac Orthodox Diocese, the $328,000 rehabilitation took three years and also included the adjoining atrium and courtyards. Its famous 13th-century Door of the Twelve Apostles, carved in Mosul marble, now welcomes worshippers once again.
Nearby Al-Tahira Chaldean Church, also restored by Aliph and partners including the Chaldean Diocese, reopened on the same day. The Chaldean archbishop Najeeb Michaeel Moussa, who smuggled ancient manuscripts to safety in Kurdistan in his old car, was on hand to ring the church bells for the first time in a decade. Built in the 18th century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the church illustrates Mosul’s silk road diversity as it has long been a pilgrimage site for both Christians and Muslims. With bas-reliefs and calligraphy, it is an excellent example of the unique moslawi decorative architecture. After a $1.3m restoration, the dome above the choir that collapsed during the war has been restored, as has the statue of the Virgin with her arms outstretched over Mosul.
In keeping with the diversity theme of Mosul Mosaic, the restoration of the historic Al-Raabiya Mosque—severely damaged during the battle to liberate the city from Isis in 2017—was also revealed on 15 October.
Aliph’s next big restoration project—the Mosul Museum—combines ancient and modern heritage preservation. Looted after the 2003 Iraq War and ravaged by Isis in 2015, it is scheduled to open in autumn 2026. The $15.8m project was initiated in 2018 in partnership with the Musée du Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution and the World Monuments Fund.
