ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nuri mosque in Mosul was destroyed by the Islamic State (ISIS) three years ago. Now, it is under renovation to once again welcome the people of Mosul for daily prayer.
Mohammed Mazin, 32-year-old from Mosul, is a laborer working on the renovation project. He told Rudaw on Saturday that rebuilding Nuri mosque is a historical moment for Mosul.
“I used to pray in this mosque before the explosion, and even when I was a child I was praying in Nuri mosque until I became an adult,” Mazin said. “The day of exploding Nuri mosque was a sad day for all of us, but today we are happy to rebuild it and it is a historical day for all of us.”
Located in the heart of Mosul’s Old City, Nuri is the oldest mosque in Nineveh province. It was built in 1172. The mosque is named for Nur al-Din Mahmoud Zangi, an Islamic Kurdish ruler of Mosul and Aleppo. Nur al-Din brought together Muslims in Iraq and Syria to form a united front against the crusaders.
Nuri mosque was long famous for its leaning al-Hadba minaret, a symbol of Mosul which is still featured on Iraqi banknotes. However, the mosque became infamous as the site where ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the founding of the group’s caliphate in July 2014.
It was all but demolished during the Mosul Offensive, when Iraqi and Coalition forces battled against ISIS to retake the city. Control was finally wrested from the group in June 2017.
The war against ISIS in Mosul left much of the city destroyed. With ISIS defeated in Mosul in July 2017, attention turned to reconstruction of its ravaged historical landmarks.
The rebuilding of Nuri mosque is being conducted by UNESCO and the Iraqi government, with financial support from the United Arab Emirates. More than $50 million has been provided for the UNESCO “Revive the Spirit of Mosul” project. The project will also provide for the reconstruction of nearby Al Saa and Al Tahira Churches.
The rebuilding process started with the maintenance, repair and preservation of the remaining parts of the partially destroyed structure. Al-Atiq Company is responsible for this first component of the restoration project.
“Our main aim now is to maintain and preserve the remaining parts of the mosque including the minaret of the mosque,” Thaier Nazim, engineer at al-Atiq Company, told Rudaw on Saturday in Mosul.
Nazim also stated that 95 percent of their work has been finalized, and only 5 percent remains.
ISIS seized control of swathes of territory across in Iraq 2014. Although the group was declared defeated by former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in December 2017, remnants of the group remain active in Iraq.
Mosul’s Old City bore the brunt of some of the heaviest fighting against ISIS. Much of it remains in uninhabitable ruin, with many displaced residents either remaining in IDP camps, or returning to camps after short-lived attempts to return to the decimated Old City.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) there are at least 111,384 individuals from Nineveh currently displaced in Erbil province, while around 318,666 are living in Duhok.
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