Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq

Posted on January 7, 2026 by kobrigama

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.“*

– Ludwig Wittgenstein

Erbil and Environs

This is the last post of the extraordinary journey through Iraq. As our bus pulled up to the military check point that designates the imaginary line between Iraq and the semi-autonomous region known as Kurdistan-Iraq, it seemed like any other ordinary military check point. Just a few meters past this line; however, the physical signs changed— no more Iraqi flags, Arabic signs changed to Kurdish script, less population, and noticeably less litter.

Wittgenstein argued that there are limits to what language can do and that our attempts to use language to describe the world can sometimes lead us into confusion and error. So I begin sharing these last days of this incredible trip with an apology to our Kurdish guide, Haana Babashekh: my insufficient understanding of the complexities of Kurdistan is reflected in the surface observation where my language has its limits. I arrived Kurdistan as a student and offer a basic overview of my few days in Erbil and environs. I hope that my humble effort will be accepted as a token of my appreciation for this opportunity as a novice in your country.

We first toured the countryside with visits to the Monastery of St. Mathew, a Syriac Orthodox Monastery; Lalish, a holy site for Yazidi; and the plains of Gaugamela before entering Erbil in the evening. Erbil was different from the other cities of Iraq. The architecture was modern with an international flare. Erbil had not been devastated by the US-led invasion of 2003 or ISIS insurgency. Post-1991, the US had instigated a no-fly zone over Kurdistan and facilitated the creation of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) with significant self-rule in Iraq. Yet, as I sit at my desk listening to the US invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, I can’t help but think of how empires and invaders rampaged through Mesopotamia for millennia and that humans continue to destroy one other for more land, more power, more money…so it was throughout the history of Kurdistan.

Photo Credit: Dr. Loqman Radpey
The Kurds are a borderless culture, a people without a nation state, spreading over several countries—Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran. The Kurds are one of the world’s least known ethnic groups. Historically, Kurdish roots can be traced back to the dawn of antiquity. Kurdish territories are geographically in the heartland of the Near East, and are consequently criss-crossed by some of the world’s oldest land routes, such as the Silk Road.

Erbil and Environs

Photo from Citadel of Erbil Museum, published in “Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistan”,1820.
The Citadel of Erbil stands atop of a ‘tell’ (or tel), an archaeological mound of land formed from the accumulation human occupation of successive ancient settlements, essentially cities built on top of another over the centuries. (Choli Minaret in forefront)

Entomology of Erbil, Arbil, Hawler
“The existence of variant forms of the name Arbil / Arbel / Irbil / Erbil…The Kurdish name Hawler is thought to have developed from the variant Arbel through a series of metatheses of consonants (re-arranging of sounds and syllables which is frequent in Kurdish). The name Arbil is not Semitic which means the Arab or the Syriac-Aramaic claim can be ruled out. The name Arbil is much older and mentioned Sumerian writings (cuneiform texts dating back to 3rd millenniumBCE) as Urbium, Urbillum from Sumerian (Ur) meaning city and bela meaning high” – Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

The Erbil Citadel, a UNESCO site, sits on a massive “tell” showcasing millennia of history, from Sumerians to Ottomans. Archaeological excavations that are being carried out at the Citadel revealing more information about Erbil throughout the ages, including the Neo-Assyrian period (ca 1000-600BCE). From cuneiform texts and reliefs, there are descriptions of events and life at the time including military campaigns and celebrations. Erbil was among the most important cities of the Assyrian heartland, and for its central position, it served as a base for trades and military strategic actions. Given Erbil’s role as a provincial capital, it was the seat of a governor and was famous throughout the region as being the home of the temple of one of the highest gods of the Assyrian empire, Ishtar of Erbil, the goddess of war and love.

From the Hellenistic period to antiquity, Erbil was part of the succeeding empires but maintained a relevant provincial administrative role. In 652CE, Erbil was conquered by the Muslim armies of Utba ibn Farqad al-Silmi. Erbil enjoyed a Golden Age under Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri (r.1190-1232CE), brother-in-law of Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin), Kurdish Muslim leader and founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty. Muzaffar ad-Din is remembered in the sources as a courageous military leader, a wise and devoted man, and a generous patron of architecture. A madrasa (school), religious buildings (zawiya and khanqah) houses for the underprivileged (orphans, widows, blind and sick people), a hospital (bimaristan) and a covered market are all attributed to him. The still standing Choli Monaret (as seen in the above museum photo) was most probably part of the al-Muzaffariya madrassa and mosque.

The Choli Minaret (choli means empty or desolate) dates to the rule of Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri (r.1190-1232CE) who governed at the Citadel of Erbil. Choli Minaret was known Muzaffariya Minaret named after the governor, Muzaffar ad-Din, at that time. The minaret is the remnants of a mosque that was destroyed, which may be the reason the name changed to “choli”— standing alone. The minaret was built on an octagonal base. Every side of it has been ornamented with Islamic inscriptions and decorations. Built of baked clay and plastered, the blue burned ceramic for decoration is no longer apparent. It has one door and two spiral stairs that ascend and descend so that people cannot see the other.

Mongol forces captured Erbil by negotiation in 1259CE after a six month siege, bringing the Golden Age of Muzaffar al-Din Gökböri to an end. One of the actions that the Mongols took to publicize their seize of power was to take over the mint and issue coins in the name of their Ilkhanate governor, Jahān Timür Khan.

Nader Shah, the Persian ruler and military commander, came against Erbil in 1743CE. At that time the Citadel was considered to be one of the strongest fortresses in the region. It took 60 days of siege for him to take it over. Nader Shah’s cannons cause so much damage to the Citadel’s walls that two years later, when the Citadel was recaptured by the Ottomans, Sultan Mahmud I ordered the reconstruction of the Grand Gate. During the Ottoman period, Erbil maintained its position as a main empire outpost toward the southern territories and Persia, in certain instances, it enjoyed some independence under local Kurdish rule.

Below the Citadel of Erbil is the 13th century covered bazaar, Qaysari Bazaar

**Erbil Qaysari Bazaar, at the foot of the Citadel of Erbil**

The cultural house was built in 1930 by a wealthy local merchant, Hashim Weli Dadagh (1904-1994). The building opened as the Kurdish Textile Museum in 2004.

Kurdish Textile Museum founded in 2004 by Lolan Mustapha.

The colors, motifs and symbols found on Kurdish textiles represent a form of ancient literacy which could be read by nomadic people in the same way that we would read a book. The maker of any textile, or the maker’s cultural group (tribe or clan) is sometimes recognizable by their use of motifs and colors.

Environs of Erbil

The regions around the city of Erbil are significant historical and cultural landscapes. Rich history, diverse people, and strategic geography define the region. The plains are known as a “breadbasket” and as a gateway for ancient trade routes and civilizations. Beyond the Kurdish majority, areas around Erbil have significant Turkmen, Arab, and Christian (Assyrian, Chaldean), Yazidi populations, as well as a historical Jewish community.

Though the trip draws to an end, I have not forgotten the footsteps of Ibn Battuta , the medieval traveler that I humbly follow. Ibn Battuta visited Mosul where he was the guest of the Ilkhanate governor, and then made his way along the Tigris river to the towns of Cizre (founded on the Tigris river in the historical region of Upper Mesopotamia and the cultural region of Turkish Kurdistan) before returning to Baghdad and eventually Mecca. At a hermitage on a mountain near Sinjar (a Kurdish town predominantly Yazidi), there, Ibn Battuta met Kurdish sufis who gifted him silver coins, highlighting his interaction with Kurdish communities. He noted the positive treatment of women within Kurdish tribes, a surprise to him given his travels in other areas.

Lalish is about two and a half hours drive from Erbil. The mountainous town is home to the holiest shrine for the Yazidi community. Yazisdism is a monotheistic ethnic religion. They believe in one God who created the world and after God created the world, he entrusted the world to the seven holy angels. The seven angels have a leader called Tawûsî Melek and he is in charge of the world. Every Yazidi is expected to make the piligrammage to Lalish once in their lifetime. Upon entering the gates of this sacred village, one must remove their shoes.

Temple door, photo credit: Jake Smith

When you step into the Temple of Sheikh Abi Ibn Musafir, you see that the doorway has a raised sill. The tradition is that you step over the sill and not on it (every door in Lalish requires this act of respect). One must step over any threshold of a door as there are angels waiting on the threshold. The black snake is a sacred symbol of wisdom, protection and life revered for plugging a hole in Noah’s Ark with its body, saving humanity from the flood.

In the article Basra: Oil and Water, I pointed out the peacock motifs throughout the city. In Yazidism, the peacock represents the Peacock Angel, Tawûsî Melek.

Monastery of St. Mathew (Mar Mattai Monastery), a Syriac Orthodox Monastery

The oldest Christian monastery Iraq and possibly the world. Hermitages here date back to the 4th and 5th centuries CE. The Monastary may have been commissioned by Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 BCE), son of Sargon II. The monastery founded in 363 CE by Mar Mattai who became a hermit after fleeing persecution. At present it is maintained by Syriac Catholic Church.

Kurdistan is a land of many faiths. The dominant religion is Sunni Islam. There are also Shiite Kurds, Church of the East (orthodox). Chaldean Catholic, Yazidi, Jewish. (Photo shows winding foot path to the monastery.)

Haana, our guide, shared this helpful explanation of Eastern Christian churches in Iraq. She writes: “this is a confusing topic even for adults, so here’s a clear, simple explanation. These names — Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, Aramean — are connected but not identical. They refer to identity, language, and churches in different ways.”

1. ASSYRIAN—What it is: • An ethnic identity tracing back to ancient Assyria (Ninawa, Ashur, etc.). • Many people who speak modern Neo-Aramaic identify as Assyrian today. Churches often associated: Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East. Some are also Syriac Orthodox/Catholic but still identify ethnically as Assyrian. Language: • Speak Neo-Aramaic (often called Assyrian or Sureth). • Use the Syriac alphabet.

2. CHALDEAN—What it is: • A Catholic Christian group that split from the Assyrian Church of the East in the 1500s. • “Chaldean” today mostly describes a church community, not an ancient ethnicity. • Many Chaldeans still see themselves as part of the wider Assyrian heritage. Church associated: • Chaldean Catholic Church (in communion with Rome). Language: • Also speak Neo-Aramaic (same family as Assyrian dialects).

3. SYRIAC—Syriac” can mean two things:

A. Syriac as a language: • An ancient literary form of Aramaic used by Christians for 1,500+ years. • Still used in church liturgy today.

B. Syriac as a people: • Sometimes refers to Christians who use the Syriac language, mainly in the: • Syriac Orthodox Church • Syriac Catholic Church. Important: “Syriac” is more about church and language, not a separate ethnicity.

4. ARMEAN (or Aramaean)—What it is: • A group that traces its identity to the ancient Armeans of Syria and Mesopotamia. • Some Syriac Christians (especially Syriac Orthodox) identify as Aramean instead of Assyrian. Why the difference? It’s about historical interpretation:• Some say their ancestors were Armeans. • Others say they were Assyrians. • Some identify mainly by church (Syriac).

THE BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA: Alexander the Great vs. Darius III

Gaugamela is where Alexander the Great won the final decisive victory over Darius III which occurred in 331 BCE, ultimately leading to the collapse of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Etymology of Gaugamela is from Greek Γαυγάμηλα, meaning Camel’s House. It originates from an Achaemenid Persian tradition where King Darius I designated the area to maintain the camel carrying his baggage through Scythia, explaining its evocative “Camel’s House” meaning and linking it to a significant location for the decisive battle against Alexander the Great.

Battle fought at Tell Gomel about 50 kilometers from Erbil. Battle of Gaugamela also called the Battle of Arbela was between Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia on October 1, 331 BCE.

I began the series with the hope ‘to decipher’ as Marcel Proust writes In Search of Lost Time: “To be sensitive to signs, to consider the world as an object to be deciphered…” (Why Iraq?). I called on the voyages of Ibn Battuta in Iraq to be my 14th century medieval guide and with MIR’s guides, Haana Babashekh and Jake Smith, I started my first step onto Iraqi soil where civilizations came and went for millennia. It was like turning a 1000 piece-puzzle onto a carpet.

As I flipped the pieces face-up, the edges started to reveal shapes. The predominate theme was undoubtedly, ‘the rise and fall of empires’. I looked up synonyms for empire—imperialism; colonization; interventionism; expansionism; domination; manifest destiny; corporation—the frame came together. Religion with its unique knob/hole combinations linked architecture and people through millennia. Recognizing sections like food and language and specific objects, large areas of the puzzle began to take shape. But it was the landscape between two rivers that revealed to be the connector pieces of this puzzle, Iraq.

References

Books:

Burns, James D. Antique Rugs of Kurdistan. 2002.

Websites:

Lalish in Iraq: The Globetrotting Detective

Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah, texte arabe, accompagné d’une traduction v. 2, 1854,

Radpey, Loqman, “Why Are Kurdish and Palestinian Struggles Treated Unequally?OPINION – March 24,2025

^[48]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta#:~:text=In%20Baghdad%2C%20he%20found%20Abu,exhausted%20for%20his%20second%20hajj.

Original quote: – That the world is my world, shows itself in the fact that the limits of the language (the language which I understand) mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein.

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT FOR WHERE OTHERS ARE CREDITED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION (THIS INCLUDES A.I.).

No re-use without the permission by Lesley Lababidi 2025

Previously in Samarra

Posted on January 1, 2026 by kobrigama

Credit Map: Dr. Alastair Northedge “Abu Dulaf Mosque” Université Paris1

Understanding Abbasid Mosques in Samarra and Cairo

Mosques are symbols of faith and power.

Mosques are symbols of faith and power and this fact is no more obvious than the Mosques of Samarra, Iraq—Great Mosque of Samarra (sometimes referred to as Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil) and Abu Dulaf Mosque—and the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.

**Malwiya Minaret**
**Great Mosque of Samarra**
**Samarra, Iraq 848CE**

There are three ancient spiral minaret still standing in the world. The three minarets—two in Samarra, Iraq and one in Cairo, Egypt—were built during the Abbasid Dynasty which extended from Tunisia to Central Asia and was one of the world’s great powers of that period, 750–1258 CE. The Abbasid period is divided into three main eras: Early Abbasid era (750–861), Middle Abbasid era (861–936) and Later Abbasid era (936–1258). This discussion covers the period between 836-880CE.

**Map:Alastair Northedge,”Abu Dulaf Mosque”**

Samarra was the capital city of the Abbasid Caliphate (836-892CE), founded by the eighth Abbasid Caliph al-Mu’tasim (r. 833-842) who began his reign living in the palace of his predecessor Caliph al-Ma’mun in Baghdad. Al-Mu’tasim soon moved 110 kilometers north from the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, to establish a new city in Samarra. At the time, the Abbasid caliphs began to depend on Turkish-speaking war slaves as bodyguards and soldiers. The new recruits were belligerent to the Baghdadi population and there were often violent incidents. Al-Mu’tasim’s decision to relocate the capital was based on the need of space to house soldiers recruited from Central Asia and to remove the troops from hostilities in Baghdad.

The construction of Samarra palatial city was built over a massive area alongside the eastern bank of the river Tigris; space was no object. The new capital symbolized the new situation in the caliphate by which distanced itself from Baghdad populace. It was a colossal endeavor bringing craftsmen from all parts of empire, including Egypt.

After al-Mu’tasim’s death, Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r.847-861) began construction in 848CE of a massive congregational mosque to hold sixty thousand soldiers to pray at one time. It was an architectural masterpiece covering an area of 40,000 square meters. For a time, the mosque was the largest in the world; its minaret, the Malwiya Tower is a spiraling minaret 52 meters high with a spiral ramp.

The city of Samarra was the Abbasid caliphate of Iraq for approximately fifty years during this time the Church of the East moved the patriarchal seat from Baghdad to Samarra. Samarra remained the residence of the caliph until 892 when the 16th caliph al-Mu’tadid returned the capital to Baghdad.

Abu Dulaf Mosque was commissioned by Caliph al-Mutawakkil between 859-861CE when the Caliph constructed several palaces and founded a new imperial city to the north of Samarra that he named Mutawakkiliyya. His new city was located eight kilometers to the north of Samarra on the bank of the Tigris.

Abu Dulaf Mosque follows almost the same model as the earlier mosque of al-Mutawakkil at Samarra, but the plan of the complex is on a smaller scale. The construction of two mosques within a 20 years time difference in the 9th century was the symbol of the region’s faith and power. The Abu Dulaf spiral minaret, 32 meters, is significantly less in height than the al-Malwiya Tower (52 meters minaret) of the Grand Mosque of Samarra but similar in every other way: positioned to the north of the mosque with a spiral ramp rising from a square base adorned with small recesses on each side. The mosque has fired brick rectangular piers. The portico on the courtyard has a double arcade of rectangular piers, while the prayer hall has sixteen arcades oriented perpendicular to the qibla wall.

The name, Abu Dulaf, is later than the mosque and is called after Abu Dulaf al-Qasim bin Isa al-Ijli who lived in Baghdad and was governor of Damascus during the reign of Caliph al-Mu’tasim.

Photo credit, left: Archnethttps://www.archnet.org/sites/3830; Right: author, 2025.
Northward view from the mihrab
Center aisle of prayer hall in foreground, Courtyard and minaret in background.

Photo credit, left: Archnethttps://www.archnet.org/sites/3830; Right: author, 2025.
Nine of the twelve piers in the north arcade

Ibn Tulun Mosque is a rare architectural expression of the cultural dominance of Samarra. That this great mosque has survived is one of the wonders of Cairo. It has been frequently restored but has not lost its historical integrity. The mosque commissioned in 876CE and completed in 879 was built entirely of well-fired red brick faced in carved stucco; it has ziyadas (additional areas) and a roof supported by arcades on piers. The off-centered spiral stone minaret is 40 meters in height with a mabkhara finial (an architectural element, a decorative cap found atop minarets, that resembles a traditional mabkhara—incense burner). The minaret was rebuilt by Sultan Lajin of 1296.

Courtyard view. The east corner of the minaret built of stone and the ablution fountain (not original).
The arcades with pointed arches and large open court surrounded by porticos on four sides.
(In the background is the minaret and dome of the Madrasa of Amir Sarghatmish: Mamluk 1356CE),

Ahmed Ibn Tulun the founder (r.868-884CE) of the Tulunid Dynasty, an autonomous state ruling Egypt and Syria within the Abbasid era. He grew up in the palaces of Samarra. Ahmed Ibn Tulun’s father, Tulun, was a Turkic from Central Asia. In the year 815, Tulun was taken captive along with other Turks, and sent as part of the tribute to the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813–833 as a soldier-slave but became influential in the royal court. His son, Ahmed Ibn Tulun (Ibn means ‘the son of’) was raised in the Mesopotamian princely city of Samarra and grew up in the palaces and luxury of the caliph. He was educated in Islamic law and government. Ibn Tulun probably attended Friday prayers at the Great Mosque of Samarra and at Abu Dulaf Mosque (both mosques have the same layout plan, porticos and spiral minaret). When his father died c. 868, Ibn Tulun was sent by the caliph to be governor of Askar-Fustat, the then capital of Egypt. Ibn Tulun was thirty-three years old. Within two years, Ibn Tulun was made governor of Egypt.

Ibn Tulun founded a new royal city on an outcrop of rock called Jabal Yashkur near the Muqattam range to the northeast of al-Fustat, razing the Christian and Jewish cemetery that was located on the hill to do so. This was a site to which many legends were attached: it was believed that Noah’s ark had landed here after the flood, and that here God had spoken to Moses and Moses had confronted Pharaoh’s magicians; nearby, on Qal’at al-Kasbah, Abraham had been ready to sacrifice his son to God. The city that Ahmad ibn Tulun built was called al-Qata’i’, ‘the wards,’ descriptive of the allotments in which each group of his followers settled. – Archnet

Ahmed Ibn Tulun founded a new capital called al-Qatā’i (el-Katai). He endowed his city with a congregational mosque worthy of an independent capital. He employed an Egyptian Christian architect, al-Nasrani (also known as Saiid Ibn Kateb Al-Farghany, origins in Central Asia/Samarra) who may have been key to building with firebricks. The use of firebricks was alien to local building traditions and follows the architecture at Samarra as bricks were the natural material in Mesopotamia (Behrens-Abouseif,p52). It was also a common practice in Egypt to re-use columns from ancient ruins and churches but Ibn Tulun rejected this and followed the same structure as the mosque al-Mutawakkil Grand Mosque in Samarra; rectangular piers made from backed bricks were used rather than marble columns. Historian Tarek Selim notes that “the rectangular piers support some of the most elegant pointed arches in the world.”

To pay for his new palatial city and grand mosque, Ibn Tulun stopped sending revenue from Egypt to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad between Baghdad and Egypt. In 905CE, the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad would have their revenge for the secessionist movement and destroyed al-Qatā’i. Only the Ibn Tulun Mosque survived the destruction of the Tulunid Dynasty.

Samarran Style

The three spiral minarets have the distinctive spiral design which archeologist say to be derived from the Mesopotamian ziggurats’ architecture. (Some archeologists have suggested the influence of the Pillar of Gor, built in the Sasanian Empire.).

All three congregational mosques were completed in a short span of time, between 2-3 years. Considering the equipment and technology that we have today compared to a thousand years ago, this is incredible and says so much about the state of affairs we find ourselves today! The homogeneous style of the Samarra architecture was adapted to suit the caliph. The artistic style was characterized by abstract, symmetrical and repletion based on floral and geometric elements that included influence from Central Asia.

Left photo; Archnet https://www.archnet.org/sites/1522. Right photo, author 2025.
The rosette shape dominates and there are no stems or stalks. This is predominate style at the Ibn Tulun Mosque. The floral representation are not naturalistic and are the origins of arabesque- that is geometrically arranged representation of plants. (Behrens-Abouseif,p52)

The Samarran style, like any other Islamic style of architectural decoration was not confined to religious architecture but was adopted into secular architecture such as palaces and well-to-do homes. Although nothing remains of the corniche inscriptions or decorative art at the Grand Mosque of Samarra and Abu Dulaf Mosque, we can imagine from the above example at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun the grandeur and beauty of the two Abbasid mosques of Samarra.

NEXT:

Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq

References

Books:

Aldridge, James. Cairo. Little, Brown and Co. 1969. p.. 48-58.

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. 1989. “Early Islamic Architecture in Cairo.” In Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction, 47-57. Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill.

Northedge, Alastair, Historical Topography of Samarra, Université Paris, 2008.

Northedge, Alastair, and Derek Kennet. Archaeological Atlas of Samarra, 1: 155. 3 vols. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2015.

Stewart, Desmond. Great Cairo Mother of the World. American University in Cairo. 1996.p. 51-55.

Swelim, Tarek. His Lost City and Great Mosque. American University in Cairo. 2015.

Websites:

“Authorities”. al-Mutawakkil, Abbasid Caliph, Archnet

Jami’ ibn TulunCairo, Egypt. Archnet.

“The Great Mosque of Samarra & The Abu Dulaf Mosque”. OCTOBER 6, 2020, Archeyes

“Ziggurat Architecture in Mesopotamia: A Journey Through Time.” Archeyes JUNE 29, 2022

No re-use without the permission (this includes A.I.) by Lesley Lababidi 2025.

2025☞2026

Posted on December 31, 2025 by kobrigama

Suggestion for 2026: Julian de Mediros speaks to leading “the self-consecration of life.“

May 2026 be gentler and thoughtful; kinder and helpful, in recognition of self and the others.

To all who have 'liked' and commented on nomad4now posts; to each who took a moment of the day to read and respond, you have put a smile on my face every day.
Thank you!
Let us see what we discover in the hours and days of 2026.
With love, Lesley

MOSUL: Rise Like A Phoenix

Posted on December 24, 2025 by kobrigama

Solemn wall graffiti encapsulates the Battle of Mosul… and war everywhere.

In the articles leading up to Mosul, I have tried to steer clear of the modern Iraq war, destruction, the players and the world positioning. It has not been easy as so much of Iraq’s narrative centers around war…and it is painful. I prefer to think about, learn about, and understand Iraq, the land, society, religion, culture, crafts, art, architecture, and the ancient history of Mesopotamia, but here it is, the proverbial elephant in the room—war.

I am far from an expert on Iraqi war. That said, we all know about the eight year war between Iraq/Iran in the 1980’s, Desert Storm 1990-91, Saddam Hussein and Republican Guard, “weapons of mass destruction”, US-led invasion, Islamic State (IS), insurgents, Gulf War, al-Qaida-ISIS, coalition, Daesh, civil war, Kurdish Peshmerga, sectarian violence….need I go on? All this and all the armies, and all the people that have fought, killed, died, stole, tortured, maimed on this piece of land for over the last 40 years.. Iraq survives. The history reads like a wounded phoenix rising from the ashes to fall again onto the charred earth and rise again. Iraq strives and there is no better place to demonstrate this persistence than the city of Mosul— the original site of the Nineveh, the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-612BCE).

This is a very brief (and insufficient) history of the war at Mosul: Following the March 2003 US-led invasion, Mosul became a primary hub for anti-coalition resistance. As a former military and Ba’athist stronghold, Mosul saw intense fighting between US forces and various groups. The city was taken relatively quickly by US and Kurdish forces in April 2003. US led coalition pulled out of Iraq in 2011 after which Al-Qaeda in Iraq (the predecessor to ISIS) established a significant presence in the city.

Fall of Mosul (June 2014): In one of the most significant events of the period, ISIS forces captured Mosul from a much larger but demoralized Iraqi army force. Mosul became the largest city under ISIS control. An estimated 500,000 civilians fled the city during the fall.

ISIS Occupation (2014-2017): During this time, ISIS imposed a brutal regime, committing war crimes, and destroyed homes and cultural heritage sites. Over 10,000 people were killed.
Battle of Mosul (2016-2017): The Iraqi government and U.S.-led international coalition launched a massive offensive to retake the city. The operation began in October 2016 and was declared a victory in July 2017 after intense urban warfare.

Considering that 80% of Mosul was destroyed, it is a success story that the rebuilding and restoration of the city is underway. Today, there are cultural houses, museums, and incredibly friendly and welcoming people in the shops and on the streets. Through photography, I hope to convey some of the positivity that is happening in Mosul right now.

The **Great Mosque of al-Nuri** is a Sunni mosque famous for its leaning which gave the city its nickname “the hunchback”. History says that the mosque was built in the late 12th centuryCE, although it underwent many renovations over the years. The cause of the lean is blamed on the prevailing wind and/or thermal expansion caused by the heat of the sun-facing side to progressively tilt the minaret. The mosque withstood various hostile invading forces over its 850-year history until it was destroyed, along with its distinctive minaret, in the 2017 Battle of Mosul. On 23 April 2018,United Arab Emarites, UNESCO, Iraq’s culture ministry, and ICCROM pledged to restore the minaret. An official opening was held on 1 September 2025 in a ceremony of the minaret’s successful reconstructions restoring the skyline of Mosul.-Wikipedia

Here are some of the highlights walking through the streets of Mosul:

Doors of Mosul:

Mosul ‘marble’ is a historical name for the gypsum alabaster found in northern Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate, the administrative area that includes the Sinjar (Shengal) district. Door frames made of ‘marble’ vs. doors made of wood is said to be a sign of a well-to-do family.

History of Nineveh – Mosul

Mosul is situated at the ancient site of Nineveh. Long before the city of Nineveh was identified the area was a major urban center in northern Mesopotamia from a very early date: for modern archaeologists, the site gives its name to an important prehistoric pottery style and a substantial settlement was already established there by 3000 B.C.

The Assyrian capital changed several times in the early first millennium B.C.: in the ninth century B.C., Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 B.C.) moved from the traditional capital Ashur to Nimrud in the late eighth century B.C., Sargon II (r. 721–705 B.C.) founded a new capital city, Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad); and finally, Sargon’s son and successor Sennacherib (r. 704–681 B.C.) moved the capital to Nineveh. (MET)

Ashurbanipal was king of the Neo-Assyrian empire. At the time of his reign (669–c. 631 BC) it was the largest empire in the world, stretching from Cyprus in the west to Iran in the east, and at one point it even included Egypt. Its capital Nineveh (in modern-day Iraq) was the world’s largest city. This is at a time when the Greek city-states (like Athens and Sparta) were still in their infancy and Rome was just a small settlement. Ashurbanipal wasn’t modest about being the king of the Assyrian empire – he called himself ‘king of the world’! British Museum

The British archaeologist, Austin Henry Layard in the mid-nineteenth century excavated the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. There, he discovered Ashurbanipal’s library of hundreds of thousands books written in cuneiform on clay tablets (30,000 tablets are in the British Museum).

Nineveh and the Epic of Gilgamesh:

Among the tablets found by Layard in the library at Nineveh, the ones that created the greatest stir in the nineteenth century were those that recorded an epic poem about a king who might have ruled almost 2000 years earlier: Gilgamesh. In cuneiform was the tale of a man who had been instructed by a god to build a boat in advance of a great flood and to fill it with animals. His boat floated as the storm raged and the world filled with water, and it survived the storm, eventually landing on a mountaintop.The man gave thanks to the gods for his survival. – Amanda H. Podany

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In the center of Mosul is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon! British academic, Dr. Stephanie Dalley, has amassed a wealth of textual evidence to show that the garden was instead created at Nineveh, 300 miles from Babylon, in the early 7th century BCE and has concluded that the garden was built by the Assyrians in the north of Mesopotamia not in Babylon.

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The Neo-Assyrian ruins, Ashur and Nimrud, and the Parthian ruins of Hatra have extensive damage. (For those interested, one can search the Internet and find pre-2003 photographs of the sites and intact monuments.) The area of Ashur, Nimrud and Hatra were threatened by the war following the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. These ancient site were occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and destroyed ancient sites, statues, and artifacts. Some sources say the citadel of Ashur was badly destroyed in May 2015 by ISIL.

Ashur also known as Aššur and Qal’al Sherqat

The ancient city of Ashur is located on the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia. The city dates back to the 3rd millennium BCE. From the 14th to the 9th centuries BCE, it was the first capital of the Assyrian Empire, a city-state and trading platform of international importance. It also served as the religious capital of the Assyrians, associated with the god Ashur. The city was destroyed by the Babylonians, but revived during the Parthian period in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.

Ashur or Aššur and
Qa’lat Sherkat, **First capital of Assyrian Empire**

Nimrud: So little left of Nimrud today…

Nimrud was founded during the 13th century BCE. It was considered as the second capital of the Assryian Empire, known as (kalhu or kalah ), flourished during the reign of the King Ashurnasirpal. Some artifacts from the excavations over the years now on site at Nimrud, Basra Museum and British Museum.

Read more about : Ziggurats are some of the oldest ancient religious structures in the world. The Mesopotamian Ziggurat; its architecture, history and use.

**Temple of Nabu, Nimrud, Attendant god (810-783BCE) British Museum**

Hatra:

In the middle of the northern Iraqi desert, the ancient city of Hatra was a central hub for military routes and a trading center along the commercial trade routes of the Silk Road. Hatra reached its peak in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The city was famous for its strong walls, temples, and unique mix of architecture: Greek, Roman, and Eastern styles. In 1985, Hatra was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, much of the architecture, reliefs, and carvings were defaced or destroyed in 2015 when ISIS occupied this area.

Hatra is located 110 kilometers southwest of Mosul and was built on the ruins of an Assyrian settlement. It is situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Hatra is an Aramaic or Arabic word meaning “enclosure”. The location linked the Roman Empire in the west and the Parthian Empire in the east by trade routes through Mesopotamia and to the Arabian Gulf thus becoming an important commercial and religious center. It firstly developed as a religious center and became a large kingdom by the second century CE. It is the best-preserved city of the Parthian empire (ca. 200-BCE-220CE). – UNESCO

The UNESCO video of Hatra embedded here was filmed in 2010 before the ISIS destroyed much of the architecture, sculptures, carving, carvings.

If there is one thing that has been cemented into my core is that humans, generation after generation, change, erase or destroy what came before.

In the last two years, we are witness to Gaza turned into rubble by Israel and US relentless bombings; we are witness to Israel’s systematic missile attacks in destruction of Lebanese heritage; we are witness to A UNESCO World Heritage site, City of the Dead, bulldozed for modern infrastructure in Cairo; we are witness to Trump destroying New York historical buildings and erasing stories of diverse communities on public lands.

WE believe-WE demand; WE build-WE destroy; WE hold on-WE let go;

Erasure may only take a few decades or thousands of years,

but it is for certain that human hands destroy until nothing remains.

NOTHING

And then, maybe, earth will survive…

_____________________________________

Next:

Previously in Samarra

Reference:

Books:

Alberge, Dalya,”Babylon Hanging Gardens-: ancient scripts give clue to missing wonder”. The Guardian. May 2013.

Mezzofiore, Gianluca and Aria Limam.Iraq: Isis ‘blows up Unesco world heritage Assyrian site of Ashur’ near Tikrit. International Business Times, May 2015.

Podany, Amanda H. The Ancient Near East. Oxford Univ. Press. 2015.

Saleem, Ali Zmkan and Mac Skelton. The Failure of Reconstruction in Mosul: Root Causes from 2003 to the Post- ISIS Period. Institute of Regional and International Studies, American Univ. of Iraq. https://auis.edu.krd/iris/

Website:

Hatra,UNESCO

Who was Ashurbanipal? British Museum.

No re-use without the permission (this includes A.I.) by Lesley Lababidi 2025.

On The Road To Baghdad

Posted on December 17, 2025 by kobrigama

“It was the place where all the world’s wealth was gathered and all the blessings of the universe.” – al- Ya’qubi on Baghdad (9th c.)

Karbala, in Arabic means distress
and affliction; the Aramaic translation, ‘closeness to God’; Old Persian
translation, “heavenly deeds.”

What’s in a name?

In my youth the name,’Baghdad’ evoked impressions of mysterious Arabian adventures, caravansaries and sumptuous bazaars. Baghdad is full of stories of Ottoman tales, myths, humanitarian works, and US war combatants. The historical story is of the Abbasid Caliph, al-Mansur, founding his capital in 762CE as Medīnat as-Salām, City of Peace, after a victorious take over of the Syrian-based Ummayyad caliphate. The Abbasid capital rapidly took the name Baghdad, an old Persian name meaning “bestowed by God.” The Caliph al-Mansur built the Round City of Baghdad between 762–766 CE and the design was to resemble paradise.

On the Road…to al-Aqiser Church

Archeological site in Ain Tamr near Karbala is described as the oldest (or at least, one of the oldest) Syriac–Chaldean Catholic Churches in the world. The area of 4000 sq.m. that included cemetery and monasteries.

Al-Aqiser is one of the oldest churches in the world built in 5CE. Built of baked mud brick, it is near extinction from conflict, neglect and severe climate erosion. It contains writings of Aramaic language and the altar is in the direction of Jerusalem.

On the road… to al-Ukhaidir Fortress

al-Ukhaidir Fortress from highway.

The al-Ukhaidir Fortress is located in the depth of the desert 48 km southwest of Karbala 20 km from Ayn al-Tamr, and 150 km from Baghdad. The fortress is typical of Islamic architecture of the Abassid Dynasty. The largest part of the fortress is the great hall; a mosque, guards’ quarters, ruler’s retinue. Servants were housed in the center of the fortress. The fortress was constructed with stone, plaster and lime. One entrance was designated for the horses of the Caliph and his associates. There are several defensive features used in the fortress construction. One of these features the machicolation-narrow openings visible from outside the walls and towers designed for drop arrows or pouring oil on approaching enemies. The main stairway was designed to allow horse with riders to ascend it, and the fortress walls are thick and built to resist demolition in the event of an attack. The mosque is bordered on the eastern, wester, and southern sides by arcades that extend into a row of columns, upon which arches arrest. The niche (mihrab) is concave in form and integral part of the architectural structure.

Gertrude Bell, exceptional traveler-diplomat-intelligence officer who excelled in a male-dominated world, published a complete archaeological survey of al-Ukhaidir Fortress,Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture, Oxford Univ. Press, 1914. The chapter, “Genesis of the Early Mohammadan Palace” is a must read. The book is fascinating not only for the survey of the fortress but also the men mentioned who were pivotal in the administration of the British Empire of the colonies, for example Sir William Willcocks worked in Iraq on the irrigation of Mesopotamia and also worked in Egypt as irrigation engineer at the Aswan Dam (a street was named after him in Zamalek, Egypt). Gertrude Bell is buried in Baghdad at the Episcopal Anglican Cemetery in Iraq.

There is a moment, too when one is newly arrived in the East, when one is conscious the world shrinking at one end and growing at the other till all the perspective of life is changed—after a few days it becomes a common place and one notices it no more. Existence suddenly seems to be a very simple matter and one wonders why we plan a scheme, weary ourselves with hurrying—after nothing… when all we need do is to live and make sure of a succeeding generation. – Gertrude Bell

al-Ukhaidir Fortress

THE ROAD TO BAGHDAD

ARRIVAL BAGHDAD AT 5:30 PM, NOVEMBER 17, 2025

As we drove off the highway ramp and entered Baghdad city limits, my thoughts return to Ibn Battuta’s arrival to Baghdad on the Tigris River in 1327CE, seven decades after the Mongols sack of Baghdad in 1258CE. Fourteenth century Baghdad was still ruled by the Islamized Mongols known as the Ilkhans. The devastation that the Mongols wrought 70 years earlier was catastrophic, but under Sultan Abu Sa’id Bahadur Khan, the last IIkhanide king, Baghdad was attempting to revive as the world’s greatest confluence of intellect, commerce, and trade that had characterized it during its Abbasid heyday, roughly from the eighth to the 11th century.

The Round City (Medīnat as-Salām, City of Peace) designed by Caliph al-Mansur in 762CE , Abbasid Dynasty, was geometrically perfect. Baghdad was thought to be at the world’s center connecting East and West via the Tigris River linking it to China, Syria and Europe through trade routes and the Silk Roads.

The Round City was a center of culture and learning during its Golden Age (8th-13th centuries) with its grand design, canals, markets, libraries, mosques and madrassas (schools).

When Ibn Battuta arrived, he noted, “We travelled to Baghdad, the Abode of Peace and Capital of Islam. The town has eleven cathedral mosques, 8 on the right bank and 3 on the left, together with mosques and madrasas, only the latter are all in ruins.” -“Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354″; Fordham University.

“Her [Baghdad] outward lineaments have departed and nothing remains of her but the name … There is no beauty in her that arrests the eye, or summons the busy passer-by to forget his business and to gaze.”- [Ibn Jabayr in Dunn, p. 97.]

Ibn Battuta’s words were heavy as I walked through the bookseller’s market of Baghdad on al-Mutanabbi Street. Standing on the banks of the Tigris river at sunset and looking out I recalled the early afternoon of March 21, 2003. I was in Houston watching television when a news bulletin switched to live footage of the first wave of the Pentagon’s “shock and awe” bombing campaign on the Iraqi capital. I looked up at the statue of Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi and realized that I was standing in the same place that George Bush Jr. and Pentagon officials said the campaign would send bombs and missiles in the first 24 hours to destroy Baghdad.

A US-led invasion swiftly removed Saddam Hussein, but a violent insurgency against occupying forces and the new Iraqi government followed, marked by sectarian violence and instability.

It has been 22 years since watching the televised destruction of a civilization. Will Baghdad fulfill its Abbasid name, ‘The City of Peace’ or its Persian meaning, ‘bestowed by God’? Will Baghdad live up to its reputation as a vibrant trade hub and cultural center…a paradise? I suppose the question really is: Will the world allow it?

NEXT:

Mosul: Rise Like A Phoenix

Reference:

Books

Meiselas, Susan. “Letter from Gertrude Bell in Port Said to her mother, Florence Bell”. Kurdistan in the Shadow of History. The Robinson Library, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyre. University of Chicago.

Tracy, William. Woman In Arabia:The Writing of the Queen of the Desert. Penguin Classics, 2015.

Websites

Iraq and Persia: 1326 – 1327, Orias, UC Berkeley

IBN BATTUTA IN IRAQ, PERSIA, AND ANATOLIA, fact and detail.com

No re-use without the permission (this includes A.I.) by Lesley Lababidi 2025.

Nasiriyah to Karbala: Religion and Ruins

Posted on December 14, 2025 by kobrigama

Nasiriyah to Karbala

Religion and Ruins

Mesopotamians on worship

“The safest way to live was to believe in all the gods and to give offerings and say prayers to the ones with the biggest impact on your life. If you moved to a distant land or even travelled through a land with different gods, the obvious thing was to worship those gods along with your own.

Its not that the Mesopotamians tolerated other religions, it is that they didn’t recognize that there were other religions. All religions beliefs were part of the same divine world in their view. In fact they didn’t even have a name for ‘religion’ as something different from the rest of life.

The gods were completely interwoven into everything that people experienced, felt, and thought about. [The gods] provided an explanation for every phenomenon in nature.” – Amanda Podany, Ancient Mesopotamia:Life in the Cradle of Civilization, Ep. Amazon Prime, 2018.

The 18 episode production by Dr. Amanda Podany, Ancient Mesopotamia Cradle of Civilization is well worth the time and money for an in-depth overview of the thousands of years of civilizations, society and culture in Mesopotamia and the broader Near East from 6000-300BCE. Out of all those hours of watching and note taking, the above quote struck me to the core. Early humans were able to respect other gods as they travelled into unknown lands while retaining their own beliefs. What a different the world would be today if religious tolerance was the basis of human interactions!

In retracing the four days to Naseriyah and on to Karbala, my observations moved through the days as if I was being hurled through rapid time travel. It was intense and mentally strenuous. The days were framed within a continuous backdrop of Shi’ite religious street art, banners and posters depicting Shi’ite fighters and martyrdom, flags and signage of religious devotion, and political propaganda at every corner. Pilgrims, in the march to Paradise, hailed from neighboring cities and as far away as Iran, meditatively striding along the highway towards Karbala to the eventual destinations of the mausoleum and holy shrine of Prophet Imam Husayn bin Ali and Shi’ite mosque, the holiest shrine in the Shi’ite Islam.

Abu Abdullah”Prophet Imam Husayn” All blessings be upon him.

I begin where the last article left off, at the rivers Tigris and Euphrates converging to form the Shatt al-Arab (Shores of the Arabs). “In the beginning” as stated several times in the Bible, this article begins where Abrahamic faith believes Adam and Eve became human. Here, at the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris is the credited site of the Biblical Garden of Eden.

Heading for Nasiriyiah, we stop at the village of Al-Uzair to visit the Shrine of the Prophet Ezra the Scribe, also known as Uzair in Arabic and Abdenjo in Chaldean. The Jewish-Muslim pilgrimage site stands on the banks of the Tigris River between Al-Qurnah and Qal’at Saleh in Maysan Province. Hebrew scriptures, Jewish symbols, Quranic verses, and Islamic inscriptions coexist within its walls. The Shi’ite community are caretakers of the synagogue.

Iraq’s civilizations show a deep, continuous religious thread from polytheistic Mesopotamian gods (Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian) to Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), with sacred sites evolving into Shi’ite Islamic shrines (Najaf, Karbala), while ancient Christian communities (Assyrians, Chadian, Eastern Christianity) have persisted for millennia, highlighting a layered spiritual history where each era built upon or adapted existing reverence for the land, linking ancient rituals to modern pilgrimages.

IAncient Mesopotamian Religions (c. 3500 BCE – 400 CE)
Polytheism: Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians worshipped gods representing nature (Inanna, Enlil, Ashur, Marduk).Abrahamic Faiths: —Judaism: Jewish prophets lived and worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia. Christianity: 1st century onward, establishing ancient Assyrian (Church of the East) communities, Syriac, Chaldean Catholic… making northern Iraq a center for Eastern Christianity. Islamic: (7th century) Islam became dominant but integrated with existing traditions not erasing them. Shi’ite Islam: Iraq became a major Shi’ite hub, with cities like Karbala (Prophet Husayn’s shrine) becoming world-renowned pilgrimage sites, mirroring ancient spiritual importance. Modern Iraq: Today, Iraq is predominantly Muslim (Sunni and Shi’ite), but retains diverse faiths (Christianity, Mandaeism, Yazidism), reflecting its long history as a melting pot of civilizations and beliefs.

Ancient Mesopotamian cities visited are circled in purple.The city of Hit is circled in blue and is important as one of the major sources for bitumen that was used as waterproofing for boats and mortar for temples and palaces.

Along the southernmost reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in southern Mesopotamia just north of the Persian Gulf, the landscape dotted with small village farming settlements underwent a profound and irreversible transformation in the late fourth millennium BCE. For the previous 2000 years, the banks of the Euphrates had been sparsely lined with the small villages of farmers and herders who seasonally drew the water for their fields from small canals branching off the slow moving waters. The transformation of this landscape during the period 4000-3000 BCE saw the emergence of large cities, royal dynasties, temples and palaces, bureaucrats and administrators, huge teams of laborers, and writing. The appearance of this new form of society is considered by archaeologists to mark the dawn of civilization. That it took place first in southern Mesopotamia along the Euphrates, and, contemporaneously, in lower Egypt along the Nile, is beyond doubt. (Weiss, p77).

The city of Uruk (Warka in Arabic) in 3100 BCE situated near the Eurphrates River was vastly bigger than any community that had existed before, not just in Mesopotamia but anywhere. It was enclosed by a city wall 10 kilometers in circumference. Uruk was primarily inhabited by the Sumerians, who are credited with many firsts in human civilization, including writing, urbanization, and monumental architecture. The goddess, Inanna, served as patron deity and queen of the city. Historians refer to Uruk period from 3500 to 2900BCE. Key figures associated with Uruk include: Enmerkar: A legendary king who is said to have founded the city.Gilgamesh: The most famous king of Uruk, whose exploits are detailed in the “Epic of Gilgamesh.” Lugalzagesi: A ruler who united several Sumerian city-states.

“The Uruk urban revolution was like an explosion across the Near East. Brilliant thinkers, explorers, and inventors built up a whole complex of interwoven technologies and institutions—including cities, government, writing, monumental architecture, the wheel, and bronze working—and set them rolling toward the future.”- Amanda Podany

Some memorable moments from the Ancient Ruins of Uruk and artifacts of that era preserved at the Basra Museum.

This piece of wall cone mosaic decoration was part of one of the walls of the white temple at Uruk (Warka) city. Stone cones are inlaid on a gypsum background. Uruk period, 3500-2800 BCE. Please see British Museum website for replica of what the wall would have looked like in the ancient city.

Uruk is where some of the earliest known cuneiform tablets were discovered, marking the advent of writing. These tablets provide valuable insights into early administrative practices, literature, and daily life. The “Epic of Gilgamesh,” one of the earliest works of literature, is set in Uruk and reflects the city’s cultural and literary achievements. It tells the story of Gilgamesh’s quests and his reflections on mortality and friendship.

Worlds first writings on clay tablets photo-cuneiform to cuneiform.

Located in southern Iraq, near the former northern limits of the Persian Gulf, Ur was one of the most famous archaeological excavations—along with Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt—during the early 20th century. Frequently described in the popular press, the work at Ur brought the magic of archaeology to life, particularly by tying the discoveries into familiar biblical stories. Between 1922 and 1934, the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Penn Museum was directed by C. Leonard Woolley and uncovered some of the most well-known and celebrated art from ancient Mesopotamia. – Univ. of Pennsylvania

Aerial photograph taken in 1930 by the Royal Air Force presents the ancient city of Ur. The Ziggurat of Ur is a prominent feature in the photo, a stepped pyramid for the moon god Nanna depicts the advanced engineering of the Sumerians. Ancient History & Knowledge

Read more about : Ziggurats are some of the oldest ancient religious structures in the world. The Mesopotamian Ziggurat; its architecture, history and use.

The ancient Sumerian City of Ur was one of the first cities, as Uruk, in the world. The city of Ur was considered a regional religious center where gods such as Nanna (Moon God) Enki (God of Water and Wisdom) and Goddess Nin-Gal (The Great Lady, Wife of Nanna) were worshipped. Ur was inhabited for more than 5000 years by diverse cultures, ranging from the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk to the Achaemenid Persians.

(For those who are interested in the earliest identified author in the world, Enheduanna (ca. 2300 BCE), daughter of Sargon of Akkad (r. c. 2334 – c. 2279 BCE), high priestess in service of the moon-god and moon-goddess, Nanna and Inanna, a sample of her writing is at the end of this post. Enheduanna’s writings have survived on cuneiform-inscribed tablets, and her portrait was found on a limestone disc during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur. )

The city’s layout reveals an urban grid characterized by streets bordered by residential areas, temples and communal space. The Royal Cemetery of Ur stands out as a significant archaeological site.

As dusk fell and not far from these ancient ruins of Ur, we visited the birthplace of Prophet Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Our journey through the ancient world began early the next day and we drove to Babylon; the history dating to origins of the Akkadian Empire around circa 2000-1000 BCE.

Babylon first appeared after the fall of the Empire of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2193-2004BCE). On the Euphrates River, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon was ruled by the famous Hammurabi (known for his code of law) and Nebuchadnezzar II (who built grand monuments like the Ishtar Gate.) The Babylonian Empire refers to two major Mesopotamian periods: the Old Babylonian Empire (circa 1894-1594BCE) founded by Amorites (westerners) and the celebrated King Hammurabi, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539BCE) known for Nebuchadnezzar II who built grand monuments like the Ishtar Gate and Hanging Gardens (though historians disagree that the Hanging Gardens were in Babylon and place them in Nineveh—to be discussed in Mosul article).

The sun was setting as we reached Karbala. My voyage through time arrived with the marching pilgrims! Here, we would stand, together, in awe at the holy shrine of the Prophet Husayn.

Date Trees surround the city of Karbala, founded in 690 CE after the Battle of Karbala fought between Imam Husayn’s refusal to submit to the demands of allegiance to Yazid I and the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate. The Prophet Husayn and his half-brother, Abbas, were martyred.

There are two paramount Shi’ite shrines in Karbala. The first contains the tomb of Prophet Husayn ibn Ali who was the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. He was martyred at the Battle of Karbala in 680CE and buried here along with 72 martyrs. A wide promenade connects the Prophet Imam Husayn shrine with the shrine of his half brother, al-Abbas who was Husayn’s flag bearer at the Battle of Karbala and also died a martyr.

-Video at Imam Husayn’s shrine, courtesy of Jake Smith

The faces of worshipers held hope for blessings as their hands held onto the iron bars that surrounded the ancient tombs. Mothers lifted their newly born babies close to the shrine’s covering as prayers were fervently offered. Through the crowds, a wooden coffin raised above our heads proceeded from shrine to burial. No one seemed concerned about my foreignness…and then… I heard an ancient Mesopotamian’s whisper of tolerance.

NEXT:

On the Road to Baghdad

Nin-me sar-ra ( “Lady of All the Me” )

𒊩𒌆 𒈨 𒄭 𒊏 𒌓 𒈦𒄘𒃼 𒌓𒁺 𒀀

Lady of all powers, 
In whom light appears, 
Radiant one
Beloved of Heaven and Earth, 
Tiara-crowned
Priestess of the Highest God, 
My Lady, you are the guardian
Of all greatness.
Your hands holds the seven powers:
You lift the powers of being,
You have hung them over your fingers,
You have gathered the many powers, 
You have clasped them now
Like necklaces onto your breast. 
-from The Hymn to Inanna , by Enheduanna

References

Books:

Hirshfield, Jane. Women in Praise of the Sacred. Harper. 1994.
Podany, Amanda H. The Ancient Near East. Oxford Univ. Press. 2014, pp.18-25.
Weiss, Harvey. “Protohistoric Syria and the Origins of Cities and Civilizations”, Ebla to Damascus.Smithsonian. 1985. p.77.
Websites:
*Miri, Aphid. A Shared Heritagehttps://www.chaldeannews.com/2025-content/2025/6/30/jewish-shrines-in-iraq
https://aknafalsawary.com/uruk-ancient-city/
Video at Imam Husayn’s Shrine courtesy of Jake Smith

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT FOR WHERE OTHERS ARE CREDITED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION (THIS INCLUDES A.I.).

Basra: Oil and Water

Posted on December 8, 2025 by kobrigama

As the pilot of Turkish Airline began to circle Basra (Basrah) International Airport, I looked out the window to see gas flaring mark the landscape. The atmosphere took on a foggy appearance although the pilot’s announcement reported nearly 32C (90F) temperature on ground. Poor air quality was my first thought. Deplaning, I recognized the pungent smell of petrol. The lingering odor permeated everything. I was in the city of oil production and refining.

Shatt al-Arab (Shore of the Arabs) Basra

My thoughts turned to Ibn Battuta who left Mecca in 1324 CE and joined a caravan heading toward Baghdad, making his way to Basra. From its founding Basra (established in 636 CE as a military camp by the second Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab) was a city known for its scholarship, education, poetry and music. It is renowned as the place where Arabic grammar was developed by Abu Al-Aswad Al-Dua’aly. Under the Abbasid Caliphs (750-1256), Arab geographers describe a beautiful city with gardens crossed by canals. Trade routes linked the merchants of Basra with East Africa, Central Asia and China. The city was famous for its glassmaking, pottery silk production and carpets as well as the cultivation of its sweet dates.

Yellow pilgrim flask, blue beaker, Islamic era
637-1500CE, Basra Museum

Despite Basra’s storied history, Ibn Battuta was disappointed to find that the city did not uphold its fame for beauty and scholarship. Basra had shrunk in population and importance. When he attended a Friday service in the mosque, he was surprised at the grammatical errors committed by the sheikh. He learned that “In this town there is not a man left who knows anything of the science of grammar.”^[1] Yet Ibn Battuta also wrote, “Basra is one of the metropolitan cities and no place on earth excels it in quality of palm-groves…the inhabitants of Basra possess many excellent qualities; they are affable to strangers.”^[2]

Ibn Battuta confirmed the contradictions and multi-layers of Basra that I was experiencing. It was going to be too easy to see Basra through the lens of war and threat of resource proliferation, colonization and imperialism, sectarianism and environmental destruction. Taking a page from Ibn Battuta’s writings, I challenged myself to balance human greed with human beauty.

So I’ll begin where Ibn Battuta began at the Imam Ali Mosque also known as Old Basra Mosque and the Step Mosque:

As we approached the city I had remarked at a distance of some two miles from it a lofty building resembling a fortress. I asked about it and was told that it was the mosque of ‘Ali. Basra was in former times a city so vast that this mosque stood in the centre of the town, whereas now it is two miles outside it. ^3]

Still on the outskirts of Basra city, Imam Ali Mosque was the first mosque in Islam to be built outside Mecca and Medina. Completed in 635 CE (Rashidun Caliphate), the first school of jurisprudence and school of hadith was within the mosque. [Caliphates (dynasty or sultanate) in sequence after the passing of Prophet Muhammad are Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman.] Remnants of the 7th-century corner tower remains (forefront). The new structure was completed in 2000 (background). The congregtion is predominately Shi’ite.

The Battle of the Camel, also known as The Battle of Basra in 656 CE wasn’t at the Imam Ali Mosque in Basra but near Basra, Iraq, a pivotal first Islamic civil war where Imam Ali’s forces fought against Aisha (Prophet Muhammad’s widow). Ali won. Aisha was sent back, and the battle’s name, comes from Aisha leading the charge from atop her camel.

Leaving the Imam Ali Mosque, I photographed a peacock statue near the entrance of the mosque. I didn’t think much about it until I began to see peacock symbols along the streets of Basra. Through the entire journey, I only noticed peacocks symbols in Basra.

Peacock symbols used at religious sites and homes represent the diversity of the world as well as the giving power of nature. Given the weight of the symbolism, it is forbidden to harm the peacock. In Mesopotamian symbolism, the peacock is associated with the Semitic deity Tammuz, the son of Enki and consort of the goddess Inanna. In Persian and Babylonian mythology, the peacock was protector to royalty. In the Islamic world, the peacock is a motif associated paradise and beauty. In the Yazidism, it represents the Peacock Angel, Tawûsî Melek.

Continuing to trace Ibn Battuta’s journey in 1325 CE with my journey in Iraq, Ibn Battuta took a six month sojourn to Persia and returned south to Basra on a sambuk (dhow) vessel via Najaf via the river Tigris. Ibn Battuta sailed through the Mesopotamian marshes, area of the Marsh Arabs, (today, among the world’s most endangered ecosystems due to drainage—pumping stations—by international oil companies, drought, and dams built upstream in Turkey and the Kurdish region of Iraq)** and crossed the Shatt al-Arab (Shores of the Arabs) where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates converge.

Iraq’s watercraft heritage is central to Basra’s river-based civilization. The Shatt al-Arab waterway is the lifeblood of Basra.

area of Shatt al Arab where the Trigis and Euphrates Rivers converge

The beauty of Basra is not complete without a boat ride through the Mesopotamia marshes.The March Arab or Arabs of the Marshes are indigenous people of Iraq. The structure on the left of the clip is a traditional reed (Phragmites reeds indigenous reeds of the marshes) house called mudhif . –Video courtesy of Jake Smith.

Video credit: Jake Smith

Ancient peoples were merchants and traders and sailed the waterways, rivers, and the Persian Gulf. Bitumen (tar), a petroleum product found in abundance in southern Mesopotamia was used to waterproof and seal reeds and wood such as mulberry wood together for a sailing vessel. Boats were used to sail from Mesopotamia around the Persian Gulf bringing pearls, shells, copper, incense, and diorite stone from lands around the Gulf. Photo credit:arkforiraq.org

When Baghdad was destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1258, trade routes suffered and Basra shrank in size. By 1500, the silting of the Shatt al-Arab and a lack of freshwater resulted in old Basra being abandoned and the population moved to the site of modern Basra, about 12 kilometres to the northeast. Under the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which captured Basra in 1545, the city’s wealth and importance revived. In the old Basra there are remnants of glory past, traditional 16-17th-century houses called al-Shanasheel and vibrant canals (for detailed information, please see: “The Historical Dimension and Physical Characteristics of Al- Shanasheel Heritage Buildings in the Old City of Basra (Iraq)“.)

Overland and sea trade connected Basra with the Indian Ocean and East Africa while the Aleppo-Hit-Ana-Baghdad-Basra overland route became significant. After the province of Basra was established, a new naval base was constructed to confront threats from the Portuguese and Persian-Safavids. Following a Ottoman-Safavid peace treaty in 1639, English and Dutch trading companies arrived in the city and southern Iraq increasingly became a special interest to the British as a crucial link with the Indian empire.

In the early 20th century offices of international companies as well as printing presses were opened in Basra helping to introduce and spread new ideas. One company were the Lynch Brothers:

During the 19th-20th century, the advantageous geographical position of Mesopotamia and access to rivers transportation via the rivers Euphrates and Tigris and port access to the Persian Gulf, drew attention of, in particular, the British who focused on transportation routes to their colonies. They enjoyed privilege in railway, oil resources and gained privileges in river navigation. Photos to left and below are the ruins of offices of Lynch Brothers & Company.

“The British Lynch Brother’s & Company Navigation franchises in Mesopotamia from 1860-1908 introduction of the steamship took advantage of trade benefits leading to dependence on imported commodities and limited local manufacture. Moreover, the Lynch Company had a position in river trade in Basra.”- Ali Mohammed Qader*

After Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, British forces rapidly captured Basra. The city became a major supply base, the Shatt al-Arab was dredged, a new port was built and by 1919 the Basra-Baghdad Railway had been completed. Open revolt against the British in 1920 was suppressed by aerial bombing and the following year the Kingdom of Iraq was established, becoming independent of Britain in 1932. After the Iraqi revolution of 1958, Basra became an important oil exporting port.

Basra suffered considerable damage and loss of life during the war with Iran (1980-1988), Gulf War and in 2003, the city was again occupied, this time by a U.S.led coalition force that entered Iraq to search for (hypothetical) weapons of mass destruction and to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Basra is known for being Iraq’s heart of its oil industry but it is also famous as a major trading hub during the Islamic Caliphate and as the starting point for the legendary voyages of “Sinbad the Sailor” from the quintessential tales of the Arabian Nights.

Basra was a primary port for maritime routes on the Silk Road that linked trade in land via Tigris and Eurphrates and overland road networks, Aleppo-Hit-Baghdad-Basra. Basra was a transfer point for trade and goods from Persia, Arabia, India, China, Mesopotamia and Europe. Basra was an important center for silk trade and production as well as pottery and ceramics.

Basra is home to a diverse population, with influences from across the Arab world, Iran, and South Asia. This diversity is reflected in the city’s architecture, food, and traditions, making Basra a melting pot of cultures. The city is nicknamed the “Venice of the East” due to its location on the Shatt al-Arab river and its network of waterways. It was the hub of culture and traders, not unlike the Italian city of Venice. But that was long before Basra was ravaged by war. Before the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers suffered from drainage, drought, and damming and the world coveted the oil rich lands. Even before Ibn Battuta sailed out lamenting the decline of a “great city”.

NEXT POST:

Nasiriyah to Karbala:

Religion and Ruins

-photo credit: Haana Babashekh

References

^[1]Ross, Dunn. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveller of the Fourteenth Century, ‎ Routledge, 1987.

^[2]https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/4sub8/entry-5467.html#chapter-2

^3] Ibid.

*Lynch Company’s River Navigation Franchises in Mesopotamia: Economic Control and Local Responses 1860-1908. Jounal of Human and Social Sciences (JHSS, Vol8, Issue 6 (2024) p.42-30.

**Azhar Al-Rubaie, Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala. “It’s destruction disguised as progress’: how the oil industry is sucking Iraq’s ancient wetlands”. The Guardian. August 13, 2025.

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT FOR WHERE OTHERS ARE CREDITED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION (THIS INCLUDES A.I.).

WHY IRAQ ?

Posted on December 3, 2025 by kobrigama

“To be sensitive to signs, to consider the world as an object to be deciphered, is doubtless a gift. But this gift risks remaining buried in us if we do not make the necessary encounters, and these encounters would remain ineffective if we failed to overcome certain stock notions.”

-Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

Modern Mesopotamia, November 2025. Organized by MIR Corp.

I never considered it would be possible to travel through Iraq. It was the MIR post, Modern Mesopotamia, that caught my attention. Since the 1980s, Iraq has been enmeshed in wars so destructive to the country that even the thought that there would be an opportunity to visit Iraq did not seem like an option. But here was the opportunity and even though I prefer to travel independently, I knew that going with a group would be my only chance to experience Iraq to have a better understanding of ancient Mesopotamia and modern Iraq.

My first step onto Iraqi soil where civilizations came and went for millennia was like turning a 1000 piece-puzzle onto a carpet and flipping the pieces face-up, pulling the edge pieces to form the frame then searching for the colors and shapes that would, hopefully, eventually reveal a landscape. I was prepared. I studied for 6 months, read two books, poured over maps. The pieces, the layers of civilizations began to take form: Ubaid, Uruk, Early Dynastic Periods… Sumarian, Akkadian Empires … Lagash, Ur, Babylonian Dynasties…

– Amanda Podany, *The Ancient Near East,* Oxford Univ. Press 2014.

Then the more familiar history, the Achaemenid Empire…Alexander the Great and Hellenic League and religions: Jewish community origins in sixth century BCE , the world’s oldest continuous Christian communities from first century CE, the Islamic Golden Age, the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to modernity. All encased in the upheaval of modern-day events in oil-rich Iraq and the wars that have consumed, divided, and controlled the country and its people since the beginning of the 20th century.

Map of the Kingdom of Iraq at the beginning of the 20th century during the reign of Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi who served as the King of Iraq from 1921 to 1933. He was a leader of the Great Arab Revolt during the WWI. The major provinces Mosul, Baghdad, Karbala, and Basrah through the center of the map. Right is Iran, lower left is Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (Saudia Arabia); upper left is Bilad al-Sham (Syria); above is Turkey.

(Map circa 1935).

5500 years in two weeks…the winds of the present enveloped each day with the swirling dust of the ancient past. In the upcoming posts, I hope as Proust suggests, ‘to decipher’ the edges, colors and shapes of the puzzle through my encounters with Iraq.

Next Post:

Basra: Oil and Water

No re-use without the permission (this includes A.I.) by Lesley Lababidi 2025.

Musical Interlude in the Midst of Everything Else

Posted on November 9, 2025 by kobrigama

The light of the full moon shimmered between the swaying date palm fronds while the patrons of Manial Palace Festival enjoyed the mellifluous sounds of the oud played by oud maestro, Naseer Shamma. Under the auspices of Friends of Manial Palace Museum, Prince Abbas Hilmi officiated the first night of a 2-day musical festival that showcased Naseer Shamaa and 7 talented musicians while the second evening hosts a special occasion to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Prince Mohamed Ali Tewfik with music by The Manial Palace Philharmonic Orchestra with mezzo soprano, Gala El Hadidi.

Mohammed Ali Tewfik, also referred to as Mohammed Ali Pasha, was the heir presumptive of Egypt and Sudan in the periods 1892–1899 and 1936–1952. He was a member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. Wikipedia

Prince Abass Hilmi (center), Naseer Shamaa (right), Lebanese bass player (left). Prince Hilmi presentation of award to the musicians.

Naseer Shamaa and the musicians performed eight original compositions, all pieces were composed by Naseer Shamaa.

Magical Cairo Night

Cairo on the Edge

Posted on October 30, 2025 by kobrigama

In anticipation of a two-day event, Cities on the Edge: Documenting, Preserving, and Teaching Endangered Urban Heritage in Egypt, Sudan and Palestine , at AUC Campus Tahrir from Oct 31 through Nov 1st, I have attempted to relate my thoughts about the urbanization in/of Cairo:

Cement shadows line 
the desert like old outposts, 
Do the sands say, “Keep Out?”
Roofs layered unrestrained and
 flat,
square and dull lean on
 leaden dwellings. 
 Cursing waves heated, cooled, 
changing, 
shifting silently erasing 
ancient stones. Carved by hand,
 Cairo on the Edge

-Lesley Lababidi

*To my subscribers: Thank you for your patience. I am currently having trouble with formatting and confusion won out. Here is the corrected post. L.

Nomad4Now

"And you became like coffee, in the deliciousness, and the bitterness, and the addiction." ~ Mahmoud Darwish

Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq

Previously in Samarra

2025☞2026

MOSUL: Rise Like A Phoenix

On The Road To Baghdad

Nasiriyah to Karbala: Religion and Ruins

Basra: Oil and Water

WHY IRAQ ?

Musical Interlude in the Midst of Everything Else

Cairo on the Edge