Musul

Musul is a historical city located in Upper Mesopotamia, in the Tigris basin, and was one of the region's main political, commercial, and scientific centers throughout the Middle Ages.

In the Geography of Kurdish Settlement

In the sources of Kurdish history, Musul and its surroundings appear as part of the Kurdish settlement geography from an early period. According to Mes'ûdî, in addition to Muslim Sunni and Shia Kurdish tribes, Kharijite Kurds, as well as Christian and Yakubî Kurdish tribes, also existed (Volume 1, p. 97). The same author mentions two tribes named Yakubiyye and Curkan living in the lands of Musul and Cebel-i Cudi (Volume 2, p. 15). Ebü'l-Fidâ, on the other hand, while listing the settlements of the Kurds, also mentions Musul and Erbil along with the lands of Fars and Bilad-ı Cebel (Volume 2, p. 34).

Conquests and Kurdish Dynasties

During the conquests completed with the taking of Iraq and Iran from the Sâsâni İmparatorluğu, and el-Cezire from Bizans, during the caliphate of Hz. Ömer, one of the peoples encountered by the Muslim Arabs was the Kurds (Volume 1, p. 87). In the following centuries, Musul became intertwined with the political geography of the Kurdish dynasties in the region: the southern border of the geography dominated by the Mervânîler, who ruled in Northern Mezopotamya between 983-1085, extended from Musul to the border of Ahlat (Volume 1, p. 129). The city also stands out as a military base; Hasanveyh, the ruler of Hasanveyhî, defeated the Büveyhî army that set out from Musul somewhere west of Erbil (Volume 1, p. 120). During the Zengîler period, Musul was a center where İmâdüddin Zengî served as atabeg (Volume 1, p. 165).

As a Center of Learning

Musul was also one of the leading centers of learning in the medieval İslam world, and many authors who wrote the sources of Kurdish history are associated with this city. İbnü'l-Esîr, the author of el-Kâmil fi't-târîh, one of the fundamental sources for Kurdish history, settled in Musul with his father and brothers in 579/1183, studied under scholars such as Ebü'l-Fazl Abdullah et-Tûsî, Ebü'l-Ferec Yahyâ es-Sekafî, and İbn Şebbe en-Nahvî el-Mukrî here, and passed away in Musul in 630/1233 (Volume 1, pp. 125, 134). The vibrancy of the city's intellectual life is also seen with the presence of Kemâleddin b. Yûnus, a famous scholar of the era, in Musul; Bağdâdî went to Musul in 585/1189 and took lessons from him (Volume 1, p. 164), and Alemüddîn Kayser also came to Musul to study more than forty books, especially in mathematics and mûsiki, with İbn Yûnus (Volume 1, p. 171). It is recorded that the geographer İbn Havkal traveled through Nusaybin, Musul, and Bağdat (Volume 2, p. 18), and that Musul was among the cities Yâkūt el-Hamevî visited for his studies (Volume 2, p. 26). As a sign of the accumulation of knowledge in the city, the Musul Evkâf Kütüphanesi hosted important manuscript collections compiling letters sent by Sultan Selâhaddîn to rulers and emirs (Volume 1, p. 157).