Tattooing is an ancient cultural tradition among the many minorities in the Mosul area going back to Mesopotamiam times.
Lubna Khalid interviewed women in the Hamdaniya district about the old practice of tattooing.
a cultural tour through Ninawa
Animation films are a new storytelling tool in Iraq. Below, we show the work of emerging Iraqi animation artists. With the modern art of computer animation, they bring old folk tales and oral stories back to life.
All stories have been developed in oral history workshops with young adults from Mosul and Ninewa. They researched and interviewed in their respective communities and collected stories. Six of these stories were turned into 3D, 2D and Stop Motion animations. Enjoy discovering!
Tattooing is an ancient cultural tradition among the many minorities in the Mosul area going back to Mesopotamiam times.
Lubna Khalid interviewed women in the Hamdaniya district about the old practice of tattooing.
She recounts: “The women whom I interviewed said that as far as they could remember, they had seen older women that had wrinkled skin full of drawings and symbols. The women further said that they did not know what they meant or what they symbolised until they grew older and asked and searched…” The exact meaning of each tattoo varies from region to region. Most of them carry a spiritual meaning such as the tree of life or protection from evil.
In this animation, you’ll meet Khaya, a 20-year-old Christian girl, who plans to arrange her wedding day with her fiancé. After an unexpected accident, her skin was terribly burnt, and their dream of getting married was put at risk. But some Muslim female tattooists try to support them using their skills and help make the couples dream come true.
You can read the comic ‘Beautiful Wisdom’ in the comic section here.
In the 1950s and 60s, the people of Mosul used to visit Hammam Al-Alil during summer holidays when there were no other tourist places.
Duha Abdulqadir spoke to Mohamed Zaki, a famous singer from Mosul and Tahseen Haddad, head of the Artists Syndicate in Mosul, about their summer trips to the hot springs and accompanying folk music.
“The people used to go to Hammam Al-Alil and take their food and drinks with them. Everyone from different religions visited because no one differentiated between them. On the wooden train, they would all sing a song:
“The train shouted, get down. We reached Hammam Al-Alil
I will climb the “Sabit” hill
I will take my love and some other girls with me
And spend a wonderful time there
I am feeling overwhelmed with their company
I want to go to the Hammam and see people sitting in tents greet me
I will swim for some time then sleep
While I wait for the kibbeh (traditional dish) to Cook”
The song was written by the poet Abd al-Ghani al-Mallah from Mosul. Fawzi Saeed al-Mawsili was the first to perform it in the 1950s. Since then it has become a famous song to be played at weddings in Mosul. Watch the full song here.
Not only was Hammam Al-Alil a place for summer holiday and fun. Its healing waters rich in sulfur cured many people’s skin diseases.
When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) invaded Mosul in 2014, many families left the city. Some people, however, stayed and hid in shelters, not coming out for some time. Between 16 October 2016 and 20 July 2017, Iraqi Government forces fought alongside allied militias, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and international forces to liberate the city in what is called “the Battle of Mosul”.
This story narrates a hundred days in the life of Ayoob’s family that hid and protected themselves during the Battle of Mosul in the basement of the house of Hajj Sa’adoun (80 years old).
Ayoob narrates a story of trauma, fear, and eventually hope for the families of Mosul during the final months before its liberation. The end of the siege meant that Ayoob could finally say “we’re reborn”.
This animation is currently being submitted for film festivals and can be accessed on this website at a later stage.
You can read the comic ‘Last Day’ in the comic section already here.
Qutaiba Hussein from Kakai background collected this story from his father and grandfather. For Qutaiba, folktales like the snake, are an important part of children’s development:
“Folk tales are an important part of children’s literature and contribute to their mental, literary, psychological, social and moral development. They meet their physical and emotional needs as well as aesthetic values. Folktales help children gain knowledge and skills and teach them noble values and the right paths to live their lives in peace and development.”
Which folk tale would you choose to tell your children?
Ansam Ismail interviewed researcher and high school teacher Faleh Hassan Juma’a in Bashiqah about Yazidi folk tales of “the old woman” (the Pirezhnoki).
Mr. Juma’a says that there are different stories revolving around the ‘old woman’ where religious and life teachings are interwoven. According to one story, the character of the old woman was created to prevent children from going out at night on winter days. The story was told to protect children from the bitter cold, kidnapping and predators that roamed those villages. The educational message at that time was presented within a religious story to encourage people to follow it.
The customs and traditions mentioned in this story are still closely linked to what Yazidi people in Bashiqah practice until today.
Comics were widespread in Iraq until the 1970s/80s. However, this type of storytelling disappeared in the 1990s.
The project Mosul Tells allows this form of everyday culture to flourish again.
During oral history workshops in Mosul and Ninawa, different stories have been collected by 16 participants from Yazidi, Kakai, Christian, Shabaki and Sunni backgrounds. Eight of these stories have been turned into comics. The results can be seen below.
Khidir Ilyas is one of the well-known religious figures in Iraq. Fathil Abbas collected stories about Khidir Ilyas from the Yazidi community in Sinjar.
In an interview, Jalal Murad, a resident from Sinjar, highlights the importance of celebrating Al Khidir day together in Tal Afar despite obstacles:
“I am Jalal Murad from Sinjar city and I am 72 years old. We are the people of Sinjar and we always come to Tal Afar although it is far away. Khidr Elias day, which is a special occasion, always brings us Yazidis and the people from Tal Afar together in one place, no matter how terrorism tries to divide us. The relationship between Tal Afar and Sinjar is old, no one can end it and we wish good for everyone and that security and safety prevail in Iraq.”
With these good wishes in mind, enjoy the story of Khidir Ilyas and learn how he has helped people on various occasions.
Tattooing is one of the ancient cultural characteristics among the many minorities in the Mosul area. Lubna Khalid interviewed women in the Hamdaniya district about the old practice of tattooing. She recounts: “The women whom I interviewed said that as far as they could remember, they had seen older women that had wrinkled skin full of drawings and symbols. The women further said that they did not know what they meant or what they symbolised until they grew older and asked and searched…”
In this comic, you’ll meet Khaya, a 20-year-old Christian girl, who plans to arrange her wedding day with her fiancé. After an unexpected accident, her skin was terribly burnt, and their dream of getting married was put at risk. But some Muslim female tattooists try to support them using their skills and help make the couples dream come true.
The Hadba minaret at the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri is one of the main Islamic architectural heritages in Mosul. It dates back to the 11th century A.D. In the 1940s, a hole appeared in the famous leaning Hadba minaret. The only one capable of fixing it was Abudi Tanburji – a well-known Christian bricklayer.
Omran Adnan from the Christian community in Ninawa researched Abudi’s story. He interviewed Sofiane Adnan Asoufi who highlighted the importance of Abudi’s story as an overall example for cross-religious support until today:
“There are still many people like Aboudi Al-Tanbourji who contribute to a peaceful coexistence of the different religions in Mosul. Especially after the liberation of Mosul, there were many volunteer-led campaigns by residents from different communities who removed rubble from the old city.”
The Great Mosque of al-Nuri was destroyed, along with its distinctive minaret, in the Battle of Mosul in 2017. If you want to see how it looks today, go to the photographs here.
Here, you can discover how Abudi Tanburji fixed the minaret in dizzying height almost 100 years ago.
The Immaculate Church of Ninawa is one of the most ancient churches in Iraq. It was built in the first century A.D. and was the centre of Assyrian civilization. It was among those the so-called IS invaders profaned and destroyed during their ascendancy.
Amir Raed researched about the church and spoke to two residents from Bakhdida who witnessed the construction of the new church in the 1930s and 40s – Mr. Sabih Jaji Sukria and Mrs. Imamat Khader Sukria.
Mr. Sabih Jaji Sukria recalls the days when the new church was built:
“It were beautiful days when the Gdidians (the people of Bakhdida) decided to build a larger and a wider church to practise their religion and school education in Bakhdida. The existing churches were unable to accommodate all the people of the region during religious and cultural events and rituals.”
Learn about the rich history of the Immaculate Church of Ninawa – how it had faced destruction multiple times, including burning down by ISIS, and how it has been rebuilt due to its value and importance again and again.
If you want to learn more about the Christian community in Ninawa, check out the photographs of the Syriac-Orthodox Mar Touma Church in Mosul here and the small Christian village of Al-Qosh in North Ninawa here.
Ghosts and jinns are common characters in oral stories from the Ninawa region. Their stories have been passed on from one generation to another.
Dani Koshaba collected a story in the Christian town of Karamlesh. Its residents speak about the presence of ghosts and jinns in their village.
Being asked about the history and role of folk tales, his interviewee says:
“I don’t have a specific date when people started to tell this story, but it’s an oral story that has been passed on to us. Back in the time there was no television or other means of connecting people, as it is the case now, so people used to sit by the light telling stories and mentioning the jinn, ghosts and legends that some people believed in.”
Do you believe in jinns? Read the story and find it out yourself.
Yezidis have a special ceremony for circumcision where they bring a man from another culture to hold the baby, making him a symbolic second father. This ancient tradition educated the youth about the need to have social connections with other families and ethnicities.
Tahseen Al-Zubaidi spoke with residents from Sinjar about this tradition. Here’s how they experienced it and what they wish for the future:
Familiarise yourself with the tradition of having a second spiritual father and enjoy the comic.
Lamassu: half lion, half human. Smart and powerful, Lamassu statues are one of the cultural and historical sites in Mosul. The statues were gatekeepers at the entrances to royal palaces in Mesopotamia. After the fall of the assyrian civilisation and the ancient city of Nineveh, they were buried and forgotten. In the 20th century, western archaeologists found and transported some of them to museums in western countries.
The stone statue Lamassu, which had guarded the Nergal Gate in Nineveh (ancient Mesopotamien city today located in Mosul) since 700 BC, was destroyed with a hammer drill by a member of ISIS in 2015. However, since the city’s liberation, the statues are being restored. In 2023, a Lamassu statue was found in Khorsabad where people had hidden the statue during the siege of ISIS.
Srour Hisham asked his uncle Bassam Mohammed about his memories of the Lamassu in Mosul. In Muslawi dialect Uncle Bassam recounts:
“In the 1970s we used to gather the family and went on a trip to the gate of the underground world, there was the winged bull and relics. The children were happy to play, the women prepared lunch and then we drank tea. Everything was so beautiful in the old days, everything was nice, people lived with love and the neighbours cared for each other – the seventies were a golden period.”
Join Uncle Bassam on his trip to visit the Lamassu.
When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) invaded Mosul in 2014, many families left the city. Some people, however, stayed and hid in shelters, not coming out for some time. Between 16 October 2016 and 20 July 2017, Iraqi Government forces fought alongside allied militias, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and international forces to liberate the city in what is called “the Battle of Mosul”.
This story narrates a hundred days in the life of Ayoob’s family that hid and protected themselves during the Battle of Mosul in the basement of the house of Hajj Sa’adoun (80 years old).
Ayoob narrates a story of trauma, fear, and eventually hope for the families of Mosul during the final months before its liberation. The end of the siege meant that Ayoob could finally say “we’re reborn”.
The full comic book can be downloaded here.
Over a period of three years, photographer Emily Garthwaite photographed scenes of reconstruction, religious celebrations, and the ordinary life of people living in Mosul and Ninawa.
Explore the streets of West Mosul, stroll over the fish market, enjoy a day at the Tigris river bank and visit Lalish and al-Qosh.
Al-Qosh is a Christian town north of Mosul. All its inhabitants are Assyrians, an indigenous ethnic group from Mesopotamia. Like many other minorities, they faced persecution and displacement during IS.
The Great Mosque of al-Nuri was one of the most important buildings in the old city of Mosul.
It was famous for its leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname “the hunchback” (al-Ḥadbāˈ). It is also where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the “Caliphate” in 2014.
Along with 80 % of the old city, the mosque was severely damaged in the Battle of Mosul. UNESCO is currently working on reconstructing the mosque and the Hadba minaret.
If you want to read more about it, go to the comic section here.
Baytna (our house) is located in the old city of Mosul right next to the famous An-Nuri mosque. Baytna was established in 2019 as a place to show the various identities of Mosul and host cultural events.
Reviving the markets has been an integral part of reconstructing the city. Many shop owners opened their market stalls and shops at the same spot where they had been before the occupation of IS, bringing the city back to life.
Mosul museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War. During the Mosul war it was almost entirely destroyed by ISIS.
Here, a cuneiform tablet is supported by a lorry tyre inside the Mosul Museum. Cuneiform script was used to write Sumerian and other languages used in Mesopotamia.
Mosul university is becoming a center of education, knowledge and art again. The library and the theater have been reopened.
The first records of the Christian Syriac-Orthodox Mar Touma Church date back to the 7th century. Today located in the heart of the old city of Mosul, it was originally built outside the city wall. Under the occupation of ISIS, the church was used as a prison until the city’s liberation in 2017.
The Christian community in Mosul was severely affected by sectarian wars and the siege of ISIS and many were forced to leave their home. Until today, only a fraction has returned to Mosul.
Read more about the Christian community and the history of the Immaculate Church of Ninawa in the comic here.
Tigris and the river banks are a common place for Moslawis to spend their freetime. However, the aftermath of the wars can also still be seen here.
The old quarter of west Mosul near the banks of the Tigris river was near flattened during the Mosul war, and is almost uninhabited. Yet, reconstruction has slowly begun.
The results of the Mosul Tells projects - a puppet show, animations, drawings and photographs - were shown during the “Mosul Tells Cultural Festival Tour” in Sulaimaniyya, Erbil, Baghdad, Bakhdida and Mosul between March and May 2024. More than 500 people attended the festivals in the five different cities.
Sulaimaniyyah is the second largest city of the KRI region and home to a mainly Kurdish population. The festival was hosted at the Zhinan Women’s Union of Kurdistan on 4 March 2024.
The capital of KRI hosted the festival “Mosul tells” on 20 April 2024 in the Media Hall. The festival in Erbil was opened by the German Consul General Klaus Streicher.
The capital of Iraq invited the Mosul Tells Festival to take place at Muntada al Masrah on 26 and 27 April 2024.
The old villa on the Tigris, which has been used as a theater since 2009, once belonged to Abd al-Rahman al-Gillani, the first prime minister of independent Iraq (1920-1922) after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Visitors could enjoy two performances of the puppet show during the weekend. Different rooms in the villa invited people to watch the animations and see drawings of the graphic novel.
Bakhdida, also known under the name of Qaraqosh or Hamdaniya, is an Assyrian Christian town in Hamdaniya district. It is located about 30 kilometres southeast of Mosul.
The festival took place on 3 May 2024 in the main hall of the St Joseph Center for Church Services. The christian town of Bakhdida is also home to the biggest church of Iraq, St Mary Al Tahira. The church dates back to the 13th Century. Between 2014 and 2016, ISIS used the church for training shooters. The bullets and holes exist until today. After being burned down and completely destroyed by ISIS, the church was rebuilt in 2021 before the visit of Pope Francis.
Mosul, city of two springs and origin of the project, hosted the festival during the week from 1 to 4 May 2024 at Mosul Cultural Heritage House.
The Mosul Cultural Heritage House is a cultural center on the banks of the Tigris river, close to the old town of Mosul. The house is a museum of collectibles and heritage pieces (donated by the people).
It is a traditional Mosuli heritage house that was built along the Mosul Wall, between the Qara Saray and Bashtabya castles. Nowadays, a group of young, active and creative people around Ayoub Thanoun Younis run the cultural heritage center. The house hosts events throughout the year.
The art of puppetry goes back to the ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia and was also used by Sumerians and during the Abbasid era. During the Ottoman Empire, puppets were used in comedies to make people laugh. This tradition of puppetry was preserved until modern times and flourished again in the 1950s and 1960s with the emergence of puppet shows on TV. In 1979, the Iraqi puppeteers took part in the production of "iftah ya simsim", the Arabic version of Sesame Street.
In the 1980s, however, wars and civil wars alongside the unstable political situation in Iraq destroyed the art of puppetry. The foundation to support further developments of puppetry in Iraq was lost.
For this reason, the project Mosul Tells aims at reviving the long tradition of puppetry in Iraq.
Find out more about how a group of young people from Ninawa developed their own puppet show below.
In October 2023, a group of eight young adults from Mosul and Ninewa came together for the first time to participate in a series of puppet theatre workshops. Puppet theatre is a form of art and can also be used as a tool to work with societal trauma. It is not only the content of the play, but also the act of playing and working together that connects the participants beyond ethnic, political and religious affiliations.
Together with puppet theatre icon and director Alison Duddle and puppeteer Johnny Quick from the UK and Nabil Musa, the participants developed their own play inspired by personal experiences, conversations and folk tales from the different ethnic and religious communities in Ninawa.
Nest is a story about how two families together, move beyond their differences, and build a beautiful, welcoming community together for a noisy new (feathered) arrival! It talks about working together, making homes for those that need them, and loving and caring for our environment. It also invites you to think about the type of world we will leave for our children.
Dive into a story of reconnecting communities and enjoy the show!
This show was recorded on 4 March 2024 on the premier of ‘Nest’ in Sulimania.
The virtual exhibition MOSUL TELLS shows comics, animations, photographs and a puppet show as results of the project “Mosul Tells – Restoring community links through arts and culture”. MOSUL TELLS invites you to discover and explore the Ninewa plains, and serves as an online archive for Ninewa’s multicultural heritage.
The map takes you to the different locations of oral stories collected during oral history workshops.
Through storytelling and theater, the Mosul Tells project created a space to reconnect with the multiple (hi)stories and the diversity of Ninawa again.
Social and cultural ties between the different communities in Ninawa were severely damaged over the past two decades, especially after ISIS occupation and the genocide against the Yezidis and other minorities. Today, reconciliation is slowly on its way.
Over the course of two years, the project ‘Mosul Tells’ brought together people from different communities in Ninawa – Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmen, Kakai, Shabaki and Yezidis.
Reviving the art of storytelling and connecting people from different ethnic and religious groups through storytelling and theatre was the goal of the Mosul Tells project. Oral storytelling plays an important part in Ninawa. Each person and village has many stories to tell: old epics and folk tales passed on from one generation to another; more recent stories about grief and war and memories from older generations about cultural traditions and cross-religious celebrations.
In November 2022, a group of sixteen young adults between the age of 18 and 35 from Mosul and Ninewa participated in oral history workshops.
Coming from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, they all researched and interviewed in their respective communities and collected folk tales, myths and memories.
These stories are presented here through eight comics and six animation videos.
In October 2023 a second group of eight young adults from Ninawa came together for the first time and learned the art of puppetry. Over the course of five months the participants developed their own puppet show together with puppet theatre icon Alison Duddle and Jonny Quick from the UK. The art of puppetry allowed the participants to express themselves, learn from each other and work with the different experiences of war during the past twenty years.
The result is the fascinating show “Nest” that takes us to the streets of Mosul. It tells a story of reconnection without words – only through the power of puppets, masks and music.
Explore the digital archive, tune into the diversity of Ninawa and let the different stories speak to you.
Credits
Our thanks and appreciation to all participating artists, contributors, participants and team members who made this project possible.
The virtual exhibition MOSUL TELLS is a project in the framework of “Mosul Tells – Restoring community links through arts and culture” implemented by elbarlament and Paia Agency and kindly funded by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Germany and Art+.
Website
Design: Basics09
Code and motion design: Rasso Hilber
Project Manager: Alisha Molter
Project Coordinator: Shirwan Can
Project Officer Germany and Iraq: Rebekka Muth & Shero Saman
Translation: Aya Toutungi
Photographs: Emily Garthwaite
Photos of rehearsals and puppet show: elbarlament e.V. & Paia Agency
Graphic Novel
Illustrations: Bahrooz Jaza
Script: Yad Deen based on stories collected by Omran Adnan Assoofee Jarbo, Suror Hisham Mohammed Al Qassab, Midhat Emad Muhammed Qara Bash, Fadhil Abbas Muhammednoor Istanbuli, Insam Salam Ismaeel Abuzeed, Qutayba Hussein Ali, Walaa Firas Taha Al Hamadani, Tahseen Ali Ahmed Al Khuder, Lubna Xalid Matee Skt, Yousif Burhan Shihab, Dani Nashat Youshoo Khoshaba, Dalya Zalah Al Deen Khalid, Amee Raid Abdulkareem Yakoo, Ayoub Thalnoon, Gufran Faris, Dhuha Abdul Qader
Layout: Mohammad Omar
Editors: Aya Toutoungi (Arabic), Rupinder Dhaliwal (English)
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