Mosul > Al-Mawsil Ninawa Iraq

Mosul, where Christianity has been present among the indigenous Assyrian people as early as the second century, becomes a part of the Persian Empire under Ardashir.

The Sassanian Persians and the Muslims go to war again in June, 636, after four months of fruitless negotiations.

Umar sends a new, thirty thousand-man army into Mesopotamia against a Persian army of fifty thousand, defeating it at the Battle of al-Qadisiyah on one of the canals of the Euphrates.

…Mosul are captured, completing the conquest of Persia.

The Rashidun Caliphate annexes the region west of the Zagros Mountains.

The Muslims replace Zoroastrianism with Islam in Mesopotamia; they do not force their conquered subjects to embrace the Islamic faith, but they do require acceptance of the Quran as the doctrine of divine teaching and will oblige their subjects to learn Arabic.

An Umayyad attempt to recover Iraq under former governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad is defeated by pro-Alid forces under al-Mukhtar near Mosul in August 686.

The reestablishment of Umayyad rule in the Islamic realms is at first more apparent than real.

The Kharijites are still either restless or in open revolt.

The Kharijites in Persia, who are especially dangerous, capture Mosul in 695 and occupy large areas of central Iraq.

Al-Hajjaj, leading his Syrian troops, defeats the Kharajites also in 697.

The movement, however, remains strong, especially among the Bakr tribes between Mosul and Kufah.

Sa'id comes upon a ten thousand-strong Khazar army under Barjik, which he defeats near Bajarwan, killing most of the Khazars and rescuing the prisoners they have with them.

According to Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari and other Arab historians, the Muslims were so enraged by Barjik's desecration of their commander's head that they fought with extra vigor.

The surviving Khazars flee north, with Sa'id in pursuit, and withdraw beyond the Caucasus Mountains.

Marwan and his lieutenant Yazid ibn Hubayra pursue Shayban and Sulayman to Mosul in 747 and besiege them there for six months until the reinforced caliphal army drives out the Kharijite remnants and consolidates Umayyad control of Iraq.

The surviving prominent rebels flee east: Shayban flees to Bahrain, where he is killed; Sulayman sails to India along with Mansur ibn Jumhur, where he will later die.

Harun and Hamdan, leaders of the Kharaijite rebellion, enter into an alliance with the inhabitants of Mosul around 892 after the latter had rebelled against their governor and expelled his deputy from the city.

The deputy turns to the Banu Shayban for assistance, prompting them to enter the district in force.

Harun, Hamdan, and a number of Mosuli volunteers band together to fight the Shaybanis and expel them from the region.

The two sides meet in the vicinity of the city, and after engaging each other in battle the Mosulis win an initial victory.

The Shaybanis, however, regroup and return to the battlefield; the Mosulis, who had taken to looting after the engagement, are caught by surprise.

Many of them are killed and the Shaybanis win the battle.

The caliph again advances into the province in January 895: his intended target this time is Hamdan ibn Hamdun, due to the latter's association with Harun and the Kharijites.

After first battling against some tribal Arabs and Kurds in the region, al-Mu'tadid proceeds toward Hamdan's fortress at Mardin.

Hamdan decides to flee and the defenders quickly surrender to the caliph.

Al-Mu'tadid then returns to Mosul and sends an order to Hamdan to submit to him, but when Hamdan ignores the summons he sends his commanders Wasif Mushgir and Nasr al-Qushuri against him.

Hamdan's forces are quickly defeated by Wasif and he himself is compelled to flee; eventually, however, he surrenders to the caliph's forces and is put under guard.