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Iraq / Mosul / People

Many of the people of Mosul and its environs are Assyrians. Though they are not the Assyrians of old these modern Assyrians may easily have traces of ancient Assyrian blood in their veins. They came originally from the Jebel-the mountains of the north-west- and they speak Aramaic together, the language that superceded Ancient Assyrian and was the lingua franca of the Persian Empire. (Naturally, everybody in Mosul, as anywhere else in Iraq, also speaks the first language of their country, Arabic. )

Buckingham wrote that in Mosul 'the Christians are estimated: of Chaldeans of both descriptions, one of which differs little from the Catholics, there are thought to be a thousand families; of Syrians, five hundred'. The population as a whole was 'thought by the people of the place to exceed a hundred thousand; but I should think.. . that it was even less than half that number'. That doesn't sound much of a population for a seemingly flourishing .city. For by 1800 Mosul contained a foreign resident population that included French Carmelites (French and Italian religious orders were well represented), Greek bankers and Venetian merchants. British officers of the East India Company passed through on their way from India to London on leave. Tartar dispatched riders galloped their stocky horses northwards, carrying diplomatic mail to Istanbul; camels transported ordinary mail through Mosul and Aleppo to the Mediterranean. From Basra in the deep south boats brought satin and velvet from France, English cloth, German metal goods, glass from Vienna and Bohemia, and sugar from America.

There are more Christians, proportionately, in Mosul than in any other Iraqi city. That has long been the case. Their villages cover the low hills to the north of the city and their monasteries crouch like indestructible sanctuaries high up on sheer mountain-sides. One of Mosul's troubles in the past was the unending feuding between the Christian sects and the important Christian families in the city, although that has long since given way to completely peaceful co-existence.

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