With a rich ancient history, Mosul was an important trade center which linked Persia and the Mediterranean, so it was allways a cosmopolitan city. Christianity was present among the indigenous Assyrian people as early as the 2nd century, and later the city became a center for the Nestorian Christianity (it contains the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah). After the annexation to the Rashidun Caliphate, the Islam became the dominant religion, but the city maintained, more than 1300 years, until Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took over it in 2014, a multicultural and multi-religious mosaic, despite the institutional ethnic persecution by various political powers.
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