"استطلاعات في بلاد الرافدين وكردستان وشمال غرب بلاد فارس ولرستان في الفترة من أبريل إلى أكتوبر ١٨٨٨، كتبها المقدم ف. ر. مونسيل، فرع الاستخبارات. يوجد مجلدان. المجلد الأول: تقرير سردي ووصف للمدن الكبرى والطرق المؤدية منها. شيملا: فرع الاستخبارات، إدارة قائد الإمداد والتموين، ١٨٩٠" [و‎‎٨‎٤] (٣١٢/١٧٢)

MOSUL.
Mosul is the principal town of Upper Mesopotamia and capital of the
"Waliat of that name. Its position both strategically and commercially is
very important. Towards it converge several important routes—(1) from.
Baghdad through Kifri and Erbil ; (2) from West Persia through Rawan-
duz; (3) from Sulaimaniah and south-east Kurdistan through Kui Sanjak; (4)
from Van and Bashkala by the Zab valley and Amadiyeh; (5) from Erzerum,
Mush and t he Armenian plateau by Bitlis, Sairdt, Jazirah, and Zakho; ( 6 )
irom Diarbekr either across the desert from Nisibin or through Midiyat and
Oazirah or Nisibin Jazirah and Zakho.
From Diarbekr an excellent cart road exists through Kharput and Siwas
to the Black Sea at Samsun, and easy roads lead to Aleppo and Sakanderun on
the Mediterranean.
Thus as a commercial centre Mosul presents advantages of no common
order, and were its old position on the main route between India and the
Mediterranean restored by the construction of through railways it would
again rapidly increase in size and importance. Ail important schemes for
railways from west to east are projected to pass through Mosul.
It is a town of about 40,000 inhabitants on the right bank of the Tigris ;
some estimates giving 50,000. The inhabitants are mostly Musalman of the
Sunni faith. There are Christians of various persuasions estimated as
follows:
20 liouses of Protestants. I 500 of Jacobites.
500 of Catholic Syrians. j 350 of Jews.
600 of Chaldeans, both Papal and New sects,
making a total of about 7,000 Christians and 1,500 Jews. There are no
Nestorians except a few who come in to pick up work and then return to
their villages. About 50 years ago they were very numerous in the town.
The English Consul was removed in 1887; since then there is an Agent,
Mr. Nimrod Rassam, a nephew of the well-known explorer of Nineveh and
assistant of Sir A. Layard. The Agency is under the Baghdad Residency.
There are also Consuls for Russia and France. The houses are built of a con
crete of stone set in cement made of the gypsum and lime which is procurable
from the country round. But little wood is used, the ceiling being usually an
arch turned in the concrete. The best houses are built round a courtyard
in the centre into which the rooms and the diwan open.
The doorposts are often made of ornamented carved gypsum looking like
marble. There are “ Serdabs,” or rooms under the ground floor, where the
people retire in the midday heat in summer.
Water-supply is either brought from the Tigris in skins on the hack of
ponies or from small wells in the courtyards of the houses. The wells are
brackish and the river water is the best for drinking. It is very muddy, but
when filtered it is sweet and wholesome and is several degrees cooler than the
air in floods because of the melting snows in the mountains. Ice or rather
pressed snow is brought in from the hills and sold in the bazar.
The bazar is a large and bustling one, but not arched over with brick
like Baghdad and Kermanshah. Leafy boughs only are placed across overhead
to keep off the sun. As u=ual ; each trade has its own place. A very mixed