The book examines the destruction of the architectural heritage in Mosul perpetrated by Islamic State between 2014 and 2017. It identifies which structures were attacked, the ideological rationale behind the destruction, and the significance of the lost monuments in the context of Mosul’s urban development and the architectural history of the Middle East. This methodologically innovative work fills an important gap in the study of both current radical movements and the medieval Islamic architecture of Northern Iraq.
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2019 “It’s a small miracle that a writer as good as James Verini witnessed the battle of Mosul.… It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades.” —George Packer James Verini arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2016 to write about life in the Islamic State. He stayed to cover the jihadis’ last great stand, the Battle of Mosul, not knowing it would go on for nearly a year. This “urgent, scalding, hallucinatory work of war reportage” (Patrick Radden Keefe) takes the reader into the conflict against the most lethal insurgency of our time.
A frontline witness account of the deadly urban combat of the Battle of Mosul told by former Navy SEAL and frontline combat medic Ephraim Mattos. After leaving the US Navy SEAL teams in spring of 2017, Ephraim Mattos, age twenty-four, flew to Iraq to join a small group of volunteer humanitarians known as the Free Burma Rangers, who were working on the frontlines of the war on ISIS. Until being shot by ISIS on a suicidal rescue mission, Mattos witnessed unexplainable acts of courage and sacrifice by the Free Burma Rangers, who, while under heavy machine gun and mortar fire, assaulted across ISIS minefields, used themselves as human shields, and sprinted down ISIS-infested streets-all to retrieve wounded civilians. In City of Death: Humanitarian Warriors in the Battle of Mosul, Mattos recounts in vivid detail what he saw and felt while he and the other Free Burma Rangers evacuated the wounded, conducted rescue missions, and at times fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Iraqi Army against ISIS. Filled with raw and emotional descriptions of what it's like to come face-to-face with death, this is the harrowing and uplifting true story of a small group of men who risked everything to save the lives of the Iraqi people and who followed the credence, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." As the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling American Sniper, Scott McEwen has teamed up with Mattos to help share an unforgettable tale of an American warrior turned humanitarian forced to fight his way into and out of a Hell on Earth created by ISIS.
After several months of heavy fighting, Mosul has been liberated. However, this will not mark the complete defeat of IS in Iraq, nor will it signal the end of the crisis affecting the country. What will be the fate of the city and of the other liberated territories? Could this victory re-ignite competition among Iraq’s various ethno-sectarian communities? And how could this impact on the Iraqi Kurdistan region? What are the interests and agendas of the main regional and international players? This volume sketches out possible answers through a multi-pronged approach, bringing to light the complexity of the Iraqi scenario and the influence exerted over it by a broad array of internal and external actors.
From the best-selling author of The Commando and Born to Fight comes a fascinating investigation of modern warfare that combines methodical research and the fast-paced action of battle with the personal stories of the combatants on both sides of the line. Taking us from the suburbs of western Sydney and Australia's military army bases, to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, this is a remarkable book that reveals the as-yet untold story of the battle for Mosul and the secret involvement of Australians on both sides of the war - both our Commandos and Australian ISIS fighters. Mosul details the rise of ISIS influence in Australia, the Iran and Australia allegiance to fight Daesh and shows what led up to the battle and the ramifications that are still being felt at home - by our soldiers and the victims of that war. Ben Mckelvey has extraordinary access to SOOCOMD/2COMMANDO units - the most decorated modern Australian fighting unit; ISOF - Iraq's premier fighters; Yazidis women who had been slaves of ISIS; returned Commandos and their devastated families, and explains how petty criminals in Western Sydney became some of our worst jihadists who took their families to Iraq to fight for ISIS. Focusing on the stories of key figures like 2 Commando's Ian Turner and one of Australia's most infamous Jihadist, Khaled Sharrouf, Mckelvey takes us the heart of this brutal battle and brings history to life in an honest, thoughtful and compelling examination of modern warfare. A must-read for anyone interested in modern military history.
The study of early Islamic historical tradition has flourished with the emergence of an innovative scholarship no longer dependent on more traditional narratival approaches. Chase Robinson's book, first published in 2000, takes full account of the research available and interweaves history and historiography to interpret the political, social and economic transformations in the Mesopotamian region after the Islamic conquests. Using Arabic and Syriac sources to elaborate his argument, the author focuses on the Muslim and Christian élites, demonstrating that the immediate effects of the conquests were in fact modest ones. Significant social change took place only at the end of the seventh century with the imposition of Marwanid rule. Even then, the author argues, social power was diffused in the hands of local élites. This is a sophisticated study in a burgeoning field in Islamic studies.
“A leader more focused on his legacy than meeting the demands of his office will fail in both.” This review of Barack Obama’s legacy as the forty-fourth president of the United States is no hymn of praise. Those who support him and believe he has left an admirable legacy will sharply disagree, and may even say it’s motivated by prejudice and overly critical. They are, of course, entitled to their opinions. But, having voted twice for his presidency in 2008 and 2012, that is not an assessment with which H. H. Charles can agree. The impetus for undertaking this “chronicle” of Obama’s “legacy” starts with the presidency of George W. Bush, the president who is first and foremost responsible for all the bloodshed, genocide, and crimes against humanity that plagues the Middle East to this day, and which continues unabated into the indefinite future.
Leading scholars consider Iraq's history and strategic importance from the vantage point of its residents, neighbors (Iran, Turkey, and Kurdistan), and the Great Powers.
