For centuries, it was a magnet for artists across the region and churned out Iraq’s best musicians — but recent years saw Mosul suffer a devastating musical purge. For three years until last summer, the sprawling northern city was under the brutal rule of the IS group. In imposing a city-wide ban on playing or even listening to music, the extremists smashed and torched instruments. “It was impossible to bring my instrument with me whenever I left the house,” said city resident Fadel al Badri, who hid his precious violin from the rampaging fighters.
But with Mosul freed from the grip of IS in July 2017, Iraq’s second city is embarking on a musical comeback.
“After the liberation, songs are back where they truly belong in Mosul,” said Badri.
The 45-year-old violinist now has the pleasure of playing in public once more to an audience that claps hands and sings along to traditional local tunes.
Mosul has a rich musical history.
It is the home city of Ziryab, a musician who introduced the oud — the oriental lute popular across the Arab world — to Europe in the 9th century.
One of its more recent musical prodigies is Kazem al Saher, the Iraqi crooner-turned-talent judge known around the region.
The city even has its own special genre of Arabic ballads, recognised across Iraq and beyond.
From folkloric shows and philharmonic concerts to weddings and other national holidays, song and dance have traditionally filled the streets and surrounding air.
But that meant nothing to IS, which ravaged Mosul’s heritage — musical and otherwise — when it took the city as part of a lightning offensive across Iraq in 2014.
The extremists began by destroying the statue of celebrated ballad virtuoso Mulla Uthman al Mosuli, and then turned their attention to destroying instruments across the city.
IS also forced musicians in Mosul to sign a pledge that they would never play or sing again, which was then posted in public places like mosques.
Singer Ahmed al Saher, 33, said it was humiliating.
“I couldn’t leave Mosul after they made me sign because of my sick mother.” Bringing Mosul’s artistic scene back to its former heyday will not be easy.
Tahsin Haddad, who heads the local artists’ syndicate, said: “We are in need of support from the central government in Baghdad because Mosul has no stages, movie theatres, or art spaces.” — AFP
Raad al-Jammas
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