Drawing upon original source documents, Mosul before Iraq paints a portrait of the region during the turbulent nineteenth century. What emerges is a picture of citizens less focused on Europe or Istanbul and more on centuries-old relationships among its economic and social spheres. By arguing that the region belongs to a broader geographic, economic, and political space which crosses current national borders, the book explains the continuing conflict over the status of Mosul.

Like bees building unconventional cells, Mosul's people innovated during the nineteenth century. They worked to...

Self-determination, imported into the Middle East on the heels of World War I, held out the promise of democratic governance to the former territories of the Ottoman Empire. The new states that European Great Powers carved out of the multilingual, multiethnic, and multireligious empire were expected to adhere to new forms of affiliation that emphasized previously unimportant differences.

In 1936, the new Republic of Turkey lay claim to Antioch and the Sanjak (province) of Alexandretta, which the French had ruled since 1920 as part of its mandate over Syria. Turkey's ambassador made a...