Mosul vilayet

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Arabic: ولاية الموصل
Ottoman Turkish: ولايت موصل
Vilâyet-i Musul
Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire
1878–1918
Flag of Mosul Vilayet
Flag

The Mosul Vilayet in 1892
CapitalMosul[1]
Population 
• 1897[2]
475,415
History 
• Established
1878
1918
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Baghdad Vilayet
Mandatory Iraq
Today part ofFile:Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq

The Mosul Vilayet[1] (Arabic: ولاية الموصل; Ottoman Turkish: ولايت موصل, romanizedVilâyet-i Musul) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. It was created from the northern sanjaks of the Baghdad Vilayet in 1878.[3] Mosul Vilayet was part of 'the Iraq Region' (Hıtta-i Irakiyye).[4][5][6]

At the beginning of the 20th century, it reportedly had an area of 29,220 square miles (75,700 km2), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 300,280.[7] The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.[7]

The city of Mosul and the area south to the Little Zab was allocated to France in the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement of the First World War, and later transferred to Mandatory Iraq following the Mosul Question.

Administrative divisions

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File:Ottoman Empire Administrative Divisions.png
A map showing the administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire in 1317 Hijri, 1899 Gregorian, Including the Vilayet of Mosul and its Sanjaks.
File:Mosul Vilayet — Memalik-i Mahruse-i Shahane-ye Mahsus Mukemmel ve Mufassal Atlas (1907).jpg
Map of subdivisions of Mosul Vilayet in 1907

In official Ottoman correspondence, the Mosul Vilayet was considered part of 'the Iraq region', a term that collectively referred to the provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. Ottoman officials used this designation in administrative and military documents to emphasize the interconnected nature of these three provinces, which were regarded as forming the core of Ottoman Iraq. This regional framework, which predated the Sykes-Picot Agreement, reflected the Ottoman state's view of Iraq as a coherent and administratively linked zone within the empire. Initially subordinate to the Baghdad Vilayet, Mosul was separated and elevated to vilayet status in 1878, a change that weakened administrative cohesion in the region. The separation reflected broader Ottoman efforts to manage the security and tribal dynamics of Northern Mesopotamia, where frequent uprisings and external pressures from Qajar Persia and Britain made centralized control increasingly difficult.[8]

Sanjaks of the vilayet and their capitals:[9]

  1. Sanjak of Mosul, Mosul
  2. Sanjak of Shahrizor[10] (later renamed Sanjak of Kirkuk),[11]: 190  Kirkuk
  3. Sanjak of Sulaymaniyah, Sulaymaniyah

Demographics

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According to early 20th-century British intelligence, the vilayet had a Kurdish majority and a Turkoman minority.[12]

Enumeration by the Government of Iraq (1922-24).[13]
Number Percentage
Kurds 520,007 64.9%
Arabs 166,914 20.8%
Christians 61,336 7.7%
Turks 38,652 4.8%
Yezidis 26,257 3.3%
Jews 11,897 1.5%
Total 801,000 100%

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Corrected population for Mortality Level=8.
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ a b Asia by A. H. Keane, page 460
  8. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ^ Musul Vilayeti | Tarih ve Medeniyet
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  13. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  • Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons