2017-06-27 Tue

Retreating ISIS fighters launched a series of explosives, destroying the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in the heart of Mosul overlooking the Tigris River. The 12th-century structure was built by Nur ad-Din Zangi, a Turkish noble.

The Great Mosque of al-Nuri was a popular landmark in the northern Iraqi city.

The Iraqi 10,000-dinar banknote depicts the Great Mosque of al-Nuri that came into the picture in 2013. It featured the signature of Dr. Abdul Basit Turki Saeed, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq. The mosque is illustrated on the back of the note. On the note’s front is a depiction of Jawad Saleem’s Monument of Freedom (Nasb al-Hurriyah), located in Baghdad.

However, things got a little awry when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seized the city of Mosul and gave a sermon from the mosque, declaring the founding of an islamist caliphate with himself as caliph. Muslims and Muslim leaders didn’t appreciate the call and rejected it.

After the demolition of the Great Mosque of al-Nur, the ISIS has performed many destructive acts against cultural property and historic religious sites. In Mosul in 2014 alone, the group destroyed the Prophet Jonah Mosque, the shrine of Fathe al-Ka’en, the shrine of Imam Awn al-Din, and the Al-Qubba Husseiniya Mosque.