Ancient era and early Middle Ages
It is mentioned in Biblical references that Nineveh was founded by Nimrod, son of Cush.
In approximately 850 BC, King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria chose the city of Nimrud as his capital, 30 kilometres from present day Mosul. In approximately 700 BC, King Sennacherib made Nineveh the new capital of Assyria. The mound of Kuyunjik in Mosul is the site of the palaces of King Sennacherib and his grandson Ashurbanipal, who established the Library of Ashurbanipal.
Mosul later succeeded Nineveh as the Tigris bridgehead of the road that linked Syria and Anatolia with the Median Empire. In 612 BC, the Mede emperor Cyaxares the Great, together with the alliance of Nabopolassar king of Babylon and the Scythians, conquered Nineveh.
It became part of the Seleucid Empire after Alexander's conquests in 332 BC and was later taken by the Parthian Empire in 224 BC.
The city changed hands once again with the rise of Sassanid Persia in 225 AD. Christianity was present among the indigenous Assyrian people in Mosul as early as the 2nd century. It became an episcopal seat of the Nestorian faith in the 6th century. In 637 (other sources say 641), during the period of the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, the city was annexed to the Islamic empire by Utba bin Farqad Al-Salami.
Mosul was promoted to the status of capital of Mesopotamia under the Umayyads in the 8th century, during which it reached a peak of prosperity. During the Abbassid era it was an important trading centre because of its strategic location astride the trade routes to India, Persia, and the Mediterranean. The Muslim general and conqueror of Sindh, Muhammad bin Qasim, is said to have died here in the 8th century AD.
9th to 15th centuries
In the late 9th century control over the city was seized by the native Arab Hamdanid dynasty. From Mosul, the Hamdanids under Nasir al-Dawla expanded their control over the Jazira for several
