ortress, important for its strategic position as an offensive platform for Ottoman campaigns into Iraq, as well as a defensive stronghold and plaque tournante guarding the approaches to Anatolia and to the Syrian coast. Then with the Ottoman reconquest of Baghdad, the liwa� of Mosul became an independent wilaya.�
Despite being a part of the Ottoman Empire, during the four centuries of Ottoman rule Mosul was considered �the most independent district� within the Middle East, following the Roman model of indirect rule through local notables. �Mosuli culture developed less along Ottoman-Turkish likes than along Iraqi-Arab lines; and Turkish, the official language of the State, was certainly not the dominant language in the province.�
In line with its status as a politically stable trade route between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf the city developed considerably during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Similar to the development of the Mamluk dynasty in Baghdad, during this time �the Jalili family was establishing itself as the undisputed master of Mosul�, and �helping to connect Mosul with a pre-Ottoman, pre-Turcoman, pre-Mongol, Arab cultural heritage which was to put the town on its way to recapturing some of the prestige and prominence it had enjoyed under the golden reign of Badr ad-Din Lu�lu�.�
Along with the al-Umari and Tasin al-Mufti families, the Jalilis formed an �urban-based small and medium gentry and a new landed elite�, which proceeded to displace the control of previous rural tribes. Such families proceed to establish themselves through private enterprise, solidifying their influence and assets through rents on land and taxes on urban and rural manufacturing.
As well as elected officials, the social architecture of Mosul was highly influenced by the Dominican fathers arrived in Mosul in 1750, sent by Pope Benedict XIV (Mosul had a large Christian population, predominantly Assyrians). They were followed
