The siege of Mosul was the siege of the city of

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

in northern

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

by Nader Shah's army during the Persian invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1743.

Commencement of the siege

The Persian siege train had been much improved and augmented since Nader's earlier campaigns as a Safavid general and included hundreds of heavy cannon and mortars. Bridges were built above and below the city. Once they were in position, the Persian gunners bombarded

for eight days, the mortars starting fires and doing terrible damage in the interior of the city. Inhabitants of the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

composed of natives and refugees,

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

and

Yazidis Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish languages, Kurdish-speaking Endogamy, endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The major ...

all of them joined enthusiastically in defending the city. Which resulted in numerous casualties from

and the capture of their leader by Nadir Shah. Artillery fire eventually succeeded in damaging a tower and making a breach. But the defenders, inspired by their commander, worked frantically and succeeded in repairing the damage.

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

also started digging mines under the walls of the city but those operations led to little success. A further major assault was carried out, by thousands of soldiers, carrying 1,700 scaling-ladders. The assault failed and Nader lost over 5,000 men.

tried at this stage to open negotiations, but the Ottoman commander was defiant and the defenders did their best to make the interior of the city look as normal as possible to Nader’s messengers, so that when he asked them for their impressions of the state of the city and the will of its people to resist, the answers were disappointing. Nader asked the Ottoman side to present peace proposals, and they agreed. The Persians later complimented the defenders of

on their bravery.

Conclusion

Maslawi force raised, organized and led by Hussein Pasha al-Jalili defeated the invasion of the Persian army of Nadir Shah. The event has been labeled as one of the most important events in 18th Century Middle Eastern history, not only due to its status as the only retreat suffered by the great Persian conqueror at the hands of his Ottoman adversaries, but as a defeat inflicted not by an Ottoman imperial army commanded by an Ottoman general, but by provincial forces. The Persian army lifted the siege of

, although the siege of

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

in the south continued nonetheless. Hussein Pasha al-Jalili's success in repelling Nadir Shah’s forces in 1743 helped lead to the end of the Shah's initiative to conquer

. The peace treaty was negotiated and signed by both parties. However, Mahmud I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, later reneged on the terms of agreement and resumed hostilities. Consequently, Nader besieged Kars and shortly thereafter destroyed the Ottoman army at the Battle of Kars in 1745.

References

Sources

* {{coord missing, Iraq

1743 in the Ottoman Empire 1740s in Iran 1743 in Asia Mosul 1743