Mosul Eye: A Scholar's Clandestine War Against ISIS

A Clandestine History of Mosul Under the Islamic State

When ISIS overran Mosul in June 2014, a young historian named Omar Mohammed expected to spend his life in archives, not hiding from a death sentence. His ambition had been quiet: to write history, teach students, and preserve his city's past. But within days, Mosul was sealed off from the world—its streets patrolled, its memory suffocating under propaganda—and he found himself forced into a role he had never imagined.

From a small room no...