Omar Mohammed

The founding

2014 — 2017

When Mosul fell to ISIS on 10 June 2014, Omar Mohammed was a 28-year-old scholar of late-Ottoman Mosul, finishing a doctoral dissertation at the city's university. Within seven days he had decided that a record had to be kept. He began to write — first under the pseudonym Mosul Eye, then in increasing detail, dispatch after dispatch, from cafés, friends' houses, and finally a single rented room he never went to twice.

For three years he wrote in secret. He gave interviews to journalists who never knew his name. He smuggled tips to the Iraqi security forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, the U.S. military. He fed information to UNESCO. He kept publishing the blog. He did not stop.

After liberation

2017 — 2022

When Mosul was liberated in July 2017, Omar revealed his identity to the world. He continued the archive. He launched the 91 register. He helped build the UNESCO recovery framework. He spoke at the UN. He testified to the U.S. Congress. He travelled. He returned home, again and again.

The fellowship

2022 — present

Since 2022 he has held a fellowship at Yale's International Leadership Center, where he is writing the full account of Mosul Eye. The book is forthcoming from Skyhorse Publishing in July 2026, with a foreword by Pope Francis.

What comes next

2026 →

The archive continues. The Mosul Eye House is being built. The Oral History Centre is recording. The book arrives in July. The historian writes on.