Beit al-Tutunji

[3] Following the Iraqi government’s reoccupation of Mosul in 2017, restorations began on Beit al-Tutunji, with the goal of turning it into a municipal museum and cultural center.

Exterior wall decorations contain inscriptions from the Koran, painted in blue on white background, and Arabic poetry and Arabesque motifs incised into local Mosul marble.

[8] Beit al-Tutunji confirms the pattern of what Ahmad Abdul-Wahid Thanoon has described as the "traditional house architecture" of Old City Mosul.

Decorative elements, including those made from Mosul marble as arches, pillars, and door frames, were on the interior, while the exterior of the building is plain.

[10] Some scholars have described the efforts of ISIL as an acts of "cultural genocide" of the city's "architectural heritage",[11] while others have noted the lasting trauma that the destruction has had on a Mosul-centered collective identity.

[4][7] In this sense, reasons for the destruction of Beit al-Tutunji differ from those of many other architecturally and historically significant buildings that experienced damage in Mosul.

The Tutunji house became just one among many sites in Mosul and its environs that became focal points for conservation efforts, some of them in projects led by UNESCO, and others funded by donors from particular countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with a prime example being the historic Al-Nuri Mosque.

[12] The MHSP has used these funds to support restoration of the Tutunji house and other sites in Iraq, including Taq-i Kisra (also known as the Arch of Ctesiphon), which claims the largest single-span vault of unreinforced bricks in the world; and Mashki Gate in Nineveh (which ISIL bulldozed in 2016).

My heart which has sinned is like air; I hold on to the rope of your love like one smitten; God will keep me from harm when I take refuge in you; We resort to you in the most scorching of matters."