Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh.

In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim governor of the province and in September of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad.

In June 2014, insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as ISIS or ISIL) overran the capital Mosul, forcing an estimated 500,000 refugees to flee the area,[16] including governor al-Nujaifi,[17] who was subsequently deposed by the Iraqi Parliament.

[20] An offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL control began in October 2016, with Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers supported by a U.S.-led coalition of 60 nations.

There are significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmens, Kurds and Yazidis who live in both in towns and cities, and in their own specific villages and regions.

Minority languages include Turkmen, Neo-Aramaic dialects, Kurdish (predominantly Kurmanji) and Armenian.