Abdulahad AbdulNour

Abdulahad Abdulaziz AbdulNour (1888 – 28 February 1948) was an Iraqi physician, politician, and humanitarian. He served as a medical doctor in Mosul before World War I, during the war with the Ottoman Army, and he founded the Royal Hospital of Erbil. He also served in Mosul and various Iraqi cities in public and private medical positions after the war, until he died in 1948. He was elected twice to the Council of Representatives of Iraq to represent the Christians of Mosul during the monarchy rule.

Early life and education Abdulahad AbdulNour was born in Mosul in 1888 to a prominent Christian Syriac Orthodox family that has lived in Mosul for many generations. He was the third son of eight children born to Abdulaziz AbdulNour and Ameena Kassab. In 1902, at the age of 14, he was sent to finish his high school education in a boarding school in Beirut, Lebanon. After high school, he enrolled in the Medical College at the American University of Beirut (AUB). AbdulNour graduated, at age 23, with a degree in Medicine and Surgery from AUB in 1911. After graduation, he returned to serve in Mosul as a doctor and the first doctor in Mosul to graduate from AUB.

Career On his return to Mosul, AbdulNour, started working at a newly established government hospital in 1912, then worked at the English mission hospital which the British Church Mission Society had recently opened in Mosul. This hospital closed its doors soon after the declaration of World War I.

Political life AbdulNour twice won elections for a parliamentary seat as a member of Council of Representatives of Iraq (the lower chamber of Iraqi parliament), to represent Mosul, first in the parliamentary elections of 1937, and second in the elections of 1947.

Mosul Question As the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 did not resolve the politically disputed territories between Turkey and the British government over the province of Mosul, the issue was commuted for arbitration at the League of Nations in what became known as the "Mosul Question." AbdulNour was a founding and instrumental member of the board of the Committee of Mosul. It was formed to raise awareness and advocate for the rights of the province of Mosul to remain within Iraq, and to join the Province of Baghdad and the Province of Basra, which had already formed the sovereign State of Iraq in 1921. The Committee of Mosul continued its active advocacy until the Anglo-Turkish agreement was signed, In 1945, AbdulNour was instrumental in the successful registration at Mosul’s land registry office of cadastral rights to the endowments, properties, and large tracts of land of the villages belonging to the Mor Mattai Monastery.

Humanitarian Abdulahad volunteered his work and time and donated money to help the refugees that came to Mosul from Turkey after the Armenian genocide and Sayfo between 2014 and 2018. These refugees primarily came from Southern Turkey escaping the killings on the hands of Ottomans army and their allied tribes. The refugees continued to come to Mosul well in the middle of 1920s.

Death After a short illness, AbdulNour suffered a sudden heart attack and died at home on 28 February 1948.