Al Najafi Street

Al Najafi Street is a cultural and commercial street located on the right bank of the city of Mosul, considered the second oldest street in old Mosul. It is approximately 250 meters long and 5 meters wide, connecting S0uq Al Sha'arin and Nineveh Street to the north, and Bab Al Toub and Bab Al Saray to the south.

The street was founded in 1913 when the Governor of Mosul Suleiman Nazif Pasha decided to open a new street connecting Nineveh Street to the Courts Street, known today as Justice Street. The largest portion of it was carved from the house of the Al Najeefi family after whom the street was named, a family originally from the Levant. The name was then altered from "Al Najeefi" to "Al Najafi" through frequent usage and the difficulty of pronunciation.

The first library in Mosul and the first publishing house were established on this street, and its bookshop shelves were filled with books of Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic schools of thought, Quranic interpretation, international and Arabic novels, and history books.

In the 1950s, the street took on a distinctly cultural character with the opening of a large number of bookshops, most specializing in selling rare old books, others specializing in Egyptian and Lebanese periodical magazines and daily newspapers, and stationery shops serving schools and official departments. Vehicles and transport passed through it from its opening until it was closed to traffic in the early 1970s, restricted to pedestrians only.

The Arab Library is considered one of its most venerable establishments, it was the first library to open its doors after the liberation of Mosul from ISIS in 2019, then celebrated a full century since its first opening. The street was completely destroyed during the war with ISIS, losing its lovers and regular visitors, but it has begun to recover its pulse as life has returned to it once more.