Naqshbandiyya Takiyya Prison

The prison was in the Naqshbandiyya Takiyya in al-Farouq Street in Mosul. The takiyya was built in 1844 by the Ottomans and was one of the most prominent historical takiyyas in Iraq. (A takiyya is a building that houses travelers and those, such as Sufis, who seclude themselves for worship.) After its capture of Mosul in 2014, ISIS seized this takiyya on the grounds that it was a hub for Sufis, who ISIS accused of polytheism. The building was converted into a prison after the doors and windows were fortified. ISIS also seized the house next to the takiyya and made it a base for those it called ‘the new immigrants’ who had pledged allegiance to the organization. Detainees at the prison included people charged with spying for the Iraqi army, members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Iraqi army officers, policemen, and attorneys. According to former detainees, ISIS partitioned the building into group cells, interrogation and torture rooms, and administrative rooms. They said that a detainee would be brought before the judge blindfolded and handcuffed amid threats of execution. The main name associated with this prison is the judge in charge, Abu Jaber, who was accompanied by jailers tasked with torture and implementing punishments. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the takiyya became a base of the Iraqi intelligence service.