Prof. Etlal Salim Hanna

Department of History, University of Mosul

Modern and Contemporary History of Arab Lands (particularly Iraq and the wider Middle East)
Ottoman history, especially the relations with Christian communities in the Mosul region and archival studies
Use of historical documents / archives (Ottoman archives, government records)
Studies of inter-state relations in modern period (for example, Egyptian-Ethiopian relations 1952-2015)
Themes such as cultural heritage (e.g. Syriac heritage), minorities, religious communities, and sustainable development through cultural/linguistic identity
Digital humanities / methods: some work involving artificial intelligence, natural language processing, digitization and analysis of historical documents (e.g. Ottoman policies towards Christians in Mosul 1889-1918)

Currently affiliated with University of Mosul, College of Education for Human Sciences, Department of History (Modern & Contemporary History)
Also has affiliation / previous work with University of Al-Hamdaniya in Iraq
Has authored around 50 publications in his area, with thousands of reads on ResearchGate.

Here are some representative works to illustrate his scholarship:

Egyptian-Ethiopian Relations 1952-2015” – examines how political systems, border/water disputes, and dam construction shaped relations between Egypt and Ethiopia.
“Christians in the Ottoman Archives in the States of Mosul and Egypt, 1876-1909” – focuses on archival sources, Christian communities under Ottoman rule, and relations to the state.
“Artificial Intelligence and Historical Documents: Analysis of Ottoman Policies towards the Christians of the Mosul City 1889-1918” – a project/research that applies machine learning / NLP / digitization to Ottoman source materials to study the treatment and administrative policies regarding Christian populations. ([Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals][4])

Prof. Hanna’s work is valuable for a number of reasons:

He helps recover and illuminate lesser-studied aspects of the history of minority / Christian communities in Mosul (and the broader Ottoman Arab world) using archival sources.
He integrates cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage into discussions of modern history, showing how identity and minority heritage matter for understanding societal change, conflict, and development.
His methodological openness (towards digital tools, AI, NLP) shows commitment to modern approaches in historical studies, making older documents more accessible and analyzable.
Because of where he works (Iraq, Mosul), his scholarship is also important for regional historiography and for contributing to local understandings of history, heritage, and minority identity.