Style & Sourcing Guide.

How the Nineveh Record is written, sourced, named and cited. This document sets out the editorial conventions that the archive's entries follow, the standards by which they are sourced, the principles that govern sensitive material, and the process by which errors are corrected. It is published openly so that readers can judge the archive by its own stated standards and hold it to them.

i. Purpose and scope

The Nineveh Record is a reference archive of the Governorate of Nineveh and the city of Mosul, maintained by Al-Hadba University. It is organised into a set of thematic entries — the seventeen Domains, from Geography and History to Religions, Economy and Weather — and a parallel set of entries for the nine administrative districts. Each is intended to be a factual, sourced, encyclopaedic account that a reader can rely on and, where necessary, verify against the cited literature.

This guide describes the conventions that hold those entries together. It applies to all entries in all five published languages (English, Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish and Spanish). It is itself a living document: as the archive grows and its practices are refined, this page is revised, and the revision date in the byline above is updated accordingly.

ii. Voice and register

Entries are written in a neutral, expository register — the voice of a reference work rather than of an essay, a polemic or a brochure. The aim is that a reader cannot tell, from the prose alone, the personal views of the writer on any contested question. Three working rules follow from this.

Describe, do not advocate. Where parties to a dispute hold opposing positions, the entry sets out each position as its holders would state it, attributes it clearly, and leaves the reader to weigh them. The Politics entry, for example, presents the positions of the various actors without taking the side of any.

Prefer the specific to the rhetorical. A dated figure with a source is worth more than an adjective. The entries favour concrete numbers, dates and named institutions over evaluative language, and flag the limits of what is known rather than papering over them.

Write for the general educated reader. Entries assume intelligence but not specialist background. Technical terms are glossed on first use; transliterated terms are given in a recognised romanisation with a short gloss; and cross-references to other entries are used to avoid repeating material.

iii. Sourcing standards

Every substantive factual claim in the archive is expected to rest on a source that a reader could in principle consult. The entries draw, in order of preference, on: peer-reviewed scholarship and academic monographs; the publications of recognised international bodies (the United Nations and its agencies, UNESCO, the World Bank, the IEA, the World Meteorological Organization and comparable institutions); official Iraqi government and provincial records; and reputable documentary journalism. Each entry closes with a References list recording the principal sources used.

Where the evidence is incomplete, contested or out of date, the entry says so plainly rather than presenting an estimate as a fact. Several recurring caveats appear across the archive by design — for instance, that Iraq has held no full population census since 1987, so all population and demographic figures are best-available estimates rather than exact counts. Readers should treat such figures as the archive treats them: as the most defensible numbers currently available, not as settled totals.

Figures, where given, are dated and attributed to their source. Where sources conflict, the entry notes the conflict rather than silently choosing one. Where a claim cannot be sourced to the archive's standard, it is omitted.

iv. Names, places and romanisation

Nineveh is a multilingual province, and most of its places carry names in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, Syriac and other languages. The archive's policy is to use, in each language edition, the form most familiar to a reader of that language, while keeping the underlying identity of each place stable across editions.

In the English edition, place names follow the most widely used English-language scholarly forms (for example Mosul, Sinjar, Tal Afar, Nineveh, Hatra). In the Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish editions, the locally standard forms are used. In the Spanish edition, Spanish-adapted forms are applied consistently in the running text (for example Nínive, Sinyar, Tel Kaif, Sheijan, Aqra, Jorsabad), while the underlying file names, identifiers and cross-reference anchors remain in their stable English-keyed form so that the same place resolves correctly across all five editions.

Transliterations of Arabic and other terms use a consistent romanisation with diacritics where they aid pronunciation (for example al-Mawṣil al-Ḥaḍbāʾ). Personal and institutional names follow the spelling the bearer or body uses in official English-language contexts where one exists.

v. Sensitive and contested material

Much of Nineveh's recent history is grave. The archive documents the 2014–2017 occupation, the August 2014 genocide against the Yazidi community of Sinjar, the displacement of the Christian and other communities, the destruction of religious and cultural heritage, and the long and incomplete work of return and reconstruction. This material is handled according to three principles.

Faithfulness. Documented atrocities are recorded soberly and accurately as established historical fact, with the recognition given to them by the United Nations and other authoritative bodies, and without sensationalism, minimisation or euphemism.

Even-handedness on live disputes. On questions still actively contested — the status of the disputed territories, governance arrangements, demographic claims with political consequences — the archive sets out the positions of the parties and the state of the evidence without adjudicating between them.

Dignity. The communities whose history is recorded are treated as subjects, not illustrations. Where a community's own account of its experience exists, it is given weight, and the archive aims to write with the communities of Nineveh, not merely about them.

vi. Entry structure

Each entry follows a consistent structure so that readers can navigate the archive by habit. A kicker gives the entry's place in the scheme (its Domain number, or its district). A title and a short deck summarise the entry. A byline records the editorial board, the review date and the citation form. The body is divided into numbered sections with stable anchors, opening with an overview and proceeding thematically. Each entry closes with a References list. A sidebar carries the table of contents, the language switcher, related-topic links and the correction note.

Illustrations — photographs, diagrams, charts and maps — carry captions that state what is shown and credit the source. Where a figure's image has not yet been supplied, a placeholder marks its intended place rather than leaving a broken element.

vii. How to cite the archive

Each entry is citable. The byline of every entry gives a recommended short form. For the Domains, the form is:

Nineveh Record, "Art," § 10. Al-Hadba University, Mosul. Accessed [date], from nineveh.hu.edu.iq.

For a district entry, the district name replaces the Domain title. For this guide, cite Nineveh Record, "Style & Sourcing Guide," Colophon. Readers quoting from the archive should observe its licence, set out below.

viii. Licence and reuse

Unless otherwise stated, the text of the Nineveh Record is published under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This means the material may be shared freely, with attribution to the Nineveh Record and Al-Hadba University, for non-commercial purposes, without alteration. Individual images and figures may carry their own separate licences or credits, which are noted in their captions and take precedence where they differ.

Requests for uses beyond the licence — commercial reuse, adaptation, or translation into a further language — may be addressed to the editorial board at the contact below.

ix. Corrections and contributions

The archive is maintained actively, and its entries are revised as sources improve and as readers point out errors. The standing invitation that appears on every entry applies here too: found an error, or want to add a source? Write to [email protected] with the entry name and your suggested correction. Substantive contributions of sourced material are welcome through the same address and through the contribution page.

Corrections that are accepted are incorporated into the relevant entry, and the entry's review date is updated. The archive does not maintain a public change log at present; readers who need to cite a specific version should record the access date, as the citation form above provides for.