Ameen Mokdad plays the violin in Mosul, Iraq.
Amine Mokdad
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Amine Mokdad
Ameen Mokdad plays the violin in Mosul, Iraq.
Amine Mokdad
One day, when Ameen Mokdad was 10 years old, he found his father hard at work in their home in Mosul, Iraq.
Mokdad’s father was an artist and he became frustrated trying to start painting a composer.
“My father wanted to create a painting about the composer who died before finishing his last composition,” Mokdad recalls. “He wanted to call it ‘The Missing Composition’.”
A photo of 10-year-old Ameen Mokdad’s hand that her father asked to use as a model to paint “The Missing Composition.”
Amine Mokdad
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A photo of 10-year-old Ameen Mokdad’s hand that her father asked to use as a model to paint “The Missing Composition.”
Amine Mokdad
Curious, Mokdad asked his father if it was a true story, to which he replied yes, telling him the story of Beethoven, who died before completing his 10th symphony.
“OK, when I grow up, I will become a composer and I will finish composing it,” Mokdad told his father.
“Yeah, sure,” his father replied skeptically.
For years, Mokdad’s father started and continued this painting, never satisfied with his work. And just like the subject of the portrait, he too never managed to finish it before dying.
“My instruments are like my babies”
Although Mokdad did not complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony, he nevertheless became a composer.
At the age of 20, he learned the violin for the first time, then spent the next five years learning to play it, as well as many other instruments.
By age 25, he had amassed a modest collection of instruments: two violins, a cello, a guitar, and a harp-like instrument called a “zip zither.” He loved them all dearly.
Mokdad with “Peter” the cello.
Amine Mokdad
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Mokdad with “Peter” the cello.
Amine Mokdad
“Every instrument I’ve ever had a history with,” Mokdad said. “I was a student and the economic situation (in Iraq) was really bad, and I had to save every penny. It wasn’t a sophisticated instrument, but it’s my instrument. Like my babies.”
And like children, Mokdad gave names to his instruments. “Peter” was the name of his cello. His two violins were “Red” and “Parrot”. He called his guitar “friend.”
Compose in secret
In June 2014, the extremist jihadist group ISIS took control of Mosul and Mokdad suddenly found itself under their occupation.
Most music was banned due to their extreme interpretation of Islam, but Mokdad continued to perform in secret.
“I was so angry. And I just wanted to protest and say, ‘I’m going to keep doing this, I’m not going to stop,'” Mokdad said. “When you sacrifice part of your freedom, you end up losing everything.”
Mokdad surreptitiously began working on a collection of 25 compositions, which would become his album The curve.
“Yosur” by Ameen Mokdad
Youtube
Despite the risk of persecution, he recorded his music and posted it online for the world to hear.
One day, ISIS stormed Mokdad’s house and found his stash of instruments. They destroyed them all but agreed to spare his life.
He sank into a deep depression.
“I was so broken,” Mokdad said.
Create something new
After his house was searched, Mokdad moved in with his relatives.
Seeing him in such relentless despair, Mokdad’s cousin came to him with an idea.
“Why don’t we make one of the instruments you lost?” » asked Mokdad’s cousin.
They then planned to build an instrument from scratch, without recreating one of the lost ones. Instead, they invented something entirely new.
Using sheets of wood from the market and steel wire traditionally used to cut soap, the duo created their new creation in less than a month.
Two of Mokdad’s cousins help him build his new instrument, which he names “Adad”.
Amine Mokdad
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Amine Mokdad
Two of Mokdad’s cousins help him build his new instrument, which he names “Adad”.
Amine Mokdad
It is a 44-string open rectangular instrument that sits comfortably on Mokdad’s lap. He plucks it like a harp.
“But when we got the instrument, we were like, ‘Oh, this is a big deal.’ We literally felt like we made a mistake,” Mokdad said. “It’s like having a baby at the wrong time, during the war.”
He also feared what would happen if his house was searched again and the new instrument was found, after his life had already been spared once. He nevertheless decided to keep it.
Music born from ruin
Like his other children, Mokdad needed to give this instrument a name.
Mosul is home to the ancient city of Nineveh, famous for its five gates. When ISIS took control of the city, they bulldozed these archaeological treasures.
One of these destroyed gates was called “Adad,” after the ancient Mesopotamian god of thunder.
Mokdad with the instrument he invented, called “Adad”.
Amine Mokdad
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Amine Mokdad
Mokdad with the instrument he invented, called “Adad”.
Amine Mokdad
“They wanted to destroy the gate, its name and its history,” Mokdad said. “Why don’t we piss them off and call this instrument Adad.”
When ISIS was finally driven from Mosul in 2017, Mokdad took his instrument to the ruins of his namesake. Atop the rubble of Adad Gate, he played a song he composed called “Hope in God.”
When he listens to this recording again, Mokdad says he cries with happiness.
“I know you will feel sad (sometimes),” Mokdad said to himself. “But whenever you feel sad, just listen to this recording and remind yourself that you did something good.”
Ameen Mokdad performs “Hope In God” with her instrument Adad.
Youtube
A new life
Once Mosul was liberated from ISIS rule, Mokdad was free to travel the world and spent the last year composing and performing music across the United States.
Meanwhile, Mokdad is completing a new collection of compositions for a new album titled Bike Baghdad.
Last month he received good news. Wesleyan University accepted him into its music department’s master’s program on a full scholarship. Mokdad said he is most excited to learn from others who share his passion for music and art.
“Because that’s how I learned music,” he said. “I learned it by humanizing it.”
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