ISTANBUL — Anas Jaroo has been waxing nostalgic lately about his family’s home in Hosh Al-Bai’ah, a formerly Christian neighborhood of carpenters and fishermen on the west bank of the Tigris River in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“I miss Grandfather’s house,” said Mr. Jaroo, a 23-year-old software engineer in Baghdad who fled Mosul for his safety a few years ago. “The door was low. You had to bend your back to enter. Limestone floors kept it cool during summer and held heat from the fireplace during winter. It even held a Turkish bath with a special bench where you could relax and have a massage.”