Shortly after the Islamic State swept into Iraq, in June, 2014, a clandestine blog called Mosul Eye appeared on the Internet. It provided details about life under the caliphate—initially offering hourly reports regarding roads around Mosul that were safe to travel, and then, in the following weeks, reporting on the dawning anxiety about the heavily armed ISIS fighters, the power blackouts, the rising prices, the chaos in local markets, the panic over food shortages, and the occupiers’ utter brutality. Over the next year, Mosul Eye expanded into a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The posts were determinedly stoic—melancholic and inspiring at once.

For the past two weeks, as Mosul has become the epicenter of a new U.S.-backed offensive to defeat ISIS—also known as ISIL—Mosul Eye has been posting dozens of times a day on its social-media outlets. On Monday, it tweeted, “Today, Mosul has entered the atmosphere of the war. The bombardment is continuous on many areas of the city, specifically the southern and northeastern outskirts of the city.”

“ISIL has seized many SIM cards, and those who successfully managed to hide them, fear to use them.”

“ISIL has booby-trapped all bridges in Mosul with explosives and the fifth bridge with car bombs under it.”

“ISIL executed 23 prisoners this morning.”

The blog is run anonymously by a self-described “independent historian inside Mosul.” Iraqis and Mideast scholars believe that the site is for real. Rasha al Aqeedi, a scholar from Mosul who now writes from Dubai, told me that “the information is reliable,” and added, “The perspective and ideology, however, reflect Mosul’s young intelligentsia: the will to review Islam and question religious texts and the fault lines along historic narratives.”

As a historian, the blogger documented the troubles Mosul faced under Saddam Hussein and its fate after the U.S. invasion, in 2003, when various armed factions seized control of the city. On the Web site, he noted, “Some speak about Mosul as if it is a pure Sunni city, and with that, they grant a religious character to it, which is contrary to the historical and social facts. Because this city is characterized over long historical eras by patterns of harmonious coexistence of ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity, religion was never the predominant character of this diversity, but urbanization.”

This interview, edited for length and clarity, was conducted through social media.

Why did you start this blog in 2014?

This is not the first time terrorists controlled Mosul. After ISIL’s invasion, from the very first moment, I was sure that this time is going to be different. At this defining moment, I felt the obligation to start writing a pure Mosulian history. Maybe one day I will publish this chapter of history, but I believe it will not be coming out until after my death, either by assassination or from natural causes.

What are the dangers of blogging from Mosul?

I persevered to document everything I see in the city—not only about ISIL but about the people, their dynamics, their daily lives, and what previous historians missed when they wrote about previous struggles. I used to go to the markets and socialize with people, with ISIL members as well. I have gotten into several discussions with them. I argued, and debated a lot with them.

How have you avoided detection?

They used to listen to me, especially when I met a group of them at the old markets. I was speaking to them about the Islamic sharia in a way that captivates them, due to my knowledge of Islam. They used to say, “Ma sha'allah!” (“May Allah give you more knowledge and wisdom!”) I used to laugh to myself and wonder how these fools could believe in such a naïve God! They cannot tell that the one who’s talking to them about him rejects him totally!

I always believed that they are just a group of bonkers, who could be guided in any direction. I spent a long time, after 2003, documenting the history of the terror groups that appeared [after the fall of Saddam Hussein] in Mosul. That helped me when I spoke to them. They used to trust me to a great extent, to the point they told me dangerous and sensitive information. It was so easy to get them to talk—as soon as I tell them about some incidents that happened in the past, they cracked open and talked non-stop, to the point where I once had to stop them because I felt very disturbed and overwhelmed!

What would happen if you were identified or caught?

I feel tremendous fear for my life. I always imagine that they will find that I fooled them, and my life ends in a blink of an eye. I started to avoid talking to them, and started to go to the mosques and stay there for long hours, listening to their lectures. This way, I put on the “pious believer” appearance, and sometimes I put on the careless appearance that “all he cares for is finding his way home,” and sometimes I put on “the reckless fool who does not get what is happening around him.” But, deep down, I have my eyes and ears wide open, ready to take in anything, and my mind very clear and alert to register everything, waiting to get home and put down everything on a piece of paper.

It was not easy to avoid them for long. In 2015, their threats increased, and the risks were getting higher and higher. What makes me more anxious is: Where would I hide my records? I used to wake up in the middle of the night to change the hiding place. I never felt rested for a moment, and still don't feel rested.

The punishment I face, in case I get caught, is to be killed and have my entire family killed. Back in 2015, ISIL sent Mosul Eye a message saying that they will kill me in a way that humanity has never known, and they will make me wish I would be killed like the Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh [who was burned to death while trapped in a cage]. I still have a copy of their threat, and I read it every once in a while.

** What about Mosul is most important for the outside world to understand?**

Even Allah himself paid close attention to this city in his sacred books; he mentioned it in the Old and the New Testaments and the Koran. What the world has failed to understand until today is that Mosul has its own identity and has its own social system, which is totally different from the rest of Iraq.

** Why did Mosul originally fall to ISIS?**

I do not lean toward the idea of Mosul “falling” in ISIL’s hands, for this implies that the collapse of Mosul only occurred at that moment. The fact is, Mosul was ready to collapse at any time, for a very long time, and ISIL’s appearance was merely the result of many things that took place before that. One is the security vacuum. And, mostly, the blemished social structure of the city. And Baghdad's ill-treatment of the Mosulis. The city used to be known for its diversity, culturally and ethnically—where everyone could live peacefully, where people could pray in unison. But what Saddam Hussein has done to the city—he subjected the city, and made it susceptible to anything, not only ISIL.