Paseabase el rey moro (Mudejar/Begoña Olavide)

Romance de origen arabe del siglo XV-XVI

Performers: Mudejar (Begoña Olavide)
Images: Various
Alhambra photo: The courtyard of Lions by Victor Ovies
(www.granadaphoto.com )

"Paseabase el rey moro" is a ballad that Perez de Hita (1544-1619) considered to be a translation from Arabic; he tells the following tale: "The Count of Tendilla felt obliged to prohibit this ballad because it stirred up the populace to such a degree as to disturb the peace and make it necessary to resort to armas in order to stifle the mutinies of the Moriscos." The events deal with the capture of Alhama in 1482; The Count of Tendilla was the governor who remained in the Alhambra after the caputre of Granada ten years later.

The Moorish king was strolling
Through the city of Granada
Letters came
Saying that Alhama had been taken
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

He cast the letters into the fire
And killed the messenger
He ordered the trumpets to be played
His trumpets of silver
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

Friends, you must know
of a new misfortune
Ferocious Christians
have seized Alhama
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

A wise man of law spoke
A mand of long, white beard
You got what you were due, good king
Good king, you got what you were due
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

You killed the bencerrajes
who were the best of Granada
You chose the turncoats
of famed Córdoba
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

For that, king, you deserve
a double-edged sorrow
You lose, and you lose your kingdom
and here is lost Granada
¡Ay de mi Alhama!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Begoña Olavide
• Romance

[tanniamartinez]

@adelking66 I don't like him 'cause he just gave to the christians the key of the city... I like because he was a good king, good person, because he gave the key because he didn't want more wars. After all, he was intelligent. What a shame. I'd like that the Granada of Al-Andalus come back. The best things that we have here, in Granada, are made by the muslims.

[FraAngelico440]

What an amazing version! I got goosebumps as listened to it.

[VERO0576]

"Ay de mi Alhama" appears with a paintig of Boabdil but Muley Hacen (and not Boabdil) lost Alhama. The christians took Alhama because of the conquest of Zahara by the muslims. (I'm sorry for my english...).

[acerb45666555]

i know European history. Iberia from the Celtic through the Roman, then Visigothic times was a brutal, thuggish world! then Islam came! and education! and civilization! so sad it began to decay from internal combustion, and outside attacks from the north. such a shining time will never exist again.

[MassineAmenzu]

one thing. Tarik was amazigh. ;). later the arabs killed him :)

[MassineAmenzu]

arabs were the 5% of the muslims in spain.. the amazigh ppl came before.......and remember. The last king of granada was an amazigh (berber) his name is Boabdil.

this song is amazigh.

[acerb45666555]

it could be an old Arabic song. or its probably an Amazigh song.

[Davccelion]

@Musicapurissima ,era típico hacer eso con los mensajeros que traían malas noticias...por eso muchas veces no dejaban saber al mensajero qué noticias traía, para que no huyera. La costumbre no era sólamente mora; ignoro si los cristianos lo hacían, pero hay constancia de otras civilizaciones que lo tenían como práctica habitual.

[Musicapurissima]

Y porque el rey mato' al mensajero? Eso es pura crueldad!!! Se merece que le hallan tomado Alhama.

[Almanzzor]

Reminds me of the fall of Granada and Muslim Spain, makes me sad..