Join us as we dive deep into the rich tapestry of Libya, a nation defined not just by its stunning Mediterranean coastline and the vast Sahara but also by the vibrant cultural history and national identity. Of course encapsulated in its national anthem. As we unravel the story behind the anthem's composer, Muhammad Abdel Wahab, and the poet Al Bashir Al Arabi, we discover how their works reflect the struggles and aspirations of the Libyan people, blending traditional Arabic influences with a modern patriotic fervor. The episode also touches on the significance of national symbols in shaping a country's identity, particularly in the context of Libya's ongoing political challenges. With a sprinkle of humor and a dash of historical intrigue i hope to leave you with a deeper appreciation for the narratives that shape nations and the songs that resonate within them.

1. https://libyanheritagehouse.org/arts-culture/music-of-libya
2. https://kids.kiddle.co/Libya
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16. وفاة البشير العريبي.. التونسي الذي كتب نشيد ليبيا ونعاه السراج
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32. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Almanach_de_Gotha/luUq1szHJWYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA829&printsec=frontcover

Foreign. Hello and welcome to the Anthems Podcast.

I'm Patrick and I'm here to tell you the story of a song that helps to tell the story of a nation Today we are traveling 6,300, 350 miles, 10,219 kilometers and we're keeping the geometry theme going.

If we take the idea a little bit further, things start to get a bit strange.

Start by assuming that the planet is uniform in density and made of a friction free substance, because physicists and engineers have made bolder assumptions.

Now if you drop into a cord that connects any two points on the planet, you will fly back and forth along the length of the tube and regardless of the distance it takes about 42 minutes each way. That means 5,000 miles per hour at the midpoint of this particular trip.

And a dramatic tip of the hat to you if you figured out this meant I was going to talk about Libya. Officially the Libyan Republic.

We are headed to the country with the longest Mediterranean coastline in Africa, the largest proven oil reserves on the same continent, and a lot of the Sahara Desert because honestly I do not remember but which is in fact all good because I gotta catch em all and it turns out that every country has a story.

If I look at it through the specific slice of history regarding the national anthem, this actually makes me suspect that all of the countries are just interesting in general, probably due in large part to a basic assumption that people are generally the same everywhere and have been for a long time. Anyway, Libya is a place that I knew just a bit about before doing the reading for this episode, and all of it is in the context of the Arab Spring.

I did learn that the term is mostly a western and almost racist term, so you're not going to hear that from me again.

I've never made Libyan food, but lamb stew is a staple there and I do love that My daily breakfast is an egg over easy, chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers with spices and scooping bread pretty close to Ch Chachuca, but also similar to lots of different Middle Eastern breakfast traditions. I landed there by consulting an app, whereas the Libyans knew because that was what mom made. Love it. And maybe you will love the song. Ram.

My initial reaction is a little bit of meh. If I'm gonna be honest, I listened to exactly 43, almost a coincidence, different versions of this anthem and nothing really lit me up.

This version was picked for a reason that I will reveal in the discussion. They don't all strike me as good songs, but that does not mean that you don't like it. And it would be weird if we all liked the same stuff.

Last month I directed you to a place with a thing related to the anthem, but this month I'll direct you to a place that reveals something about myself I consider myself a student of Stoic philosophy and that's made me a fan of Marcus Aurelius writings, the wars the man fought, though I got a few issues there due to my modern anti imperialist mindset. But that wouldn't prevent me from going to see his triumphal arch in Tripoli should I ever find myself in Libya.

It's close to completely irrelevant, which in terms of Stoicism is a telling feature for sure, but it's impressive in its nearly two millennia old Roman concrete. So where in the world is this rare marble and concrete Quadra Frones monument?

The north, west and west borders are Tunisia and Algeria, the southwest and south are Niger and Chad, as well as the southeast and east by Sudan and East Egypt. It's a Pretty Big Country, 16th overall in fact at 1.7 million square kilometers. People there each get an area about the size of Manhattan.

That is if it were practical to live in the entire country, because 70 or more percent of the place is actually the Sahara Desert. Which prompted me to read about the desert a bunch more. And first of all, this thing is huge.

It makes up like a quarter or more of the entire continent of Africa. 3.6 Million square miles.

Mostly I learned that the Sahara is not a uniformly inhospitable wasteland of sand like pop culture has implied it is throughout my life.

That does not mean that it isn't a place of extremes though, especially in terms of heat, because the supposed hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Libya. I mean weather temperature obviously, but try to imagine a day with a real field temp outside is 50 degrees Celsius or 136 and change in Fahrenheit.

It's actually quite a significant number in my life because if you're cooking a steak medium rare, that's it. And also it means if not for the fact that we could sweat, we would be cooking outside if it was that hot.

For this month's geology adjacent thing, again, we're going to swerve and consider something that's man made, but also definitely takes advantage of geology.

It is actually a crucial part of the Libyan population's ability to live in a heavily desert country. However, you knew that was gonna happen, right? There is a water depository that is defined by the endlessly cool term fossil water.

It is ancient stuff that has sat undisturbed. This aquifer was filled during the last ice age which lasted from about 20,000 years ago to a few more than 11,000 years ago. Ish double.

Since we're in another African country, I'm again presented with about 10,000 years of humanity as potential starting points. The Romans even had control of the region for a while after finishing off Carthage, which is too far back.

This time we're also not starting with the fall of colonialism, which has gone from a sub series of episodes to just sort of a subtext to my show. Which is fine because I didn't know where this thing was going. So Italian colonialism is a factor in Libya. But no more spoilers or something.

This will be interesting, I think.

It is not Istanbul yet little in Flansburg. So please don't at me unless you want to say hi or something because your music is awesome and I just saw you at Brooklyn Steel and it was great.

The Sultan supplied the Pasha with a contingent of his household troops, an elite outfit called the Janissaries. So obviously they quickly became the dominant political force in the region. Very strong Praetorian guard vibes.

I would like to get wildly sidetracked to talk about the history of Mediterranean piracy because it is an endless, endless pit of things to read about and relate to you. But alas, I have a goal here.

But as a guy who has been reading a lot of history for the past few years, I observe that that list is getting very long.

However, as is often the case, the people that rule a country and follow in the steps of a great leader that united the country and started it off towards a robust national identity, at least in some general sense, were substantially less capable people.

The details are not a situation that we will visit in detail, but there was an assassination that led immediately to a war of succession that was called the Tripolitanian War.

By this time, though, the Ottoman Empire had decided to stop being lackadaisical in their administration and reasserted direct control. But for real listeners, I see little value or incentive to take you through 75 years of 33 governors and the bureaucratic morass of an empire.

His father was Sheikh Mohammed Abu Isa. He was a musin for non Muslim listeners, that is the man that chanced to call to prayer. And for Muslim listeners, I probably mispronounced that.

My bad. He did this at a local mosque. I can't find anything about his mother, Fatima Ijazi. Apart from having three sons and two daughters.

Our future anthem composer was enrolled in a traditional Quranic school and progressed through to study at Al Azhar University per Dad's wishes.

Muhammad neglected his studies after a while and became preoccupied with singing and music, with the sources saying his family initially balked at the decision. However, he also started putting out recorded music when he was like 13 years old.

So clearly his family was not entirely opposed to him being a musician and seemed to have at least peripherally supported him in some way with that. But that's speculation on my part.

Wahab enrolled in the distastefully named Oriental Music Club, which is now called the Arab Music Institute, and began his singing career in a band with Abdel Rahman Rushdie. While studying at the institute, he worked teaching religious chant. He wrote for other performers and made his own original works.

He composed nearly 2,000 songs in his lifetime while also being an innovative musician that crossed genres and cultures.

He blended Western style, waltz and rock into traditional Egyptian music and composed patriotic music for other Arabic countries such as Palestine and Libya.

During that career he was also a proponent of scouting in Tunisia, which surprised me a bit because I just learned that the Scouts of America is a branch of a larger international scouting organization and he served on the board in his home country and edited a magazine on it. The poet also hosted radio programs, gave lectures and wrote for newspapers as well as magazines. Most of this was about Islamic civilization.

It's presented as a fairly minor footnote in his life, even though it's the anchor point for basically everything I can find online about him. What I find the most fun is the international nature of the event.

A Tunisian professor at a Mauritanian university entered a contest in Cairo, Egypt to write an anthem for Libya. Then he won that contest and donated the prize money to help Palestinian refugees. It's pretty good.

As I have alluded to earlier in the episode, the first half of the 20th century in Libya was spent under the colonial thumb of the Italians. At this point I honestly I can't remember if they have appeared in that role.

Yet on my show, probably, as is usual, we're going to move through that fairly quickly. Starting with the migration in of Italians, mostly to five port cities that were almost firmly in their control.

He gets a mention here because he represented the country in negotiations after the UN passed a resolution that said it should be a free nation. He was apparently a very good negotiator because at the end of it, Idris was the king of a constitutional monarchy.

As part of the new constitution, they were to reneck symbols such as the flag and an anthem. So after a contest was held that I don't actually know anything about, this time we get our anthem, but I do have one more thing to address.

For all his blending of genres and expansion of the medium, this one is pretty traditional, formal, and another of the anthems that were deliberately composed as an anthem. So Wahhab wrote it specifically to be stirring and uplifting instead of a folk tradition while maintaining a march quality.

The music ticks off lots boxes. For me, it's a good anthem and it's a very Libyan tune.

I'm far too early in my reading on Arabic music to give you anything approaching even a shallow analysis here, but it uses elements that descended from Andalusian music, which is a cool word actually that was developed in the 9th century in Cordoba. Now it's southern Spain. One day I might know enough to do justice to it, but I'm gonna keep learning.

Lyrically speaking, we have a distinctly Arabic piece of writing that I think sort of struggles to fit into the decidedly western idea of national anthems.

There are certainly nationalistic and even patriotic pieces of writing in the Islamic tradition, but the idea of a national anthem in the 21st century understanding has its roots in Europe in the 16th century. You'll hear more about that from me someday.

That means a couple of things for Yabilati, but most of it is deep into the weeds, linguist stuff that I don't really understand. So we're just going to acknowledge that it exists.

What matters here most is that the writing is basically nothing like any traditional Libyan writing or poetry. It makes sense since this was written by a guy from Tunisia, to be a national anthem.

It functions mostly as a state sponsored piece of poetic propaganda. So exactly what an anthem should be. If you think about it, despite being super non traditional, it still managed to fit as a patriotic Arabic poem.

We have four verses of nine lines apiece, along with seven line chorus sung at the beginning as well as after verse one, two and three.

As always, I will be going through in English, but do note that this was originally written in Arabic and this time there were some real hurdles in locating a non clunky sounding translation. First, of course.

Oh my country, O my country with my struggles and gladiatorial patience Drive off all enemies, plots and mishaps and be saved, be saved, be saved, be saved all the way we are your sacrifices Libya, Libya, Libya verse 1 O my country. Thou art the heritage of my ancestors May Allah not bless any hand that tries to harm thee.

Be saved, we are forever thy soldiers no matter the death toll if thou art saved, take from us the most credential oaths we won't let thee down Libya we will never be enchained again we are free and have freed our homeland Libya, Libya, Libya Chorus and Verse two Our grandfathers stripped a fine determination when the call for struggle was made they marched carrying a Quran in one hand and their weapons in the other the universe is then full of faith and purity the world is then a place of goodness and godliness Eternity is for our grandfathers they have honored this homeland Libya, Libya, Libya the chorus and then the original verse 3 Hail Idris, the descendant of conquerors he is the symbol of struggle and jihad he raises our flag high and we follow him freeing our homeland he allows praise of his ancestors and raises hope for Libya in heaven A free flag over a rich country Libya, Libya, Libya.

The current verse 3 Hail Al Mukhtar, the prince of conquerors he is the symbol of struggle in jihad he raises our flag high and we follow him, freeing our homeland he was praised with glory and conquest manifest he raises hope for Libya in heaven a free flag over a rich country Libya, Libya, Libya Last chorus and final Verse O son of Libya O son of lions of the wild Wherefore honor and the honors are for us since we began struggling people all over praised May Allah bless our independence so seek the highest glory as an aim among mankind Our cubs could be prepared for the foreseen battles Our youths to prevail Life is only a struggle for our homeland Libya, Libya, Libya I think I can certainly say that we've got a guy that followed the instructions when he was putting this thing together.

Given that this was a contest and because of my prior investigations, it's a safe assumption to say that there was probably a set of requirements for submitted writing here.

I have been able to uncover exactly zero of the relevant details, so if you know, please let me know because I couldn't find anything about sure reads like an anthem though, just straightly shot through with praise for Libya. The chorus drives the entire piece as it reiterates the fact that the people are there for the country in any way.

I think a better translation for line two would be something like with my struggles and a patient battle, but that's a contextual opinion from me. It doesn't appear in any of the versions I have read or I'd have used that in the read through.

The first verse immediately shows us why this was chosen. I mean, come on. Heritage oaths, a God's blessing, dying for the country and becoming free.

Classic stuff, Purpose driven, patriotic text crammed in without actually feeling crammed in, as some recent anthems sort of have.

Verse two reminds us that the people are super religious, but this is honestly not as heavy handed as some other recent songs in the Islamic tradition. Anyway, religiosity does not necessarily detract from Anthem this in my opinion, and that's the case here.

With the focus in fact staying on the country, the writer ties in past generations with the Islamic tradition of Libya and the people's efforts to make it a better place. We're going to skip ahead and talk about the final verse because the third verse requires more explanation.

So the anthem wraps up with the final verse and. And it looks towards a future full of honor and hope and freedom stewarded by proud and strong new generation.

You could not have requested something better suited to finish this kind of a song. Now, now.

When post World War II Libya finally went to the Libyan people, one of the reasons that Gaddafi was able to succeed in his coup 18 years later is that it was really given to Idris. He was the Emir of Tripolitina, sort of like a governor, I think, and right place, right? Timed himself into becoming the king during negotiations.

I won't pretend to know how and won't attempt to learn the specifics because it's immaterial to the content of the show, but it did get the third verse of the Libyan anthem written specifically praising him as an essential symbol of their freedom and the reason that it happened. This is proper royal anthem stuff and it reminds me a lot of the sentiment in the Brunei anthem.

But they needed to rewrite this verse a bit and change the first line to praise instead Omar Al Mukhtar. And the fifth line, from saying that the king allowed ancestral praise to noting Omar's praise in glory and conquest.

The guy is an appropriate choice for an anthem topic because he is in fact the national hero of Libya and a historic symbol of resistance throughout the Arab world.

He is another one of the figures with a very interesting backstory and you're going to have to read about him on your own because I am at the end of what I know regarding this song and the brief bit of history surrounding it. Without exception, I continue to learn many of the things that I don't know yet.

When I learn how to tell you some of those things in a story, I hope you have learned more too, and perhaps gotten the itch to read even more history. I have. All that's left here is to learn what the credits are this time.

The writing, recording and production for the show are done by me and I wrote and recorded the theme music and used it with my permission. Unless otherwise noted, the anthems I play are free to play.

I have reached out to the On Sweat assembly and they indicated that it was okay to play their rendition of the anthem. It was refreshingly easy to get a hold of someone this time.

My sources are in the show notes and they [email protected] I can be found on Facebook as the Anthems podcast. I post about the show and rare anthem news. But mostly I am asking you to help me by using the hashtag anthemspod and sharing this content.

It might even help heal the deep and visceral political divide that's driven the Libyan people into rival administrations. We're all living through some political instability and I gotta tell you folks, I am all the way not a fan of this stuff.

For the second time in a year, you look over and notice that another person in there is listening to this very episode and your excited conversation about it gets the other two people in the waiting room to become new listeners. Or maybe you sit and doom scroll while you wait. Either way, I'll see you next time. And maybe wear a mask if you're sick.

None of the writing for this show is done with generative AI. It's all my fault and it's also my copyright and it may not be used to train artificial intelligence. SA.