PHalsall Posted 27 January , 2020 Share Posted 27 January , 2020 Hi, My grandfather, James Irwin, served with the Imperial Camel Corps, was captured near Beersheba and the imprisoned in Gelebek in the Taurus Mountains. He survived. Somewhere along the way he learnt a song which his surviving son and daughter can still sing to this day, having learned it from him in later years. Phonetically, and with his dubious pronunciation, it sounded like this: kam leelah, kam lee-oom, yakabibtee sooleemanHe said it meant : How many nights, how many days, my dear Sulyman ? The 'locals' would chant it while doing heavy labour work. I wonder if anyone can identify the song / chant? It seems to my simple mind to be Arabic rather than Turkish. I have not read of the existence of Arabic workers in the POW camps but someone might put me right on that one, certainly the reference to heavy labour fits the bill for Gelebek. It could equally well be that he picked this up in Egypt or Palestine. Were Arab labourers employed in constructing the railway and water pipeline across Palestine, for example? Is 'Sulyman' a reference to Solomon or Suleiman the Magnificent? I appreciate that this is an odd one, but the expertise of the folk who contribute to this forum never ceases to surprise me so lets see what comes up! Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 27 January , 2020 Share Posted 27 January , 2020 According to Google translate In Arabic it translates askam laylat , kam yawmaan , ya eazizi sulayman In Turkish, Kaç gece, kaç gün sevgili Süleyman Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHalsall Posted 27 January , 2020 Author Share Posted 27 January , 2020 Thanks Craig, Certainly a better match for Arabic. I also picked up the following on Google, but working in the reverse direction so to speak Here's what I learned from Google :" How many nights ?" = kam layla al 'yam" How many days ?" = kam eadad al 'yam" My love " (male) = ya habibi" My love " (female) = ya habibti Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHalsall Posted 3 September , 2020 Author Share Posted 3 September , 2020 For anyone interested in this thread I happened to come across a first hand description of the song being performed by the Egyptian Labour Force. I have attached the relevant pages. The whole book is interesting, especially for anyone interested in the logisitics of moving an army of men and animals across the desert and is located here https://archive.org/details/romanceoflastcru00vivi/page/66/mode/2up Pete Desert song.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 3 September , 2020 Share Posted 3 September , 2020 What did the naffer do at the end of the attached story? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierssc Posted 3 September , 2020 Share Posted 3 September , 2020 4 minutes ago, PhilB said: What did the naffer do at the end of the attached story? See p.104 et seq of the book per the link above! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 3 September , 2020 Share Posted 3 September , 2020 It stops at p103! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierssc Posted 8 September , 2020 Share Posted 8 September , 2020 On 03/09/2020 at 21:44, PhilB said: It stops at p103! Yes, the extract does, but there is also a link to the full book above the extract. You need to click on the link PHalsall gave - to save time it's https://archive.org/details/romanceoflastcru00vivi/page/66/mode/2up to find the whole book. You will land somewhere in the middle but from there you can go to p.104 easily.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 8 September , 2020 Share Posted 8 September , 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHalsall Posted 8 October , 2020 Author Share Posted 8 October , 2020 Thanks for sorting that one out between you! Apologies for not responding earlier, for some reason I didn't get the usual email notification. Cheers Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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