...and the world that was occupied by the Ottomans like the Balkans or Hungary,
...and Jews that immigrated into the Ottoman empire from the inquisition, and then spread the song further around the world, to the US and elsewhere...
...and USA where it was recorded for the first time in 1924.
Arguably it is one of the earliest international hit tunes, stretching from the US in the 20s to Bangladesh in the 30s...
Wikipedia of the original Turkish song has a list of its versions:
en.m.wikipedia.org
In the US a klezmer version from 1924
Personally I think this Iraqi version might be the oldest:
I grew up knowing our ex-Yugoslavian versions:
- South Serbian "Ruse kose curo imaš" (eng. Blond hair you have, girl) (timestamped to the song from the film "Ciganka" from 1953, earliest recording of this version)
- Bosnian version "Oj djevojko Anadolko" (eng. Oh, girl from Anatolia) that has 4 initial verses more, specifying the Turkish origin of the girl and that this is a "sevdalinka", traditional Bosnian song.
The rest of the song has the same lyrics about the blond hair and black eyes of the girl, just translated between the two dialects.
Bosnian "sevdalinka" is a whole another interesting topic of musical influences, coming from Turkish "sevda" and Arabic "sawda", and similar to Portoghese "saudade" (an important term in their fado):
Sevdalinka - Wikipedia
An additional Bosnian version "Poletela dva bijela goluba" meaning "Two white doves are flying" was recorded in 1910.
In 2003 a Bulgarian director Adela Peeva made a documentary "Whose is this song" about this same song in Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria, and each nation considering it only their own because the neighbors "don't have the tradition to do it":
The film was not really about the song.
It was just the means to show how similar but conflicting we are, convinced that every national heritage is just our own:
Bulgaria has two versions of the song:
- a love song "Černi oči imaš libe" (Bulgarian: "Черни очи имаш либе", eng. "Black eyes you have, love) really similar to the South Serbian version about the girl with black eyes,
- a hymn of resistance to the Ottoman Empire in the Strandzha Mountains ("Ясен месец веч изгрява : "Jasen mesec več izgrjava", eng. "Clear moon already rising").
The documentary author was especially provocative by chosing to show only the hymn of resistance against Turkish, go to annual celebration of Bulgarian resistance and ask around if their resistance hymn is actually Turkish...
After the success of the documentary, in 2006 the European Commission funded the project "Everybody's Song" meant to "to reflect on the role of music in intercultural understanding" that compiled the first list of different versions of the song:
It was probably not such an easy task back in 2006 and they had to do some real research. Now it is enough to go to any YouTube version with enough comments, and people are leaving the song titles in their own language.
Hungary also has a version by the classical music composer Tamás Daróci Bárdos:
The song has the initial part that is in European scale, a rythm that is Turkish and parts of Iraqi maqam:
en.m.wikipedia.org
Therefore the final touch to the song certainly came from Iraq.
Iraqis believe that the song was composed by mullah 'Uthman al-Musili, born in 1854 in Mosul, that became famous at the sultan palace in Istanbul, and returned at the old age in Iraq. He died in Bagdad in 1923. FORGOTTEN GIANT: MULLAH ‘UTHMAN AL-MUSILI
The mixture probably happened in Istanbul, as the only city at the time that could combine such complex mixture,
- either at the sultan palace that hosted musicians from different parts of the empire, including the Iraqi mullah 'Uthman al-Musili
- or within the Jewish community in Istanbul, that also had a significant connections with their community in Iraq. Jews strongly believe the whole song to be their own, at it may be a possibility.
This is the Sephardic version in 5 languages:
I found four theories about the European part of the song:
- the Bulgarian documentary showed a Macedonian ethnomusicologist that mentioned crusaders as a possibility
- Sephardic Jews might have brought the European sounds to Ottoman empire after escaping the Spanish inquisition.
- Romanians believe the whole song to be composed by Moldavian prince, poet and composer Dimitrie Cantemir:
en.m.wikipedia.org
- British believe to have brought a Scottish army march to Ottoman empire during the Crimean wars, and that the song might be their.
...and Jews that immigrated into the Ottoman empire from the inquisition, and then spread the song further around the world, to the US and elsewhere...
...and USA where it was recorded for the first time in 1924.
Arguably it is one of the earliest international hit tunes, stretching from the US in the 20s to Bangladesh in the 30s...
Wikipedia of the original Turkish song has a list of its versions:
Kâtibim - Wikipedia
In the US a klezmer version from 1924
Personally I think this Iraqi version might be the oldest:
I grew up knowing our ex-Yugoslavian versions:
- South Serbian "Ruse kose curo imaš" (eng. Blond hair you have, girl) (timestamped to the song from the film "Ciganka" from 1953, earliest recording of this version)
- Bosnian version "Oj djevojko Anadolko" (eng. Oh, girl from Anatolia) that has 4 initial verses more, specifying the Turkish origin of the girl and that this is a "sevdalinka", traditional Bosnian song.
The rest of the song has the same lyrics about the blond hair and black eyes of the girl, just translated between the two dialects.
Bosnian "sevdalinka" is a whole another interesting topic of musical influences, coming from Turkish "sevda" and Arabic "sawda", and similar to Portoghese "saudade" (an important term in their fado):
Sevdalinka - Wikipedia
An additional Bosnian version "Poletela dva bijela goluba" meaning "Two white doves are flying" was recorded in 1910.
In 2003 a Bulgarian director Adela Peeva made a documentary "Whose is this song" about this same song in Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria, and each nation considering it only their own because the neighbors "don't have the tradition to do it":
The film was not really about the song.
It was just the means to show how similar but conflicting we are, convinced that every national heritage is just our own:
Bulgaria has two versions of the song:
- a love song "Černi oči imaš libe" (Bulgarian: "Черни очи имаш либе", eng. "Black eyes you have, love) really similar to the South Serbian version about the girl with black eyes,
- a hymn of resistance to the Ottoman Empire in the Strandzha Mountains ("Ясен месец веч изгрява : "Jasen mesec več izgrjava", eng. "Clear moon already rising").
The documentary author was especially provocative by chosing to show only the hymn of resistance against Turkish, go to annual celebration of Bulgarian resistance and ask around if their resistance hymn is actually Turkish...
After the success of the documentary, in 2006 the European Commission funded the project "Everybody's Song" meant to "to reflect on the role of music in intercultural understanding" that compiled the first list of different versions of the song:
www.everybodys-song.net Everybody's song project - Welcome to the website
Everybody’s Song – Music as a tool for the promotion of diversity and intercultural understanding. The general aim of the project was to reflect on the role of music in intercultural understanding and to identify ways to utilise it in youth work
web.archive.org
It was probably not such an easy task back in 2006 and they had to do some real research. Now it is enough to go to any YouTube version with enough comments, and people are leaving the song titles in their own language.
Hungary also has a version by the classical music composer Tamás Daróci Bárdos:
The song has the initial part that is in European scale, a rythm that is Turkish and parts of Iraqi maqam:
Iraqi maqam - Wikipedia
Therefore the final touch to the song certainly came from Iraq.
Iraqis believe that the song was composed by mullah 'Uthman al-Musili, born in 1854 in Mosul, that became famous at the sultan palace in Istanbul, and returned at the old age in Iraq. He died in Bagdad in 1923. FORGOTTEN GIANT: MULLAH ‘UTHMAN AL-MUSILI
The mixture probably happened in Istanbul, as the only city at the time that could combine such complex mixture,
- either at the sultan palace that hosted musicians from different parts of the empire, including the Iraqi mullah 'Uthman al-Musili
- or within the Jewish community in Istanbul, that also had a significant connections with their community in Iraq. Jews strongly believe the whole song to be their own, at it may be a possibility.
This is the Sephardic version in 5 languages:
I found four theories about the European part of the song:
- the Bulgarian documentary showed a Macedonian ethnomusicologist that mentioned crusaders as a possibility
- Sephardic Jews might have brought the European sounds to Ottoman empire after escaping the Spanish inquisition.
- Romanians believe the whole song to be composed by Moldavian prince, poet and composer Dimitrie Cantemir:
Dimitrie Cantemir - Wikipedia
Romanian version:
- British believe to have brought a Scottish army march to Ottoman empire during the Crimean wars, and that the song might be their.
Last edited:
