Suffer not your neighbor's affliction

Suffer not your neighbor's paralysis

But extend your hand, extend your hand

Lest you vanish in the city and be but a trace

Just a vanished ghost and your legacy All the things you knew, science, mathematics, thought

Severely weakened like irrigation systems

In the tired veins forming from the Tigris and Euphrates

In the realm of peace, all the world revolved

All the world revolved around a perfect circle City of Baghdad, city of scholars

Empirical humble center of the world

City in ashes, city of Baghdad

City of Baghdad, abrasive aloof Oh, in Mesopotamia aloofness ran deep

Deep in the veins of the great rivers

That form the base of Eden

And the tree the tree of knowledge

Held up its arms to the sky All the branches of knowledge

All the branches of knowledge, cradling, cradling

Civilization in the realm of peace

All the world revolved around a perfect circle Oh, Baghdad, center of the world

City of ashes with its great mosques

Erupting from the mouth of God, rising from the ashes

Like a speckled bird, splayed against the mosaic sky Oh, clouds around, we created the zero

But we mean nothing to you, you would believe

That we are just some mystical tale

We are just a swollen belly that gave birth to Sindbad Scheherazade, we gave birth

Oh, oh, to the zero, the perfect number

We invented the zero and we mean nothing to you

Our children run through the streets

And you sent your flames, your shooting stars Shock and awe, shock and awe

Like some, some imagined warrior production

Twenty-first century, no chivalry involved

No Bushido Oh, the code of the West long gone

Never been, where does it lie?

You came, you came through the West

Annihilated a people and you come to us

But we are older than you, you come, you wanna You wanna come and rob the cradle

Of civilization and you read, yet you read

You read genesis, you read of the tree

You read of the tree beget by God

That raised its branches into the sky Every branch of knowledge

Of the cradle of civilization

Of the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates

Oh, in Mesopotamia aloofness ran deep The face of Eve turning, what sky did she see

What garden beneath her feet, the one you drill

You drill pulling the blood of the earth

Little droplets of oil for bracelets, little jewels

Sapphires, you make bracelets Round your own world, we are weeping tears

Rubies, we offer them to you

We are just your Arabian nightmare

We invented the zero but we mean nothing to you

Your Arabian nightmare City of stars, city of scholarship

Science city of ideas, city of light, city

City of ashes that the great Caliph

Walked through his naked feet formed a circle And they built a city, a perfect city of Baghdad

In the realm of peace and all the world revolved

And they invented and they mean nothing to you

Nothing to you, nothing Go to sleep, go to sleep my child

Go to sleep and I'll sing you a lullaby

A lullaby for our city, a lullaby of Baghdad

Go to sleep, sleep my child

Sleep, sleep, run, run You sent your lights, your bombs

You sent them down on our city, shock and awe

Like some crazy TV show They're robbing the cradle of civilization

They're robbing the cradle of civilization

They're robbing the cradle of civilization Suffer not the paralysis of your neighbor

Suffer not but extend your hand