(Smith/Ray)



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 Sinbad, 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 t.v. 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