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THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET

THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET: PART ONE
GIBRALTAR / DJEBEL-TARIQ   711 AD / 92 AH

In the eyes of the hawk
Djebel Musa to Djebel Tariq
is the tactical distance across the
turbulent waters where the blue
Mediterranean meets the
endless blue sea
The dark swirling currents and
the threatening waves, mediate
traffic between the east and the west
like a vigilant father in a Numidian tribe,
and like a doting negassa, chaperone 
a wedding at the Rock of Gibraltar to
marry the landscapes of Africa and 
Europe, stir the chaotic brooding of
Christianity’s north with the volatile
moods and enraptured exuberance of Arab
and Berber, soon Tuareg and Black, the
stormier winds of Maghreb and mission
from the Islamic south,
and on this new day as a military favor
to the warrior Tariq, mask the 
gathering sounds of derbouka, sagat,
war-horse and armor, zurna, al-oud,
turban, tunic and the long curved sword
at the sharp leading edge of a shining
idea which, like a flaming sharuq of
faith and surrender from Djebel-Tariq
to the Guadalquivir, from the Guadiana
north to the Tagos and Duero, to the
Ebro and the Pyrenees, the territory
beyond, through the chasms and 
gorges of the disintegrating map of
the Hispano-Romano, Visigoth and
Vandal, will conceal Ano Domini
beneath Hijriyyah in a new land
of Allah called Al-Andalus 

Sharuq (Arabic): A hot dusty humid southeast wind in southern Europe that begins in the Sahara and picks up moisture as it crosses the Mediterranean. Spanish: Sirocco. Italian: Scirocco       


 Emanuel Carter

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