Commander of the nightingale indeed!

My online friend Shooting Parrots who lives in Lancashire over in jolly olde Englande has been having of late what he calls “my temporary obsession with Abdul Abulbul Ameer”; it all started a few days ago when he wrote a post about a man named Percy French for Round Eleven of ABC Wednesday. So far he has made three posts about it (Shooting Parrots I mean, not Percy French). The last one includes an entire 1941 Disney cartoon that Parrots says has been banned because it is not politically correct.

Never one to let a subject drop go unexplored, I thought I would join in the fun by showing you this thoroughly delightful clip of "Abdul Abulbul Ameer" performed by Brendan O’Dowda (3:11).

There now, wasn’t that, er, thoroughly delightful?

I do have one slight correction, however.

People have been getting the title wrong for years. It isn’t “Abdul Abulbul Ameer” and it isn’t “Abdul (The Bulbul Ameer)” either, even though that’s what appears on some sheet music shown at the end of the Brendan O’Dowda clip.

I suppose it could be “The Bulbul” but that is not what Brendan seems to be saying if you watch his mouth closely. In addition, Abulbul does not translate into anything in either Arabic or Persian. Trust me. I tried, using my favorite online translator, Google Translate.

It is therefore my carefully thought-out and considered opinion that the title now and forevermore and even retroactively should be changed to either “Abdul (A Bulbul Ameer)” or “Abdullah, Bulbul Ameer)” and I’ll tell you why.

The word Abulbul does not translate into either Arabic or Persian. I know. I tried. I think I told you that already.

However, Abdullah Bulbul Ameer translates into Arabic as
عبد الله أمير بلبل and into Persian as عبدالله بلبل امیر.

Here are some other fascinating details for your perusal:

Both Abdul and Abdullah are boys’ names commonly used in that part of the world. One famous Abdullah (1882--1951) was emir of Transjordan (1921--46) and first king of Jordan (1946--51). He joined the Arab revolt against Turkish rule in World War I and was assassinated 1951. Another famous Abdullah is Abdullah II, the current king of Jordan. And still another is the current king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. French’s poem was written too early to refer to any of them.

Dictionary definitions include:

bul·bul [bool-bool] noun
1. a songbird often mentioned in Persian poetry, regarded as being a nightingale.
2. any of several oscine birds of the family Pycnonotidae, of the Old World tropics.

a·mir [uh-meer] noun, emir (Also, emeer, amir, ameer.) Origin: 1615–25; from Arabic amīr, commander

e·mir [uh-meer, ey-meer] noun
1. a chieftain, prince, commander, or head of state in some Islamic countries.
2. a title of honor of the descendants of Muhammad.
3. (initial capital letter) the former title of the ruler of Afghanistan.
4. a title of certain Turkish officials.

One dictionary said this:

emir -- 1595, from Fr. emir, colloquial pronunciation of Arabic amir “commander” (see admiral).

Yes. You read that correctly. See admiral.

ad·mi·ral Origin: 1175–1225; Middle English, variant of amira from Old French, from Arabic amīr al, commander of the (as in amīr al-mu’minīn, commander of the faithful)

To round out this interminable post, here is one version of William Percy French’s 1877 poem:


Abdulla Bulbul Ameer

1. The sons of the prophet
Were hardy and bold,
And quite unaccustomed to fear,
But the bravest by far,
In the ranks of the Shah,
Was Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.

This son of the desert,
In battle aroused,
Could spit twenty men on his spear.
A terrible creature,
Both sober and soused
Was Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.

2. If you wanted a man
To encourage the van,
Or to harass the foe from the rear,
Or to storm a redoubt,
You had only to shout
For Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.

There are heroes aplenty
And men known to fame
In the troops that were led by the Czar;
But the bravest of these
Was a man by the name
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

3. He could imitate Irving,
Play euchre and pool
And perform on the Spanish Guitar.
In fact, quite the cream
Of the Muscovite team
Was Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

The ladies all loved him,
His rivals were few;
He could drink them all under the bar.
As gallant or tank,
There was no one to rank
With Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

4. One day this bold Russian
Had shouldered his gun
And donned his most truculent sneer
Downtown he did go,
Where he trod on the toe
Of Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.

“Young man” quoth Bulbul,
“Has life grown so dull,
That you’re anxious to end your career?
Vile infidel! Know,
You have trod on the toe
Of Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.”

5. “So take your last look
At the sunshine and brook
And send your regrets to the Czar;
By this I imply
You are going to die,
Mr. Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.”

Quoth Ivan, “My friend,
Your remarks, in the end,
Will avail you but little, I fear,
For you ne’er will survive
To repeat them alive,
Mr. Abdulla Bulbul Ameer!”

6. Then this bold mameluke
Drew his trusty chibouque
With a cry of “Allah Akbar!”
And with murderous intent,
He ferociously went
For Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

Then they parried and thrust
And they side-stepped and cussed
Till their blood would have filled a great pot.
The philologist blokes,
Who seldom crack jokes,
Say hash was first made on that spot.

7. They fought all that night,
’neath the pale yellow moon;
The din, it was heard from afar;
And great multitudes came,
So great was the fame
Of Abdul and Ivan Skivar.

As Abdul’s long knife
Was extracting the life --
In fact, he was shouting “Huzzah!”
He felt himself struck
By that wily Kalmuck,
Count Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

8. The sultan drove by
In his red-breasted fly,
Expecting the victor to cheer;
But he only drew nigh
To hear the last sigh
Of Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.

Czar Petrovich, too,
In his spectacles blue
Rode up in his new crested car.
He arrived just in time
To exchange a last line
With Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

9. A loud-sounding splash
From the Danube was heard
Resounding o’er meadows afar;
It came from the sack
Fitting close to the back
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

There’s a tomb rises up
Where the blue Danube flows;
Engraved there in characters clear;
“Ah stranger, when passing,
Please pray for the soul
Of Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.”

10. A Muscovite maiden
Her lone vigil keeps,
Neath the light of the pale polar star;
And the name that she murmurs
As oft as she weeps
Is Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.

The sons of the prophet
Were hardy and bold,
And quite unaccustomed to fear,
But the bravest by far,
In the ranks of the Shah,
Was Abdulla Bulbul Ameer.


Other than the facts that in some versions "Black Sea" replaces "Danube" and Abdul is not a diminuitive of Abdullah, I have nothing else to add.

The best way to celebrate having waded through the entire poem is to listen one more time to Brendan O’Dowda’s thoroughly delightful performance.

Class is now dismissed. Before our next class, you should read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In your spare time, of course.

Yours for precision in lyrics, I remain...
Rhymes W. Plague, Esq.