Seisen no Iberia Historical and Cultural references
Hello there! Some explanations: First Iberia is one of my favs horizons, and I found it pretty interesting but I never understand it all, and like I haven’t see neither on the SH-Wiki or the forums someone explain all the references, and I’m really a cheese on History I ask my mom (History Professor) to help to get an idea to make this. Second my first language its Spanish and I use a lot of Spanish webs to get the sources of information. Third…. I’m really sorry for the long post, the boring history lesson and any grammatical mistake.
Warning—> LONGPOST… no, like REAAAALLYYY LONG POST
I will go for parts and mostly is about the last song:
The Invaders and the Invaded
Ok this song its pretty interesting because its explain like all the story on the Iberian Peninsula
Tearing down the walls built by the Celt Iberians
So the native people on Iberia where the Celtiberians in the final centuries BC (Celts in the North, Iberos in the center).
Carthage shook the grounds with their victory dance
Hispānia Rōma tilled the wastelands and laid down stones
So Carthage (A civilization located in North Africa) was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean. Carthage and Rome start a series of 3 wars called the “Punic Wars”.
The second war began after Carthage siege and conquest of Saguntum (Sagunto an Iberian city), this city was under the special protection of Rome, so then Rome declared war on Carthage.
At the end of the 3 wars the Roman ends victories over Carthage and Spain becomes a Rome province. And here we had a Roman Empire for many years till in the V century the barbarian invasions begging.
The Vandals army razed the fields with reckless valor
The Barbarian Invasions we are a series of migrations waves of Germanic people to Iberia. The first one where the Vandals (East Germanic tribe). The term vandalism comes from them, since they cross all Europe devastating everything on they way. They finally set on the south of Iberia.
Visgoths inherited the legacy of a lost kingdom, its history and culture
Made contact with a new culture through Umayyad, and flowers blossomed
The second wave of migration were the Visgoths. To make it short (I don’t want you boring more) they set on Iberia and mixed with the Roman Empire and form the Visigothic kingdom, this kingdom is invaded by Arabs.
The Umayyad conquest Iberia (Hispania), the conquest resulted in the destruction of the Visigothic Kingdom. But the Christian Visigoth Theodemir make a pact (Treaty of Orihuela) with the invading Moors (Arabs). The agreement stated that they could could keep there and continue to practice their Christian faith but only if they paid the taxes and did not aid Muslim enemies.
Aragón=Cataluña ⇔ Castilla=León, forming alliances
Now we goo all to the end of the invaded and reconquest when and I get a little mixed up… you gotta understand that on Iberia/Spain they where always making pacts and marring and such things so I will mention two of these things:
One around century XIII The King of Aragon inherit Aragon and Cataluña, then gets married with the Queen of Castilla and this married gets canceled then she married with the King of León but (for reason to long to explain) she keep all the dowry she received from the Kingdom of Aragon.
Later in the “pact of peace of Monteagudo” the monarchs of Aragon and Castillia mutually stipulated that they will be “Friends of friends and enemies of their enemies”
The other one is century XV when Isabella the Catholic, was queen of Castilla and León married Ferdinand II, King of Sicily and King of Aragon and lieutenant-general of Cataluña. The Granada War was used to associate the Kingdom of Castile and Kingdom of Aragon in a common project
You could ask why I put 2 of this, well the reason its because while the second one its the proper one to put here because the next sentence on the lyrics…. the battle we presence later its on the middle of these years so I feel I should take this too, I don’t know if Revo wanted to give us a general idea and then put the battle as an example or it was a mistake from him for not use other people that go better for the years…. so Lets continue ok…
If Granada← falls, our longstanding wish will be fulfilled,
『Reconquista』at last!
So Granada is the last thing that Arabs keeps from the invasion, once Granada its reconquered finalized the historical process of the “Reconquista”. The Granada War was won by the Catholic kings.
… they fixed their gaze on a hill – beyond which lies the Red Fortress[Alhambra]
I want to add that The Alhambra is a walled city that occupies most of the hill of Medina on Granada.
Etymologically, «al-Ħamrā» (اَلْحَمْرَاء, ‘the Red’), coming from the full name«al-Qal’a al-hamra» (‘Red Fortress’).
Heretics who look down upon the savior should all become rust × The prophet isn’t God, but a mere idol of polytheism
Here we see how the two sides fight. Both as Catholic and Arabs (Islam) are both monotheistic.
So the Catholics are telling them that because they don’t believe on the Savior (Jesus) they will be rust. (Remember that all Catholics are Christians—> They believe on Jesus Christ)
The Arabs reply that this prophet (Jesus) isn’t God, they say he was just one more of this figures they venerated (Catholics venerated Saints, but they don’t consider them Gods). They make fun of them saying that they where actually polytheists.
Islam don’t take Jesus like the savior but just a mere prophet more.
The Ebony Forces, led by the bronze wolf, the very valiant Ishaq.
The Ivory Forces, led by the battle savvy, Holy Knight Ramirez.
Now we go back to this, century XII, I think here Revo is talking about García Ramírez de Pamplona called “the Restorer” who since 1144 he help to Alfonso VII in their campaigns to reconquest specifically in the Almería campaign, which was conquered by Christian troops in 1147.
And Ishaq ibn Ali was the eighth and last Almoravid king who reigned shortly in 1147…. He actually died on Marruecos and I’m not sure they even fight one against the other, but they where the only with those names and the live on the same years. So i think it was good to add them to this… Maybe they are them, maybe Revo just pick random names, we will never know.
A holy united kingdom centered at Castilla was formed.
The Catholic Kings I mentioned before that married giving rise to the Spanish Monarchy, the kingdom was centered on Castilla.
It is my dearest wish that the neighing of the war-steeds from afar
Will not cross the fortified borders - the summit of mount Pyrenees…”
Now this is the only part I don’t quite get, and I’m open to suggestion… but lets explain a little.
The Pyrenees are a mountains that separate France from the Iberian Peninsula.
why I don’t get it? Well first by the time that Tsadi say this, looks like the “holy war” has ended. So there is no reason to believe they will cross to France.. And why Tsadi who is a nomad will care about it, and furthermore he was going to the west, so it wasn’t because he was afraid to get on a war….. so…. I don’t know here I’m lost…..
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聖戦のイベリア (Seisen no Iberia) means The Crusades of Iberia. Where (if I don’t mistake) 聖戦 It means Crusade, Holy War or Jihad.
The Jihad its a concept from the Islam describing a religious obligation of Muslims. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Jihad refers to the religious decree of war, based on the call for the Quran to extend the law of God, where one of its means is the Holy war: the struggle to defend and propagate Islam, by force if necessary. ((((I will not discuss the actual concept of Jihad, because today there is actual 2 “groups” of ideology. I will base on what it means for this time of history))))
The spread of Islam to Iberia was based on the principle of jihad, a concept expressed just fight for the true faith. The true faith it was for ones the Christianity and for the others the Islam. In the Quran the term appears in the formula ‘effort in the way of God, “in the sense of effort to reign the rights of God, that is, to defend Islam. While there were no wars of conquest carried explicitly in the name of Christianity in the first centuries of the Christian era, correlations were present on behalf of the Islamic faith.
“After General Ramirez—————!!!”
Ok this one actually its bothers me a lot!… This is the translation we had and while its exact, its at the same time incorrect!
The original say this: 「ラミレス将軍に続けー！！」 where 将軍 it’s translated to Shogun—> General…… That’s ok but the term General wasn’t use till the century XVI and XVII (a century after the end of the Reconquest of Iberia)… So why Revo use Shogun?
In Japanese history, the term shogun (Army Commander) was a military rank. Is an abbreviation of Seii Taishogun (征 夷 大 将軍 - “Great General Peaceful of Barbarian”) and was used to refer to the general commanding the army.
So Ramirez was actually a King, as a king he leader the army under his name. Not a General…. But I find a lot more pleasant the use of “Holy Knight Ramirez”, because he was in a way a knight under the Catholics Church.
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Ok I wanna clarifies that I don’t speak Arab but I speak Spanish, and I had listen a lot of time the 3 versions we have of this song, so lets put this even you all already now:
(He asked the girl.) —”ما اسمك؟(ma smu-ki?)”
So we had —”ما اسمك؟ that it’s translated to “What is your name?”
btw I can confirm that Shaytan/Revo say something that sound like that on the 3 versions of Iberia we had. Its more audible the ma smu-ki on the TTE version that the one on the CD (maybe he got better on pronunciation)
(The reply was ‘Layla’.) —”ليل اِسْمِي (‘ismii Layla.)”
Here ليل اِسْمِي it’s translated to “My name is Layla”. Layla means “Night” in Arabic.
(She returned the question.) —”مَا اسْمُكَ؟ (maa ‘ismuka?)”
Here مَا اسْمُكَ؟ it’s translated to “What is your name?”
Ok now this is really peculiar, here maybe its a personal opinion, but I’m 99% sure that he reply “Shaytan/Satan me llaman”, that’s Spanish for “Shaytan they call me"… You can hears this a lot better on the CD version, and a little more cryptic on the live ones…. I say its peculiar because Shaytan was talking all the time on Arab why the sudden change to Spanish? in any way it’s sure Layla can understand him because of her origins.
In Islam, the Devil is known as Iblīs or Shayṭān, he was a jinni (“Genie”). The shaytan jinn are the analogue of demons in Christian tradition, but the jinn are not angels (demons on Christianity where fallen angels), because according to the Qur’an angels are made from light, while jinn are made from smokeless and “scorching fire”. Iblis, who was not an angel but a jinni, was amongst the assembly of angels due to his high rank.
I know there is a “theory” that Shaytan say here is ishatmalk. in terms of the combination ishat (of proto-semitic language school "fire") and malak (of proto-semitic language school “king”) So “king of fire”.
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Well Thats all…. I’m really sorry for all this boring thing, but I learn a lot of things with this, and I feel I understand better…. and I had fun making it so….
