#balansiya

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De Salses a Guardamar i de Fraga a l’Alguer: les comarques de parla catalana una a una. 62/88: València (València, Valencian Country).

València is the capital city of the Valencian Country, and has its own shire that includes the city with all its neighbourhoods, each one with their own personality, as well as the nearest towns that are associated to the city.

The city was founded as a Roman colony in the year 138 BC, named Valentia Edetanorum. The city flourished after the Islamic conquest of the 8th century AD, re-named Balansiya (بلنسية). With the centuries, the inhabitants joined the dominant Arabic culture and replaced Latin and Christianity for Arabic and Islam, as well as the Islamic culture. Between the years 1010 and 1238 it was the capital city of the Moorish kingdom Taifa of Balansiya, until it was conquered by Catalonia-Aragon on October 9th 1238. Valencians celebrate October 9th as the day of foundation of the Valencian people, who followed a similar process to the previous adoption of Arabic culture but this time for the Catalan one, together with Christianity.

In the Late Middle Ages, València (at this point already with its current name in Catalan) was the capital city of the Kingdom of València, one of the members of the Catalano-Aragonese confederacy whose borders align almost perfectly with nowaday’s Valencian Country. As capital of the Kingdom of València, the city had its golden periods thanks to its participation in Mediterranean commerce.

Photos by morganval@freepik, comunitatvalenciana.com, nachovicent, palmera.vir, anouksfotografie.

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This is the world’s oldest national flag still in use: the Pennon of the Conquest (Penó de la conquesta), raised by the Moorish of València on the 28th of September 1238 when they surrendered to the troops of Catalonia-Aragon, led by the king James I.

The flag is 2 meters long and is made of a white cloth that time has turned yellowish, with four red bars painted over it. The Moorish troops made the flag of the conquering army (the emblem of the House of Barcelona) to show that they were surrendering, and waved the flag from the Alī-Bufāt tower (nowadays called Temple Tower), in the Medieval Islamic city walls of València.

ID: Wall paintings in the Castle of Alcañiz (Aragon) that represents the king James I the Conqueror (Jaume I el Conqueridor) approaching València, with senyera flags on the city wall’s towers.

The king talked about this event in his chronicle Llibre dels Feyts: “We sent to tell the king Abulhamalet, so that the Christians would know that València was ours, and for them to not injure anyone, to hang our flag from the tower now called of the Temple; and they said they agreed. And we went to the riverbed, between the gardens and the tower; and when we saw our flag upon the tower, we dismounted from our horse, and heading eastwards we cried from our eyes and kissed the earth for the great mercy God had made to us.”

This pennon was considered a relic and James I ordered to keep it in the church of Saint Vincent’s hospital, where it remained until the 19th century. Nowadays, it’s kept in València’s City Historical Archive (Arxiu Històric Municipal de València), in the City Hall.

The symbol represented in this flag (four red bars over a yellow background) has been the House of Barcelona’s flag since at least 1150, with origins dating even further back.

The flag of the House of Barcelona is still the flag of Catalonia, Aragon, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands nowadays (all the areas that in the Middle Ages were part of the confederacy of Catalonia and Aragon).

Source: La stoffa delle nazioni by Bruno Cianci, Vilaweb.

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A beautiful song with a very genuine sound to it: Balansiya by Xavi Sarrià feat. Sandra Monfort, Rafel Arnal and Pep Gimeno “Botifarra”. “Balansiya” was the Arabic name for València.

This song mixes modern music with traditional Valencian music, and lyrics that talk about Valencian history. In this album, Xavi Sarrià talks about the heritage in Valencian culture (mostly in music) that was inherited from the Moorish people, who lived in large numbers in the Valencian Country and the south of Catalonia. In the year 1609, the Hispanic monarchy released a decree by which all Moorish people had to either convert to Christianity or leave. By that time, one third (!!) of the population of the Kingdom of Valencia was Moorish, so as a result it lost a huge amount of population, but many others stayed and hid among the Christians.

The culture of the Valencian Country and the south of Catalonia was already a mix of Moorish and Christian elements back then, and it has continued to be so until nowadays. This is most noticeable in traditional music, which has similarities with the traditional music of Northern Africa.

Here are the original lyrics in Valencian-Catalan and the translation to English:

Una alqueria, estreles i flors abraça l’aurora un país de cançons els joves dansen, la lluna ha mudat no plores mare que el cel està albat ha mort la innocència, en l’han arrancat ja no hem de mentir per dir la veritat la nostra alegria no ens la dona el vi és l’emoció pura que ens batega al pit

A farmhouse, stars and flowers a country of songs hugs the dawn young people dance, the moon has been changed don’t cry, mother, for the sky is light* innocence has died, it has been stripped from us we no longer have to lie in order to tell the truth it’s not wine that gives us this joy but the pure emotion that beats in our chest

La teua presència és com una oració pregue morir si no visc no amb amor tot l’univers està dins de tu naveguen les barques com rajos de llum pels oceans d’aigües sensorials al centre de tot on brolla qui soc un camp magnètic sense coordenades melodies nues de cançons sagrades

Your presence is like a prayer I pray to die if I don’t live with love the whole universe is inside you the boats sail like rays of light on the oceans of sensorial waters in the centre of everything where who I am springs a magnetic field without coordinates naked melodies of holy songs

Palmes, postisses, guitarra i dolor no et posem cara però et sentim al cor gemecs sense esquema, art de resistència, veus esguerrades d’exili interior negra és l’esperança que es perd però se sent verda és la mort que no vol fer el dol ara ho entenc i no puc callar se m’eriça la pell quan t’escolte cantar

Handclapping, castanets, guitars and pain we don’t know your face but we feel you in our heart groans without plan, resistance art, broken voices of interior exile the hope that is lost but can be felt is black the death that doesn’t want to mourn is green I understand it now and I can’t be quiet I get goosebumps when I hear you sing

Una sandinga, una seguidilla una malaguenya, una granaïna la llavor germina, plora i s’extasia quan s’obri en canal la nostra ferida redades, presons, expulsions i matances no han pogut callar l’emoció amb què cantes et perseguiren però tu et camuflares prenyares per sempre les nostres entranyes

A sandinga, a seguidilla a malaguenya, a granaïna [styles of traditional songs] the seed sprouts, cries and goes into raptures when our wound opens. Raids, prisons, expelling and slaughters have not been able to make quiet the emotion with which you sing they persecuted you but you disguised yourself impregnated forever our entrails

A les nits de l’alqueria, hi ha llaüts i guitarrons pintant les penes d’alegria amb cançons de mil colors Les cantarem tota la nit no oblidarem que ens van ferir que la música és la sang, la festa i la tradició del nostre País Valencià.

In the farmhouse’s nights, there are lutes and guitarrons [traditional instrument similar to an ukelele] Painting the sorrows in happiness with songs of a thousand colours We’ll sing them all night long we won’t forget that we were wounded that music is the blood, the festivity and the tradition of our Valencian Country.

A les nits de l’alqueria a la lluna de Balansiya. (x2)

In the farmhouse’s nights, at the moon of Balansiya. [“at the moon of València” is an expression in the Catalan language that we explained in this previous post]

A les nostres festes, seguirem cantant amb la resiliència que vam heretar canviaren les lletres per negar qui eren i sobreviure a les seues fogueres memòria amputada, versos mutilats queda un dolor íntim que no hem oblidat van cremar els llibres però guardem al pit la biblioteca dels nostres sentits.

In our festivities, we’ll keep singing with the resilience that we inherited they changed the lyrics to deny who they were and survive to their bonfires amputated memory, mutilated verses an intimate pain remains, which we have not forgotten they burned the books but we keep in our chest the library of our senses.

No parle d’altres, parle de nosaltres les arrels profundes que ens van ocultar negres, jueves, morisques, gitanes filles prohibides de Balansiya els teus melismes són recitacions la pena perviu a les nostres cançons et perseguiren però tu et camuflares prenyares per sempre les nostres entranyes.

I don’t talk about others, I talk of ourselves the deep roots that were hidden from us black, Jewish, Moorish, Romani forbidden daughters of Balansiya your vocal runs are recitations the sorrow lives on in our songs they persecuted you but you disguised yourself and impregnated forever our entrails

(Repeat chorus)

*I’m not sure of the translation of this line. “Està albat” could mean that it has light, that the sun has risen (“alba”=sunrise), but the word “albat” means a child that has died in its first days, before being baptised. “Albat” could also be a literary word to mean “white”.

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Frente a su casa, me invadió ternura por quien allí vivió, no por los muros; que, de sentir piedad por donde mora quien amó, la sintiera por mi pecho.

Ali ibn Attiya ibn al-Zaqqaq al-Balansi