Lyrics Heroes of Human History - LowKey, Mai Khalil

Heroes of Human History

Al-Khwarizmi estimated the circumference of the globe
At a time when Europe thought the earth was flat
And couldn’t tell the time of day, the astrolabe paved the way
For the clock now I’m about to turn it back
Was the medicine of Ibn Sina perceived as backwards
When Oxford scholars deemed bathing a heathen practice?
History from Aristotle to Al-Kindi as we gather
Innovations of Ibn Haytham to da Vinci and the camera
Ask Roger Bacon, Galileo and Adelard of Bath
Ibn Shatir before Copernicus, century and a half
House of wisdom, books weight in gold, answers to conundrums
Zheng He sailed the sea before da Gama and Columbus
You are not who they say you are, you’re blessed with a choice
Here since the 700's, look at King Offa’s coins
You can do whatever it is that you wanna do
There’s a crater named after Al-Ma'mun on the moon
So fly
Are you all all alone, only you in history?
x2
Civilisations build on each other, not each to their own
My question: If people are equal like the teeth of a comb
Were Jahiz, Mansa Musa, Malik Najashi;
Abeed?
I didn’t think so but it seems shaabi nasi wa aneed
Check yourself, check Raphael’s depiction of Ibn Rushd
Think twice, study history, give it a different look
Curriculum’s literally littered with pitfalls of ridicule
Fatima al-Fihri founded one of the oldest still-existing schools
It’s deeper than some rhymes I’m providing for the listener
No surprise for a spitter, the word cypher came from ṣifr
Is the next Younis Mahmoud among four million orphaned babies?
What if Yusra Mardini wasn’t able to swim to safety?
It could be Steve Jobs is starving under hisar
It would be Zaha Hadid just died in an infijar
Through your veins flow Gilgamesh and Abu Nuwas
Your future’s bigger than the pain of your present and your past
Just shine
Are you all all alone, only you in history?
x2
Condemned as the wretched of the earth, we strive to be free
Fanon struggled for independence he wasn’t alive to see
The countrification, alienation, souls left so scarred
Idarat altawahish decapitations on postcards
The occupier left behind all forms of stigma
Insidious settlement of the mind is more malignant
From the ashes of war, no phoenix, that human is lost
They learnt idarat altawahish from ensuing the cost
We learnt resistance from Morheeba Korshid and Lela Khaled Learnt about Jamal
from Bu Azza, Abu Basha and Bouhired
If Abdelkader was reburied in Al-Jaza'er that’s the
Proof return will come for the diaspora of the Nakba
Not the first or the last to break free from the guillotine
Yesterday Aljazair, tomorrow Falasteen
Not the first or the last to break free from the guillotine
Yesterday Aljazair, tomorrow Falasteen
Are you all all alone, only you in history?
x3