Today marks the anniversary of the departure of the Iraqi singer Salima Murad, nicknamed "Pasha", who passed away on January 28, 1974 of the last century, after a life full of fame and giving.

Salima was born in the capital Baghdad in 1905, where at the beginning of her life she began to listen to the Iraqi maqam and the old pastas, and she got acquainted with the choir, the chalgi, the famous singers and musicians of the time, until she had a balance of the musical heritage, and she set out to perform concerts and took her fame to spread.

Her most famous songs

The late Salima Murad presented the most beautiful songs that the Iraqi memory has immortalized to this day, most notably written by the poet Abdul Karim Al-Allaf, "Khadri Jay Khadri", "Your Heart is a Rock of Boulder", "On the Shores of the Tigris Murr" and "Oh, the Saqi to You The Complainant" and "Ya Naba'a Al-Rayhan, “Al-Hajar” and others, as composed by Saleh Al-Kuwaiti, Wudawud Al-Kuwaiti and others.

Technical journalist Ali Asaad described to "Al-Jazeera Net" Salima Murad as one of the great artists who focused on the Iraqi maqam and is familiar with southern and Arab singing. In the early twenties, famous musicians like Saleh Al-Kuwaiti and Daoud Al-Kuwaiti and others who were brilliant in the Iraqi maqam were contemporary.

Asaad continued, "Saleh Al-Kuwaiti wrote some songs for her, as well as Abdul Karim Al-Allaf, with the song" Your Heart, Sakher Jalmud, What He Longed for, "and sang it on the Crescent Theater in 1932, and when Umm Kulthum visited Baghdad at that time, she preserved the song through the artist Salima Murad, and recorded it on a rare CD.

He added, "The writer Zaki Mubarak listened to her at one of the concerts and called her (the slave of Iraq). Basha Salima is also one of the first singers to enter the radio, and she performed many concerts, in addition to the fact that she established a literary forum in her home where dignitaries from writers, poets and politicians meet. at that time".

Historical sources indicate that Salima was a Jew, but she did not leave Iraq during the days of the campaign to displace Jews to Israel, and she remained in Iraq, where she continued to practice singing until the last years of her life.

Al-Ghazali and the title of "the Pasha" and her death

She got the title "Pasha" from the prime minister of the royal era, Nuri Al-Saeed, who was admired by her, according to historical sources. She also married the singer Nazem Al-Ghazali in 1953 after a love story. Salima Murad died in a Baghdad hospital at four in the afternoon on January 28 / January 1974, while silencing her grief over the death of her husband, Al-Ghazali, she was buried near him in the cemetery of Sheikh Maarouf al-Karkhi in the capital, Baghdad.

The lady of Iraqi singing

Poet and writer Abdul Razzaq al-Rubaie told Al-Jazeera Net, "If Umm Kulthum deserves to be the master of Arab singing and the East Planet, Fayrouz, the neighbor of the moon, the harp of the sky, the ambassador of dreams, and the cedar of Lebanon, then Salima Murad is the undisputed lady of Iraqi singing, and she is the bright planet of Baghdad, which lit up the nights of Iraq." For 4 decades, during which she ascended to the throne of Iraqi singing, with the establishment of the Iraqi state in the twenties to the end of the sixties, and she continued even after her departure, so we kept repeating her most famous songs (he does not recommend passing) and (abandonment is not usually strange).

Al-Rubaie explained to Al-Jazeera Net, “You would not have achieved this success without the words of the poet Abdul Karim Al-Alaf, which touch the emotion and go directly to the depth, and his daily pickups mixed with the simple expression (my cheek is my chest, your heart is a rock of boulder and on the shores of the Tigris Murr).

The melodies of Saleh Al-Kuwaiti contributed to transforming those vocabulary and feelings into tones, and sounds coming out of a golden throat, full of Iraqi sorrow, and it is enough that Zaki Mubarak called it “the slavery of Iraq” and it deserved the admiration of the educated class and the general public alike, and it was the appreciation of the royal government that It granted her the high title "Pasha", in particular, and the Iraqi society for her talent, the great influence on her assuming that high position, according to Al-Rubaie.

Al-Rubaie said, "Her Judaism did not solve without that, in a period that witnessed displacement, conflicts and religious hatreds, and the song of your heart remains the rock of jalmud that she sang in the early thirties, one of her most beautiful songs, so that when Umm Kulthum visited Baghdad, she sang it in appreciation of her, and approaching the suitability of the Iraqi public, despite the difficulty." Maqamat.

Al-Rubaie added that “Saleema’s association with the first Iraqi song’s ambassador, Nazem al-Ghazali, endeared her more to the general public, and his sudden departure in 1964 was a painful blow that made the“ planet ”tend to sunset, but his songs have remained dear to the fans today, because Salima Murad’s songs have become part of the Iraqi musical heritage. Immortal. "