House of Wisdom

When the barricades were silent and the royal guards lay dead
When Marie Antoinette lost her head
They took up the king’s library
And wrote down the books on aces and threes

Its holdings built on theft and toil
The world’s wisdom gathered within its walls
All those scrolls of authority
Lost to fires and changing regimes

It was said that the Catholics were to blame
As the General Letter Office went up in flames
The royal court cowered, the Lord Mayor fled
The people left homeless, their letters unsent

The Tigris ran black; the city lay waste
The ruler was trampled, his statues defaced
Pages bled as palaces burned
The wisdom of centuries was unlearned