In the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford, there are two separate instances where Arab workers are singing or chanting while working. The first time happens when Indy and Sallah go to the map room and the second and better to hear is at night while they are digging for the Well of Souls. Both times the singing is the same. What do the words mean in English?

Question

In the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford, there are two separate instances where Arab workers are singing or chanting while working. The first time happens when Indy and Sallah go to the map room and the second and better to hear is at night while they are digging for the Well of Souls. Both times the singing is the same. What do the words mean in English?

Question #147497. Asked by johnnycat777.
Last updated Mar 29 2020.
Originally posted Mar 28 2020 6:32 PM.

AyatollahK

Answer has 12 votes

Currently Best Answer

AyatollahK

17 year member
713 replies avatar

Answer has 12 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.

Apparently it's a real Egyptian worker chant, and here is its meaning translated into English {the quoted source says that one word in the chant may be translated as either "on" or "upon", so it lists the word as "on/upon", and the parenthetical in the even-numbered lines are alternate translations for those lines}:

Prayers on/upon The Prophet.
And let's go. Let's go. (And come on. Come on.)
Prayers on/upon The Prophet
You, who gives strength. (Give us strength.)
Prayers on/upon The Prophet
Let's go. Let's go. (Come on. Come on.)
Prayers on/upon The Prophet.
You, who gives strength. (Give us strength.)

https://www.quora.com/What-song-are-the-Egyptians-singing-in-the-digging-scene-of-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark

Response last updated by AyatollahK on Mar 29 2020.
Mar 29 2020, 1:49 AM

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Answer 1

AyatollahK

Answer has 5 votes

AyatollahK

17 year member
713 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

By the way, from the same source, here's the chant in the original Arabic (translated into Latin letters):

Salle ala Nabi.
Wa heyla. Heyla.
Salle ala Nabi.
Ya m' ouwwe.
Salle ala Nabi.
Heyla. Heyla.
Salle ala Nabi.
Ya m' ouwwe.

Mar 29 2020, 1:52 AM

Answer 2

johnnycat777

Answer has 0 votes

johnnycat777

18 year member
124 replies avatar

Answer has 0 votes.

Thank you very much. I see this movie once every couple of years and that part has always made me wonder what they are singing.

Mar 29 2020, 6:11 PM