"It Has Been Long, My Weapon"

"It Has Been Long, My Weapon" (Arabic: والله زمان يا سلاحي wallāh zamān yā silāḥī) is the national anthem of the Union of Arab Republics (UAR), informally known as the Arab Union. It was written in the early 1950s by poet Salah Jahin, with music by Kamal al-Taweel, and became popular in the UAR's revolutionary days, particularly during and immediately following the Suez Crisis of 1956. Following the crisis, which ended with the victory of the All-Arab Army over Western aggression and their local allies and militias, as well as the expulsion of the British from the Suez Canal and its subsequent nationalisation, the song became a popular Arab nationalist and pan-Arabist anthem. During the 1986–89 Arab Revolutionary Wars, it was used by the Arab Army as a marching song; following the postwar reorganisation of the UAR, the song was adopted as the national anthem of the new union by an act of the Arab Congress, and later permanently confirmed as such in the 1999 constitution.

While Salah Jahin wrote the lyrics of the anthem, its musical composition was written by Lebanese novelist and composer Dr. Adam Asfour, its first version completed in 1952 and its final/current form in the spring of 1955. Asfour later came to regret certain compositional aspects of the current form, and in 1966 proposed an updated and arguably more dynamic melody; however, it was rejected by then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the 1955 form remains the official sheet music for the national anthem to this day. In the week leading up to the death of President Abdel Nasser on 28 September 1970, Asfour composed the all-instrumental "Funeral March of the Arab Union"; this was at the request of the President's personal aide.

which was played to a public audience for the first time on 1 October 1970, during the Death and state funeral of Gamal Abdel Nasser.