I'm a little behind this stream by several years...I too remember this as Ivan Skavinski Skavar. My father used to sing it to me in the early sixties when I was a little boy, under the gas light in my bedroom in Manchester, as I drifted into slumber. This was before the opening up of information on tv and the www and always evoked a colourful and atmospheric picture in my head of happenings in the far/middle east. The song always sent a tingle down my spine as one verse grew into another. I now marvel, myself performing an amateur singing career, at the abilities of my father. I believe that this song was part of an early thirties musical but not absolutely certain on this. Its amazing after all these years (45) how I can remember the words and melody.