Art of Azerbaijani Ashiq

What it is

Several arts meet in one performer. An ashiq writes or carries poems, tells stories, sings, plays the saz and moves in dance. Dictionaries explain the word ashiq as someone who loves, and trace it to Arabic and Persian. Some reference works call an ashiq simply a folk poet and singer of the Caucasus and its neighbours. A performer's repertoire is large: about two hundred songs, roughly two thousand poems, some hundred and fifty longer literary-musical works known as dastans, and many tales. Alongside their own songs, ashiqs keep epic stories and folk songs learned from the tradition.

Origins and history

The earliest signs of ashiqs who spoke a Turkic language come from a fourteenth-century book, the Book of Dede Korkut, where the Oghuz Turks' best-known epic tale cycles are gathered. Ashiqs who sang in Azerbaijani emerge from the sixteenth century. Their music was heard at weddings, at gatherings and at festivals. Source material places the cultural origins of Azerbaijani ashiq music around the fifteenth to sixteenth century. In the twentieth century the performance moved onto concert stages and into radio and television. Under Soviet rule from the 1930s the art came under state control; it was supported and promoted, while other musical forms of the region were restricted.

Poetry and genres

Ashiq poetry is built on measured lines, and the commonest form, goshma, can run to eleven syllables. Under that heading sit several kinds of poem: one praises natural beauty and fine speech, another honours heroic deeds, a third criticises faults in society or in people, and a fourth is a chant of remembrance. The dastan is a longer work. Its name comes from Persian and means story; in a dastan the performer tells of heroes, of love or of events from history. Ustadnameh are songs of teaching with a moral point. Other named forms include gerayli, divani and tajnis.

Roles and training

Professional ashiqs in Azerbaijan fall into two groups. Performers are storytellers by trade; they do not compose verse, but they reshape the epics and legends they carry, above all in prose, according to their own gifts and their feel for local lore. Poet-ashiqs write as well as tell. They are called ustad, a Persian word for master, and many of them run schools where pupils learn the basics. Named masters of the past include Gurbani, Abbas of Tufargan, Khasta Qasim, Valeh and Alasgar. In the Soviet years a congress of ashiqs met in 1938, a large collection of their poetry was printed, and monuments and school books followed.

Today and change

After Azerbaijan left the Soviet Union, ashiqs were drawn into campaigns that presented the country's culture abroad, with state backing and tours to other countries. A union of ashiqs has spoken for the profession, and its chairman until 2015 was Zalimkhan Yagub, who also sat in parliament. Well-known performers working now include Zulfiyya, Nemet Qasimli, Ahliman, Adalat, Kamandar, Ali Tovuzly and Khanlar. In 2009 the number of Azerbaijani ashiqs worldwide was put at three thousand. The art was entered on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage register in the same period, which brought it wider notice.

How Art of Azerbaijani Ashiq is kept

An ashiq performs alone or with others. Often a balaban player, or a group of wind instruments, joins in, though the saz is the instrument that carries the art. One kind of ashiq writes the poems and epics, sings, plays and adds dance steps while performing. Another kind takes the work of famous ashiqs to audiences, singing and playing the saz, and sometimes dancing. A third kind narrates, either solo or with a saz or duduk player who dances beside him. Audiences hear the pieces at weddings and gatherings, and on stage or broadcast.

When and where

Ashiq music has no single date. It is heard through the year whenever a wedding, a party or a folk festival calls for it, and today also in concerts, on radio and on television. Source material ties its beginnings to the fourteenth century and the appearance of Azerbaijani-speaking ashiqs to the sixteenth.

The art belongs to Azerbaijan, and it is there that it is strongest and most organised, with state support and a union of performers. Individual styles differ from place to place: ashiqs from Ganja, Kalbajar, Gazakh, Tovuz and Borchali each have their own manner and skill. In the twentieth century the art also reached Georgian and Armenian audiences, and today ashiqs tour beyond the region.

What Art of Azerbaijani Ashiq means

For people in Azerbaijan the ashiq stands for more than music. The art is counted among the marks of the country's culture and is treated as an emblem of national identity. An ashiq holds memory as well: the epics and poems pass by voice and by ear from one performer to the next. Some pieces praise the land and its beauty, others uphold courage, and the memorial chants give grief a form that can be shared.

Questions people ask about Art of Azerbaijani Ashiq

See also

AityshTwo improvising akyns trade rhymed sung verse in a contest on dombra and komuzHalayA traditional line and circle folk dance kept across Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and Syria.Georgian polyphonic singingSeveral voices at once, sung without instruments at Georgian feasts and weddingsLezginkaA fast dance of the North Caucasus, solo or in pairs, named for the Lezgin people

Good reading and sources

• Ashiqs of Azerbaijan on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-11.