Ashug art is an event of Azerbaijani folk art and culture

Abstract

Ashug art is an event of Azerbaijani folk art and culture. The Shirvan region played a great role in the formation of this culture and art, in the creation of the poetry, music and philosophy of mysticism that constitute its basis, the poetry culture developing in Shirvan gave impetus to the development of ashig art, further enriched its artistic potential.
The history of poetry culture and literary tradition in Shirvan is ancient. These matters are also known from the history of literature. At the same time, there was a rich folk art, folk poetry, which always provided the written literature with pure, clean and national energy coming from the natural characteristics of the language. The tradition coming to modern Shirvan ashigism combines three major stages in itself. Each of these stages is associated with the name of a great personality belonging to this environment:
The 1st stage begins with Molla Gasim Shirvani, the author of the first known examples of Shirvan ashug poetry. It dates back to the 13th century and coincides with the time of the Shirvanshah state. The 2nd stage is connected with the name of the first known representative of ashug art in Shirvan Ashig Dostu Shirvani. It dates back to the 17th century and coincides with the time of the Safavid state. The 3rd stage is the modern period, which began with Ashug Mirza Bilal. This coincides with the beginning of the XX century. Mirza Bilal founded the modern Shirvan ashug school.
At present, the optimistic point between the classical heritage and modernity in the Shirvan ashug tradition is the creativity of Mirza Bilal, the father of Ashug Aghalar Mikayilov. Therefore, we can divide the Shirvan ashig tradition in relation to Ashug Mirza Bilal into two parts: 1. The stage before Mirza Bilal; 2. The stage started with Mirza Bilal.
The art school created by Ashug Mirza Bilal lives in modern Shirvan ashugs. According to H.Ismayilova, who studies ashug art in the cultural areal of Azerbaijan and clarifies the historical nature of this art as a whole, “modern Azerbaijani ashug poetry is rooted in ancient Turkish folklore and folk poetry created in this direction”.