Azerbaijan The Arts
Azerbaijanis have sought to protect their cultural identity
from long-standing outside influences by fostering indigenous
forms of artistic and intellectual expression. They proudly point
to a number of scientists, philosophers, and literary figures who
have built their centuries-old cultural tradition.
Literature and Music
Man and woman in traditional costume
Courtesy Embassy of Azerbaijan, Washington
Before the eleventh century, literary influences included the
Zoroastrian sacred text Avesta, Turkish prose-poetry, and
oral history recitations (called dastans), such as The
Book of Dede Korkut and Koroglu, which contain preIslamic elements. Among the classics of medieval times are the
Astronomy of Abul Hasan Shirvani (written in the eleventh
or twelfth century) and Khamseh, a collection of five long
romantic poems written in Persian by the twelfth-century poet
Nezami Ganjavi. Fuzuli (1494-1556) wrote poetry and prose in
Turkish, most notably the poem Laila and Majnun, the
satire A Book of Complaints, and the treatise To the
Heights of Conviction. Fuzuli's works influenced dramatic and
operatic productions in the early twentieth century. Shah Ismail
I, who was also the first Safavid shah, wrote court poems in
Turkish. Fuzuli and Ismail are still read in their original
Turkish dialects, which are very similar to the modern literary
Azerbaijani.
In music an ancient tradition was carried into modern times
by ashugs, poet-singers who presented ancient songs or
verses or improvised new ones, accompanied by a stringed
instrument called the kobuz. Another early musical form
was the mugam, a composition of alternating vocal and
instrumental segments most strongly associated with the ancient
town of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Data as of March 1994
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