BOOK REVIEV: N. AHMEDLI, AZERBAIJANI ASHUGS AND FOLK SPEAKERS

Abstract

The most basic feature of folk literature, which is one of the most important cultural elements that carry tradition to the future, is that it is a part of oral tradition. However, even though verbal materials strengthen their foundations by being transferred to writing for permanence over time, it is seen that they sometimes contain erroneous information regarding the creators due to the conditions of the period in which they were transferred and the resources available to the compiler. Especially since there are not sufficient sources for some of the information about the lives of ashiks of the past, there may some attempts to reach predictive information based on the social, political, economic, and cultural experiences they included in their works. In order to overcome this difficulty and to reach more robust information regarding the monographs of the ashiks, it is necessary to turn to the sources that have no literary quality but are reliable due to being official documents. In the relevant study, Azerbaijani chemist Nazir Əhmǝdli, who set off with such motivation, in order to reach better information about the lives of the poets, utilized the records used by the Russian Empire while collecting taxes from the people living in Azerbaijan, and as a result, he reached the exact birth dates of some ashiks, who are among the important names of Azerbaijani ashik literature.