“When Aşiq Bəsti sang even the rocks would cry”: the legacy of azerbaijani Aşiq Bəsti

This study focuses on the sung poetry of Aşıq Bəsti (1836–1936), a woman master of the aşıq art, Azerbaijan’s musical-poetic bardic tradition. Aşıq Bəsti, who was blind, not only travelled widely to perform, but also became part of 19th century Azerbaijan’s most renowned aşıq performance collectives. She reached the status of a master aşıq (ustad) who trained apprentices, and her songs have been passed down and are still performed in Azerbaijan today. The purpose of this article is to reveal the importance of Aşıq Bəsti’s creative life and legacy. The Azerbaijani aşıq art is a form of living oral narrative that has been performed continuously since the 16th century, yet has not been studied in the global context; this study introduces this artist in translation and opens a path towards integrating the aşıq art into discussions of comparative world literature. This material for this study is drawn from scholarly manuscripts and archives as well as interviews with living aşıqs and folklorists. Methods used include fieldwork, historical-contextual analysis, comparative literary analysis and close reading. The results of the study open a window into the creative life of a rural woman artist working in a traditional genre. The discussion sets the historical and cultural stage then looks closely at Aşıq Bəsti ’s life and legacy, with a close reading of several of her poems. The conclusion focuses on the multifacted value of Aşıq Bəsti ’s poetry both as personal creative expression and as a part of broader social movements.