1.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
2.
Tar (string instrument)
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Tar is an Iranian long-necked, waisted instrument, shared by many cultures and countries like Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Azerbaijan, and other areas near the Caucasus region. The word tār means string in Persian, though it might have the meaning in languages influenced by Persian. This has led some Iranian experts to hold that the Tar must be common among all the Iranian people as well as the territories that are named as Iranian Cultural Continuum by the Encyclopædia Iranica. This is claimed to be the root of the names of the Persian setar and the guitar as well as less widespread instruments such as the dutar and the Indian sitar. Though it was developed in the Persian Empire, the exact region in which it was first made. Tar is one of the most important musical instruments in Iran, the formation, compilation, edition, and inheritance of the most authentic and most comprehensive versions of radif are all worked on tar. The general trends of Persian classical music have deeply influenced by tar players. In 2012 art of Azerbaijani craftsmanship and performance art of the tar was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century in Persia. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top. The fingerboard has twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable gut frets, and there are three courses of strings. Its range is two and one-half octaves, and it is played with a small brass plectrum. The long and narrow neck has a flat fingerboard running level to the membrane and ends in an elaborate pegbox with six wooden tuning pegs of different dimensions, adding to the decorative effect. It has three courses of double singing strings, that are tuned in fourths plus one flying bass string that runs outside the fingerboard, every String has its own tuning peg and are tuned independently. The Persian tar used to have five strings, the sixth string was added to the tar by Darvish Khan. This string is todays fifth string of the Iranian tar, the melodies performed on tar were considered useful for headache, insomnia and melancholy, as well as for eliminating nervous and muscle spasms. Listening to this instrument was believed to induce a quiet and philosophical mood and its solemn melodies were thought to cause a person to relax and fall asleep. The author of Qabusnameh recommends that when selecting musical tones, to take account the temperament of the listener. The tar features prominently in Jeff Waynes Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, in the section Horsell Common, george Fenton played it on the original album, and Gaetan Schurrer can be seen playing one on the DVD of the 2006 production
3.
Kamancheh
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This article is about the Iranian kamancheh. For the related but different Pontian Greek, Turkish or Azerbaijan instrument see Kemenche, the strings are played with a variable-tension bow, the word kamancheh means little bow in Persian. It is widely used in the music of Iran, Armenia. Traditionally kamanchehs had three strings, but modern instruments have four metal strings. Kamanchehs may have highly ornate inlays and elaborate carved ivory tuning pegs, from the bottom protrudes a spike to support the kamancheh while it is being played, hence in English the instrument is sometimes called the spiked fiddle. It is played sitting down held like a cello though it is about the length of a viola, the end-pin can rest on the knee or thigh while the player is seated in a chair. A well known Armenian kamancha player is Sayat-Nova, other well known players are Ali-Asghar Bahari, Ardeshir Kamkar and Kayhan Kalhor, all from Iran, and the Azeri player, Habil Aliev. The Turkish kemençe is a string instrument with a very similar or identical name
4.
Daf
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The daf is a large Persian frame drum used in popular and classical music. The frame is made of hardwood with many metal ringlets attached. Some dafs are equipped with small cymbals, making them analogous to a large tambourine, the earliest evidence of the Dap dates back to Sassanid Iran. The Pahlavi name of the daf is dap, the word daf is therefore the Arabicized form of the word dap. Some pictures of dap have been found in paintings that date before the Common Era, the presence of Iranian dap in the reliefs of Behistun suggests the daf existed before the rise of Islam. Dafs were part of music in Iran much before Sufism. Iranian music has always been a spiritual tool and it shows that dafs played an important role in Mazdean Iran emerging as an important element during the Sassanian times during the Kâvusakân dynasty. Also there is a kind of frame drum in the stonecutting of Taq-e Bostan. These frame drums were played in the ancient Middle East, Greece, nowruz and other festive occasions have been accompanied by dap in Sassanid periods. In this period the dap was played in order to accompany Iranian classical music, daps were likely used in the court to be played in the modes and melodies of traditional music. This traditional or classical music was created by Barbod the Great and was named the khosravani after the mythical king Khosrow, recent research reveals that these modes were used in the recitation of Mazdean prayers. The modes were passed down from master to student and are known as the radif. Many of the melodies were lost, but most of those that date to the Sassanid period. Dafs can be played to highly complex and intense rhythms, causing one to go under a trance and reach an ecstatic. For this reason, they have always been connected with religion in Iran, the Moors introduced the daf and other Middle Eastern musical instruments to Spain, and the Spanish adapted and promoted the daf and other musical instruments in medieval Europe. In the 15th century, the daf was only used in Sufi ceremonies, the art of daf playing in Iranian Kurdistan and other parts of Iran has reached us by the effort of Iranian Sufis, especially in the 20th century. The daf still functions as an important part of Persian art music as it did in ancient times and it successfully encourages many young Iranians to take up learning this ancient instrument. The dayereh is an instrument that is used to keep the rhythm of the music and this instrument is smaller than daf
5.
Balaban (instrument)
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Balaban, or balaman is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 centimetres long with eight finger holes and one thumb hole. This instrument is played in Iranian Azerbaijan and in the Republic of Azerbaijan, in Turkey it is called mey. The origins of this instrument come from Armenian Duduk, which looks similar to it. Balaban can be made of mulberry or other woods, such as walnut. The bore through the instrument is about 1.5 centimetres in diameter, the double reed is made out of a single tube of cane about six cm long and pressed flat at one end. The performer uses air stored in his cheeks to keep playing the balaban while he inhales air into his lungs and this “circular” breathing technique is commonly used with all the double-reed instruments in the Middle East. The balaban consists of a stem, a reed, a regulator, the stem of the balaban, or govda, is a 280–320 millimetres cylindrical tube made primarily of apricot wood. The process of carving a balaban stem is called balaban chakma, the upper end of the stem is given a round shape, whereas the lower end is sharpened. The bore is 10 millimetres in diameter, eight holes or tones constituting a sound tone are made on the obverse and another one is made on the bottom side, opposite of the interval between the first and the second holes of the sas pardasi. Sometimes an additional hole called nizam pardasi is made on the end of the bottom side to ensure good timbre. The holes made on the stem are classified as follows, The reed made of club-rush that grows in an area is inserted into the upper end. It flattens and takes the shape of a double reed and it is tied to a 60 millimetres long and 10 millimetres wide regulator made of a willow or grape branch cut lengthways. The reed is fixed by a collar-like regulator on one side. The cap made of willow, hazel, cornel or mulberry is put on the reed to prevent it from damage and it is tied to the regulator in order not to be lost. On solemn occasions such as weddings and holiday ceremonies, a balaban-player is accompanied by a percussionist, a traditional Azeri musical group consisting of two balaban-players and a percussionist is called balabanchilar dastasi. In the past, the balaban was a musical element in the performance of mugham. It was also used in songs and funeral music. According to Huseyngulu Sarabski, hunters played the balaban to attract quails, certain types of the balaban are also used in ashik music
6.
Naqareh
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The naqqāra, nagara or nagada is a Middle Eastern drum with a rounded back and a hide head, usually played in pairs. It is thus a membranophone of the kettle drum variety, the term naqqāra, also نقارات naqqarat, naqqarah, naqqåre, nakkare, nagora comes from the Arabic verb naqr- that means to strike, beat. The instrument was adopted in Europe following the Crusades. The rounded section of a naqqara is made of baked clay and this percussion instrument is often played in pairs, where one naqqara will produce low pitch beats called nar and the other for the high pitch beats. The instruments are beaten with wooden sticks bent outward at the upper ends called damka. Naqqārāt is the name of kettledrums in Arabic countries, naqqārāt, hemispherical with the skin stretched over the top, come in pairs. Naqqarat is one of the instruments used in Maqam al-Iraqi chalghi ensembles. Under the late Abbasids and the Fatimid Caliphate, kettledrums were beaten before the five daily prayers, naqqåre can be found in different sizes in different regions of Iran, Naqåre-ye Shomal northern naqqåre, played in northern Iran. Its native name in Mazandaran Province is desarkutan, desarkutan is in fact a pair of small drums whose bodies are made of clay. Their structure is like that of a bowl, one is larger than the other, the larger is called bam and the smaller one is called zil. which respectively mean bass and treble. The diameter of the bam is about 22 cm and the diameter of the zil is about 16 cm, two drums are covered by cowhide, though in the past boarhide was used. The skin is tightened on the drums by bands made of cow tendon, desarkutan, played with two wooden drumsticks. The length of the drumsticks is 25-27 cm, the thicker drumstick is used to play on the larger drum. The diameter of the drumsticks is 1-1.5 cm, serna, the Mazandarani oboe, is accompanied by one or two sets of desarkutan. These instruments are played in festive ceremonies such as wedding ceremonies, sport ceremonies, desarkutan is not used as a solo instrument. Fars naqqåre, played in the Fars province of Iran is a larger than ordinary naqqåre. Sanandaji naqqåre, played in the Sanandaj city of Kurdistan province of Iran is a larger than ordinary naqqåre. These were also called Kuskhåne or, in Indian languages, naubat-khāna, naqqara are also found in India, where the word is pronounced nagara or nagada
7.
Azerbaijani jazz
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The Azerbaijani jazz is a popular variety of jazz, widespread in Azerbaijan. It covers a range of styles and often features a blend with traditional Azeri music. Among modern famed Azeri jazz musicians are Aziza Mustafazadeh, who was influenced by Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Isfar Sarabski, Salman Gambarov, Jazz first appeared in Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 20th century. During the Soviet period, Baku was one of the three cities best known for jazz, along with Saint Petersburg and Riga, the Eastern Jazz Band, whose performances in Moscow were advertised in 1926, included Huseyngulu Sarabski as a soloist. In 1930s, Niyazi and Tofig Guliyev created the first local jazz band, however, jazz in the Soviet Union faced prohibition and censorship from 1920 and 1953. By the 1950s, jazz musicians from many Soviet cities, looking for a safe harbour, in the late 1960s, the Azerbaijani jazz music was boosted by such composers as Qara Qarayev and Rauf Hajiyev. In 1969, the first jazz festival was held in Baku, as of 2000s, the country saw increase in jazz festivals, the music festivals such as Baku International Jazz Festival and Gabala International Music Festival are held annually. The Baku Jazz Center has been created for development and support of culture in Azerbaijan. Artists such as Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Amina Figarova, Isfar Sarabski and Shahin Novrasli achieved worldwide success, the most known type of Azerbaijani jazz is Jazz mugham, which includes a sultry combination of Mugham and traditional American jazz. The style reached its full fame in the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of composer Rafig Babayev and his Gaya Quartet and jazz pianist, dizzy Gillespie, the legendary American jazz trumpeter, reportedly lauded Mustafazadeh for creating the music of the future. Sevda Alakbarzadeh Amina Figarova Aziza Mustafa Zadeh Tofig Ahmadov Rafig Babayev Salman Gambarov Rauf Hajiyev Vagif Mustafazadeh Shahin Novrasli Isfar Sarabski Rain Sultanov Gaya Quartet Rast Jazz. az
8.
Music of Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijani music is the musical tradition of the Azeri people, from Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. It builds on folk traditions that reach back nearly 1,000 years, for centuries, Azer music has evolved under the badge of monody, producing rhythmically diverse melodies. Music from Azerbaijan has a branch system, where chromatisation of major and minor scales is of great importance. In 1920, Azerbaijani classical music had undergone a renaissance and Baku Academy of Music was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians, modern day advocates of Western classical music in Azerbaijani include Farhad Badalbeyli, Fidan Gasimova and Franghiz Alizadeh. Beginning in 1900, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis, most songs recount stories of real life events and Azerbaijani folklore, or have developed through song contests between troubadour poets. Corresponding to their origins, folk songs are played at weddings, funerals. Regional folk music generally accompanies folk dances, which vary significantly across regions, the regional mood also affects the subject of the folk songs, e. g. folk songs from the Caspian Sea are lively in general and express the customs of the region. Songs about betrayal have an air of defiance about them instead of sadness, as this genre is viewed as a music of the people, musicians in socialist movements began to adapt folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements in the form of protest music. Other instruments include the garmon, tutek, and daf, due to the cultural crossbreeding prevalent during the Ottoman Empire, the tutek has influenced various cultures in the Caucasus region, e. g. the duduks. The zurna and naghara duo is also popular in rural areas, Ashiqs are traveling bards who sing and play the saz, a form of lute. Their songs are semi-improvised around a common base and this art is one of the symbols of Azerbaijani culture and considered an emblem of national identity and the guardian of Azerbaijani language, literature and music. Since 2009 the art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, meykhana is a distinctive Azerbaijani literary and folk rap tradition, consisting of an unaccompanied song performed by one or more people improvising on a particular subject. Meykhana is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat, performers also incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands. Meykhana masters may write, memorize, or improvise their lyrics, Mugham is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrast with Tasnif, Ashugs. It is a complex art form that weds classical poetry. Unlike Western modes, mugham modes are associated not only with scales but with an orally transmitted collection of melodies, Mugham is a compound composition of many parts. The choice of a particular mugham and a style of performance fits a specific event, the dramatic unfolding in performance is typically associated with increasing intensity and rising pitches, and a form of poetic-musical communication between performers and initiated listeners. Three major schools of mugham performance existed from the late 19th and early 20th centuries - the region of Garabagh, Shirvan, the town of Shusha of Karabakh was particularly renowned for this art
9.
Azerbaijani dances
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There are a number of Azerbaijani dances used by the Azerbaijani people of Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan’s national dance shows the characteristics of the Azerbaijani nation and these dances differ from other dances with its quick temp. And this talks about nation’s quickness, the national clothes of Azerbaijan are well preserved within the national dances. Abayi is an Azerbaijani dance with its origins from Shaki and Zaqatala region of Azerbaijan, the subject matter of the dance is middle age. In this area middle-aged people are called Abayi and this kind of dance is performed by middle-aged men or women. Creators of the melody of this dance are the Shaki composers and its a little exaggerating and funny and has a slow dancing tempo. This kind of used to be performed in group formerly. Agir Karadagi is Azerbaijani melody of a dance that is created in Karadakh and it is very popular in Shaki and Zaqatala in Azerbaijan and performed slowly. Alcha Gulu is an Azerbaijani-Indian dance created between 1910 and 1920 in Shaki region by Ali Karimov who lived in Kalva village and it is performed by women and has a fast dancing tempo. Anzali is the melody of a dance which is almost created in the years 1880-1890 in Baku and it is performed slowly and for this reason it is suitable for old people. Anzali dance is a traditional dance and it is performed at the first of the marriage. In origin the old people perform this dance, but the young people besides can perform it. Asma Kasma is one of the oldest Azerbaijani dances which is current in marriage and its name comes from music by the name of Asma-Kasma and they use this music when they escort the bride to the bridegrooms home and women dance in the opposite of the bride. Its velocity is slow and a little exaggerative and full of jumps, asta Karabagi is an Azerbaijani dance with its origins from Karabakh. Its arrangement of movements is fixed and it has a slow dancing tempo, Avari is appointed to the Avari people who live in Azerbaijan. Avari dance is popular in Azerbaijan. At first it is slow, and little by little becomes faster, ay bari bakh is one of the oldest dances that is performed only by women. Banovsha is performed with his feelings, showing how the violet grows from the ground, blooms, birilyant is an Azerbaijani dance which has two different kinds
10.
Sari Gelin
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Sari Gelin is the name for a number of folk songs popular among the people of Iran, the southern Caucasus and eastern Anatolia. All versions of the use the same melody and are written in Bayati genre. The consensus about its country of origin is contested, Sari Gelin or Sari Aghjik is either a blonde tall girl or a girl from the mountains, depending on the respective lyric language. What the versions have in common, is a boy complaining to/about a girl he loves, There are similar folkloric tunes known as Gelin Ayşe. Sarı as a Turkic adjective means yellow, thus Sarı Gəlin can mean golden, blonde or fair-skinned bride. In Azerbaijani it may refer to a persons soul. Sarı may also be derived from the Armenian word Sari, the word Gəlin in Azerbaijani and Turkish means someone who comes to the family, with its root in the Turkic word Gel. It is a loan word from Ottoman Turkish among the non-Turkic population of the Ottoman Empire, like Armenians. In some Armenian versions of the song, the Armenian word Aghjik is used instead, Sarı may also be derived from the Armenian word Sarı, meaning of the mountain, which is the meaning used in the Armenian versions of the song. In Armenian, the song is known as Sari Aghjik, the Armenian word Sari, meaning of the mountain, while the word aghjik, with an equal syllable number, meaning bride or girl and is often pronounced as gyalin. Together they mean Girl/Bride from the mountains, all versions of Sari Gelin use the same melody and are written in the literary genre known as Bayati, which is one of the most popular forms of poetry in Azerbaijan and Turkey. Bayati poetry is known for its reflective and introspective prose, generally, Bayati poetry consists of lines of seven syllables written in a simple rhythm. However, There are many different lyrical interpretations of Sari Gelin among Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Persians, the song is a subject of contention and accusations of plagiarism among the countries where it is popular. At the moment, there is no consensus about its country of origin, in Armenia there are two versions of the song, Sari Gyalin versions, which uses the Turkic loan word for bride such as, The clouds pieces pieces, maid of the mountain. I could not have the one I loved, Ah, let your mother die, There you are white like milk, maid of the mountain. You look like a rose, Ah, let your mother die. A longer but less variation is as follows, Sari Aghjik versions. Thy lyrics translates to, The phrase Dont pour poison into my wound is an idiom that means dont make my troubles worse, in Azerbaijan, Sarı Gəlin is a legend that symbolizes the love between a Muslim Azerbaijani and a Christian Kipchak girl who are kept apart
11.
Tar (Azerbaijani instrument)
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The Azerbaijani Tar and the skills related to this tradition play a significant role in shaping the cultural identity of Azerbaijanis. The Tar is a plucked lute, traditionally crafted and performed in communities throughout the Republic of Azerbaijan. The tar features alone or with instruments in numerous traditional musical styles. It also considered by many to be the leading musical instrument. In 2012 art of Azerbaijani craftsmanship and performance art of the tar was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Tar makers transmit their skills to apprentices, often within the family. Craftsmanship begins with selection of materials for the instrument, mulberry wood for the body, nut wood for the neck. Using various tools, crafters create a body in the form of a figure eight. The fretted neck is affixed, metal strings are added and the body is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, performers hold the instrument horizontally against the chest and pluck the strings with a plectrum, while using trills and a variety of techniques and strokes to add colour. Tar performance has a place in weddings and different social gatherings, festive events. Players transmit their skills to people within their community by word of mouth and demonstration. In the second half of the 19th century in Azerbaijan tar undergone some renovation, one of the greatest musicians - performers on container Mirza Sadiq Asad introduced changes in traditional tar structure and form, increasing the number of its strings and bringing them up to 11. He, in addition, has changed the way the game on the container, new flowering of playing on the container begins in the 20th century. School of sheet music playing on national instruments based Uzeyir Hajibeyov, further expanded the technical, in Azerbaijan music tar was used primarily as a lead instrument in the so-called mugham trio of singers, which also includes kamancha and daf. It should be noted that the tar, as a part of mugham trio and as a solo, to date, continues to play a role in the art of mugam, traditional. Music of Azerbaijan Mugam Craftsmanship and performance art of the Tar, a long-necked string musical instrument
12.
Azerbaijani ballet
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Azerbaijani ballet is the training methods and aesthetic qualities seen in classical ballet in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani ballet originated in 1940, with the creation of the Maiden Tower ballet by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, during that period, ballet was a relatively new genre for Azerbaijani spectators, but Maiden Tower managed to attract a large audience. It notably featured the first Azerbaijani ballerina, Gamar Almaszadeh, Badalbeylis wife at the time, the ballet Gulshan written by Soltan Hajibeyov was the second ballet staged successfully at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in 1950. Azerbaijani ballet became known outside of Azerbaijan thanks to two ballets by Gara Garayev, Seven Beauties and The Path of Thunder, dancers such as Gamar Almaszadeh, Leyla Vakilova, Konstantin Batashov, Rafiga Akhundova, Vladimir Pletnyov and Chimnaz Babayeva made great contributions in Azerbaijani ballet. In 2010, the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater celebrated its 100th anniversary, on 13 October 2014, Garayevs ballet Seven Beauties premiered in United States at the San Diego Civic Theatre in San Diego, California
13.
Azerbaijani classical music
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The professional classical music in Azerbaijan is associated with name of composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov. In 1920, Azerbaijani classical music had undergone a renaissance and Baku Academy of Music was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians, after World War II, Fikret Amirov introduced a new genre called symphonic mugam. In the present era, classical music in Azerbaijan must contend, specialist music education at establishments such as the Asaf Zeynally Music School in Baku and Baku Academy of Music provide world-class music teaching to gifted classical musicians. Modern day advocates of Western classical music in Azerbaijani include Farhad Badalbeyli, Fidan Gasimova, Azerbaijan is host to many major orchestras, festivals and venues. The Gabala International Music Festival and Uzeyir Hajibeyov International Music Festival have presented annual music programmes of international status since the early 21st century
14.
Azerbaijani folk music
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Azerbaijani folk music combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan region. Apart from the music found all-around Azerbaijan, there are distinct types of folk music. Most songs recount stories of life events and Azerbaijani folklore. Corresponding to their origins, folk songs are played at weddings, funerals. Regional folk music generally accompanies folk dances, which vary significantly across regions, the regional mood also affects the subject of the folk songs, e. g. folk songs from the Caspian Sea are lively in general and express the customs of the region. Songs about betrayal have an air of defiance about them instead of sadness, as this genre is viewed as a music of the people, musicians in socialist movements began to adapt folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements in the form of protest music. Plucked stringed instruments include the saz, chang, gopuz, tar and oud, originally barbat. Bowed stringed instruments include the kamancha, woodwind instruments include the double-reed, shawm-like tutek, zurna, ney and balaban. Percussion instruments include the frame drum ghaval, the double faced drum nagara. Apart from percussion instruments, there is also this musical gemstone known as Gaval Dash and it makes a tambourine-like sound when it is hit in different points. Among the stone there are a big flat stone formed out of 3 supports. Suffice it to touch the object with a stone, musical sounds come from it. The Gaval Dash have been formed due the combination of climate, oil. The Gaval Dash can only be found in Gobustan, Azerbaijan, the earliest vernacular childrens songs in Europe are lullabies from the later medieval period. From soon after we have records of short childrens rhyming songs, the first, and possibly the most important collection to focus in this area was, Asaf Zeynallys childrens suite and Ganbar Huseynlis Jujalarim. The conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the later 20th and early 19th centuries produced a number of ballads describing events, output became a flood during the Revolutionary and Nagorno-Karabakh War, seeing numerous patriotic war songs, like Cənab Leytenant. Work songs include music sung while conducting a task or a linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description. The songs were intended to increase productivity while reducing feelings of boredom
15.
Azerbaijani hip hop
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Azerbaijani hip hop is the musical genre which became popular in Azerbaijan in mid-1990s. Its a mix of native meykhana genre of Azerbaijani music with Western hip hop, the first Azerbaijani hip-hop song Dünənki keçdi, created in 1983 by Chingiz Mustafayev, who would later become Azerbaijans national hero for unrelated reasons. During the late 2000s, rap group H. O. S. T, became primarily popular among hip hop fans. On 29 December 2011, the very first Azerbaijani national musical, meykhana Mugham Azerbaijani pop music RapRock. Az, an Azerbaijani rap and rock portal
16.
Opera in Azerbaijan
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Opera in Azerbaijan has a history dating back to the 19th century Russian Empire. The emergence of opera and ballet in Azerbaijan is associated with the Imperial Russian period of Azerbaijani history when Azerbaijanis became exposed to European music traditions first-hand. In early 1900s, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis, the Opera Theater in Baku was built in 1911. The first opera by an Azerbaijani composer premiered three years earlier, in 1908, Leyli and Majnun by Uzeyir Hajibeyov was the first creation in the opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole Muslim world. It was followed by the operas Sheikh Sanan, Rustam and Zohrab, Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu, Asli and Karam and Harun and Leyla which were written, the The Cloth Peddler musical comedy written in 1913 was Hajibeyovs most popular operetta. It is considered to be the most well-known work of Hajibeyov in the former Soviet Union, the Cloth Peddler was translated into Russian, Tatar, Chagatai, Persian and Turkish soon after its premiere in 1913. Later this operetta was translated into Polish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Arabic, French, in 1921, Hajibeyov became a member of a council for the development of Azerbaijani theaters and contributed to the improvement of stage arts of Azerbaijan. In 1925, Hajibeyov merged Russian and Azerbaijani opera troupes in a troupe and created the permanent company of the Opera. In 1932, Hajibeyov wrote Koroghlu, which was first staged in 1937, in 1935 Muslim Magomayev composed Nargiz and Reinhold Glière composed Shahsanam. The success of these operas encouraged other composers to create operas, in the 1940s, operas such as Khosrow and Shirin by Niyazi, Vatan by Jovdat Hajiyev and Gara Garayev, Nizami by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli and many other operas were written and staged. The opera Sevil written by Fikrat Amirov premiered in 1953 and a remake of this opera was staged in 1998, in 1972, Shafiga Akhundova was the first Azerbaijani female composer and the first such in the Muslim world to write an opera. Ballets by foreign and classic composers also are frequently staged at the Azerbaijan Opera, operas compopsed by Azerbaijanis includes, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Leyli and Majnun, opera,1908. The first opera from Azerbaijan, the first Muslim opera, Rustam and Zohrab, mugham opera,1910. Asli and Kerem, mugham opera in four acts and six scenes,1912, Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu, mugham opera,1912. Harun and Leyli, mugham opera,1915 Firuza, Koroğlu, opera, first performed 1938 Zulfugar Hajibeyov, Ashiq Qarib, Muslim Magomayev, Shah Ismayil, mugham opera 1919, revised 1924, revised 1930. Xoruz-bey, opera Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, Peoples punishment Golden Key Bahadur and Sona Aydin Nizami, composed 1939, fikret Amirov, Ulduz Sevil Vasif Adigozalov, Natavan, mugham opera,2003 Shafiga Akhundova, Galin gayasi. The first opera written by an Azerbaijani woman composer,1972
17.
Azerbaijani pop music
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Azerbaijani pop music had its humble beginnings in the late 1950s with Azerbaijani cover versions of a wide range of imported popular styles, including rock and roll, tango, and jazz. As more styles emerged, they were adopted, such as hip hop, rock. Classical pop-folk music enjoyed mainstream popularity during this era, with such as Anatollu Ganiyev, Muslim Magomayev. The Azerbaijani pop music experienced during the late 1970s a golden age of productivity characterized by the rise of a new generation of musicians, akif Islamzade often considered one of the most successful and influential Azerbaijani male pop artists of the early 1980s. Baku chanson, a subgenre of Russian chanson, picked up popularity for the mid 1980s, artists such as Eyyub Yaqubov brought Baku chanson to popularity in 1992. However, many artists were uncomfortable with their success, and were suspicious of the chanson label. At the beginning of the new millennium, while talent show contestants were one of the forces in pop music. The countrys entry gained the place in 2009 and fifth the following year. Ell and Nikki won the first place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song Running Scared, entitling Azerbaijan to host the contest in 2012, in Baku
18.
Azerbaijani rock
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Azerbaijani rock is a wide variety of forms of rock music made in Azerbaijan or by artists of Azerbaijani descent. Rock was greatly restricted for most of the period Azerbaijan was under Soviet rule, among the most recognized groups of the Soviet era were Coldünya, Yuxu, Eksulap and Khurramids. 1960s was the period when Azerbaijani rock was formed, leading bands of this period were namely Eskulap, Khurramids, Express-118, Pazavang and Uvet which were mainly playing soft rock and blues. Khurramids performed live in dedicated to 51st establishment of Azerbaijan State University with a cover version of I cant get no by Rolling Stones in 1970. Following first decade of Azerbaijani rock, 70s gave rise to rock with ethnic elements. Cürbəcür was founded by Jahangir Garayev, elder brother of Abulfas Garayev in 1970, other notable bands were Məşəl, Brevis and Üç Alov. However, main driving force were considered Experiment-OK and Ashiqlar, jazz fusion era ended with ASU Physics faculty band according to Hikmat Hajizadeh who played solo guitars back then. Meanwhile, in Sumgayit, Miraj and Rovesnik bands were active, the later 1970s were largely silent and few bands survived political restrictions. The early 1980s saw soft rock band Günel and Polad Bulbuloglus emergence as Ashiqlar vocalist, the latter gained union-wide popularity and toured RSFSR and Mongolia, gave concerts in Afghanistan. Other successful band was Talisman which was a part of supergroup Gaya, band played live in Moscow, during 12th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985. Later 80s saw emergence of bands due to establishment of Baku Youth Modern Music Center. Weqibond was one of these bands founded by Ibrahim Emin who would later found Yuxu, years after first festival was held in Baku in 1 May 1988 - Rock Panorama. Rock Panorama 2 festival was held in 1989, which was larger than its predecessor, about 30 bands took part including Qrimsiz, Faust, Neysan, İz, Terminal, Reportaj, Charley ATL, Minaret and etc. Soft rock band Günel was renamed into Aksiya, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rock audience in Azerbaijan started slowly to grow and groups like Unformal gained popularity among local fans. Sumgayit was credited as the main driving force behind these rock bands of the 1990s, including Yuxu, Spark, Miraj, Mozalan. Other active bands were Industry, Nemo, P. G. L. U, being more connected to Western music and availability of instruments compared to Soviet Union, 2000s saw many bands being formed including 3.14. New bands like Ferrum, The Nails, PronCon, Mechanic Fist and numerous others were fast to rise, hard rock band Bəndə hailing from Sumgayit was founded in 2008. Azerbaijani rock scene gained momentum after 2010, new genres including heavy metal, metalcore and black metal received positive responses
19.
Ashiqs of Azerbaijan
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The art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs combines poetry, storytelling, dance and vocal and instrumental music into a traditional performance art. This art is one of the symbols of Azerbaijani culture and considered an emblem of national identity, since 2009 the art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In todays encyclopedic dictionaries the word Ashiq, which one who is in love, is derived from the Arabic. Some encyclopedias define Ashiq as a folk singer-poet of Caucasus and neighboring nations, in addition to songs of his own, in repertory Ashiq includes epic tales and folk songs. The earliest traces of art of Azerbaijani ashiqs can be found in the 7th century Book of Dede Korkut, from the 16th century, Azerbaijani ashiqs have been the bearers and guardians of the national language, national identity and the music performed in weddings, parties and folk festivals. During the 20th century, ashiq performances on stages, the radio. Beginning in the 1930s, the Art of Azerbaijani ashiqs, like all folk music culture of the peoples of the USSR fell under the strictest control of the state government. As Soviet Union highly appreciated the art, during the Cultural Revolution the ashiq art, in 1938, the first congress of Azerbaijani ashiqs have been held and the large collection of ashiq poetry have been published. In modern Azerbaijan, professional Ashiqs were divided into two categories, Ashiq-performers and Ashiq-poets, Ashiq-performers, despite being professional storytellers, are not engaged in poetry. Ashiq-poets, on the contrary, along with storytelling activities, engaged also in poetry, in Azerbaijan, such Ashiqs were called Ustad, which translates from Persian as a master. Ashiq-poets have their own schools, where they teach their students the basics of ashiq creativity, famous Ashiq-poets include such gifted poets as Gurbani, ashiq Abbas from Tufargan, Xəstə Qasım, ashiq Valeh, Ashig Alasgar and many others. They had an impact not only on ashig poetry. The popular ashigs of modern Azerbaijan include ashiq Zulfiyya, ashiq Nemet Qasimli, ashiq Ahliman, ashiq Adalat, ashiq Kamandar, Ali Tovuzly, the late Zalimkhan Yagub, member of parliament of Azerbaijan and Chairman of the Union of Ashiqs through 2015, was also very popular. After Azerbaijans independence from the USSR, Art of Azerbaijani ashiqs engaged in the promotion campaign of Culture of Azerbaijan. The art also received state support, which organized tours for ashiqs around the world. As of 2009, the number of Azerbaijani Ashiqs in the world reached 3000 people. In Azerbaijan, ashigs style of performance differ in the characteristics of local creativity. For example, each representing the regions of Ganja, Kalbajar, Gazakh, Tovuz and Borchali markedly differ in their individual skill
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Meykhana
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Meykhana is a distinctive Azerbaijani literary and folk rap tradition, consisting of an unaccompanied song performed by one or more people improvising on a particular subject. Meykhana is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat, performers also incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands. Meykhana masters may write, memorize, or improvise their lyrics, the name of this genre comes from the traditional Persian meykhane, which itself originated from the Persian words mey and khane. The professional performers of meykhana are known as the Söz Ustadı in Azeri, since medieval times, meyhanes were places where poets would gather exchanging verses in an extemporaneous fashion, sometimes joking and disparaging one another. At the end of the contest, the audience determined which poet had improvised the most elegant and clever verses and these contests may be compared with modern poetry improvisation contests or even with rap battles. Meykhana was performed among the youth of Baku settlements in the pre-Revolutionary time, although during the Soviet period meykhana was banned, the poetry of Aliagha Vahid was often rhymed as a contemporary meykhana. This could be related to the popularity among the residents of Baku. Nizami Ramzi was first meykhana master to be performed in national television. However, this division among meykhana performers. With the increased popularity of meykhana in the 1990s and the 2000s, the television programs such as De, Gəlsin. in ANS TV led meykhana to popularize even more among local residents and demand for meykhana increased significantly in Azerbaijani weddings. The most known type of meykhana is verbal exchange, where some phrase or sentence forms a rhyme with the following couplets, throughout the course of meykhana musics development and commercialization in Azerbaijan, there have been many attempts to stifle the art form. From lyrical content to the cover images, meykhana has been a controversial music. Religious identity and transnationalism function to define the complexities of Azerbaijani identity in world and this complex identity is expressed through meykhana and is often contested and censored in many cultural contexts. Meykhana started to circulate on a larger scale, via cassette tape sales, TV exposure. However, as the music mainstreamed, its audio and visual content became more tamed by the government in hopes to reach a larger audience, in essence, the government attempted to clean up meykhanas content and image to adhere to the religious beliefs instilled in Azerbaijani culture. To successfully deliver a meykhana, a meykhana master must also develop vocal presence, enunciation, vocal presence is the distinctiveness of a meykhana masters voice on record. Enunciation is essential to a flowing meykhana couplets, some meykhana masters choose also to exaggerate it for comic and artistic effect, breath control, taking in air without interrupting ones delivery, is an important skill for a meykhana performer to master. Meykhana couplets are always delivered with melody, the ability to compose quickly, meaningful and clearly meykhana couplets is regarded as an important sign of skill
21.
Gabala International Music Festival
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Gabala International Music Festival is an annual festival of classical music held every summer beginning in 2009 in Gabala, Azerbaijan. The festival is organised with the support of Heydar Aliyev Foundation at the initiative of the rector of the Baku Academy of Music Farhad Badalbeyli, at this festival, musicians perform in the open air. Participants have included musicians from Europe, the US and Israel, in 2009, a contest of young pianists was held at the same time with the musical festival. Jazz and mugham evenings were held along with music concerts. In 2010, the festival was held on August, general director of UNESCO Irina Bokova was in the opening ceremony of the festival. The festival began with the performance of overture from Uzeyir Hajibeyovs Koroglu opera as in 2009, opening ceremony of the festival was charged to Royal Philarmonic Orchestra. Such musicians as Dmitri Yablonski, Yuri Bashmet, Khloe Khanslip and other Azerbaijani, in 2011, the festival lasted from July 15 to August 5
22.
Baku International Jazz Festival
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The Baku International Jazz Festival is an annual jazz event organized by renowned saxophonist and Baku resident Rain Sultanov. Many famous musicians from a dozen countries participate in the festival, countries such as, Georgia, Portugal, Italy, Israel, United States, Germany, Canada, Russia, at the end of the first festival it was announced that the festival would become an annual event. In 2006 the festival took place from 19 to 27 June and was headlined by Herbie Hancock, official Baku Jazz Festival 2007 website Reviving a tradition in Azerbaijan Mugam and Jazz Today. az article Baku-Jazz festival 2006 completed
23.
International World of Mugham Festival
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The International World of Mugham Festival is an annual music festival of Azerbaijani mugham music. The first festival was held on Heydar Aliyev Foundation’s initiative, on March 18–25,2009, Official opening ceremony of the festival was held on March 20, in International Mugham Center of Azerbaijan. International scientific symposium, international contest of mugham singers, multiple mugham operas, symphonic, the festival was concluded by gala concert, which was held on March 25,2009 in Heydar Aliyev Palace, in Baku. International scientific symposium of mugham was held during the international festival, meetings of the symposium had been held in three sections, in the end of which was published a special book. March 17 – Press conference of International World of Mugham Festival, March 18 – Opening ceremony of International Scientific Symposium in Azerbaijan State Museum of History. March 19 – Conferences of sections of the International Scientific Symposium in Azerbaijan State Museum of History, March 20 – Conferences of the International Symposium in Azerbaijan State Museum of History. March 20 – Closing conference of a table in Azerbaijan State Museum of History. March 20 – Ceremonies of celebrating “Novruz Bayram” in Icheri Sheher, March 20 – Official receipt in honor of participants of the festival. March 22 – Meeting with friends of Azerbaijani mugham in Composers’ Union of Azerbaijan
24.
Uzeyir Hajibeyov International Music Festival
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The Uzeyir Hajibeyov International Music Festival is held in September, since 2009, in Azerbaijan. Musical events are held in cities of Azerbaijan, and the main ceremonies take place in Baku. Since 1995, September 18 was celebrated as National Music Day in Azerbaijan, beginning in 2009, it was decided to hold the International Music Festival devoted to well-known Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyovs creativity. Musicians from other countries participate at the festival side-by-side with Azerbaijani musicians, performances made on the basis of Uzeyir Hajibeyovs compositions and scientific conferences called upon to learn Hajibeyovs creative heritage are organized besides concerts. The organizers of the festival are the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation
25.
Azerbaijani language
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The language has official status in Azerbaijan and Dagestan but it does not have official status in Iranian Azerbaijan, where the majority of Azerbaijanis live. It is also spoken to varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe. Azerbaijani is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan region it is based on the Tabrizi one. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe, Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, the historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods, early and modern. Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained a larger number of Persian. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects, despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature. They all criticized the overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, after independence, Azerbaijan republic decided to switch back to the Latin script. The first examples of Azerbaijani literature date to the late 1200s following the Mongol conquest and were written in Arabic script, in the 1300s Kadi Burhan al-Din, Hesenoghlu, and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as a language through poetry and other literary works. In 1875 Akinchi became the first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire and it was started by Hasan bey Zardabi, a journalist and education advocate. Following the rule of the Qajar dynasty Iran was ruled by Reza Shah who banned the publication of texts in Azerbaijani, modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan it is based on the Tabrizi dialect. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry and his most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It was translated more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku, Ganja, Shaki, Tbilisi, since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all schools of Ganja, Shusha, Nukha, Shamakhi, Quba, Baku, Derbent, Yerevan, Nakhchivan, Akhaltsikhe. Beginning in 1834, it was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian, in 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate. Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family, the International Organization for Standardization encodes North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani as distinct languages
26.
Ashik
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The modern Azerbaijani ashik is a professional musician who usually serves an apprenticeship, masters playing bağlama, and builds up a varied but individual repertoire of Turkic folk songs. The word ashiq عاشق is subjective forms derives from ishq عشق, related to Avestan iš- to wish, desire, the Turkish term that ashik superseded was ozan. In the early armies of the Turks, as far back as that of Attila, the heroic poems, which they recited to the accompaniment of the kopuz, flattered the sensibilities of an entire people. The ashik tradition in Turkic cultures of Anatolia, Azerbaijan and Iran has its origin in the Shamanistic beliefs of ancient Turkic peoples, the ancient ashiks were called by various names such as bakshy/bakhshi/Baxşı, dede, and uzan or ozan. Among their various roles, they played a part in perpetuation of oral tradition, promotion of communal value system. These wandering bards or troubadours are part of current rural and folk culture of Azerbaijan, and Iranian Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Turkmen Sahra and Turkmenistan, where they are called bakshy. Thus, ashik, in sense, may be defined as travelling bards who sang and played saz. Judging based on the Turkic epic Dede Korkut, the roots of ashiks can be traced back to at least the 7th century and this nomadic tribe journeyed westwards through Central Asia from the 9th century onward and settled in present Turkey, Azerbaijan Republic and North-west areas of Iran. Naturally, their music was evolved in the course of the grand migration, an important component of this cultural evolution was that the Turks embraced Islam within a short time and of their own free will. Muslim Turk dervishes, desiring to spread the religion among their brothers who had not yet entered the Islamic fold and they choose the folk language and its associate musical form as an appropriate medium for effective transmission of their message. Thus, ashik literature developed alongside mystical literature and was refined starting since the time of Turkic Sufi Khoja Akhmet Yassawi in early twelfth century. The single most important event in the history of music was the ascent to the throne of Shah Ismail. He was a prominent ruler-poet and has, apart from his diwan compiled a mathnawi called Deh-name, consisting of eulogies of Ali. He used the pen-name Khatai and, in tradition, is considered as an amateur ashugh. After the demise of Safavid dynasty in Iran, Turkish culture could not sustain its development among the elites. Instead, there was a surge in the development of verse-folk stories, following the collapse of the Soviet Union the governments of new republics in Caucasus region and Central Asia sought their identity in traditional cultures of their societies. This elevated the status of ashugs as the guardians of national culture, a concise account of the ashugh music and its development in Armenia is given in Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. In Armenia, ashughs are known since the 16th century onward, by far the most notable of the ashughs was Sayat Nova, who honed the art of troubadour musicianship to crowning refinement
27.
Arabic maqam
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Arabic maqam is the system of melodic modes used in traditional Arabic music, which is mainly melodic. The word maqam in Arabic means place, location or position, the Arabic maqam is a melody type. It is a technique of improvisation that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music, there are seventy two heptatonic tone rows or scales of maqamat. These are constructed from major, neutral, and minor seconds, each maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. Both compositions and improvisations in traditional Arabic music are based on the maqam system, Maqamat can be realized with either vocal or instrumental music, and do not include a rhythmic component. A maqam does not have an established, regularly recurring bar scheme nor an unchanging meter, a certain rhythm does sometimes identify the style of a performer, but this is dependent upon his performance technique and is never characteristic of the maqam as such. The maqam is a structure that characterizes the art of music of countries in North Africa. In this area we can distinguish three main musical cultures which all belong to the modal family, Arabic, Persian. The notes of a maqam are not tuned in equal temperament, a maqam also determines other things, such as the tonic, the ending note, and the dominant note. It also determines which notes should be emphasized and which should not, Arabic maqams are based on a musical scale of 7 notes that repeats at the octave. Some maqams have 2 or more alternative scales, Maqam scales in traditional Arabic music are microtonal, not based on a twelve-tone equal-tempered musical tuning system, as is the case in modern Western music. Most maqam scales include a fifth or a perfect fourth. The remaining notes in a scale may or may not exactly land on semitones. For this reason maqam scales are mostly taught orally, and by listening to the traditional Arabic music repertoire. Since microtonal intervals are impractical to notate, a simplified musical notation system was adopted in Arabic music at the turn of the 20th century. Starting with a scale, the Arabic scale is divided into 24 equal quarter tones. In this notation system all notes in a scale are rounded to the nearest quarter tone. This system of notation is not exact since it eliminates microtonal details, quarter tones can be notated using the half-flat sign or the half-sharp sign
28.
Shusha
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Shusha, or Shushi, is a city in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. It has been under the control of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since its capture in 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, however, it is a de jure part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the status of an administrative division of the surrounding Shusha Rayon. Situated at an altitude of 1, 400–1,800 metres in the picturesque Karabakh mountains, according to some sources the town of Shusha was founded in 1752 by Panah Ali Khan. Other sources suggest that Shusha served as a town and an ancient fortress in the Armenian principality of Varanda during the Middle Ages, from the mid-18th century to 1822 Shusha was the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. The town became one of the centers of the South Caucasus after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region in the first half of the 19th century over Qajar Iran. Over time, it became a city and a home to many Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and especially, along with Tbilisi, it was one of the two main Armenian cities of the Transcaucasus and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality from medieval times through the 1750s. Throughout modern history the city mainly fostered a mixed Armenian–Azerbaijani population, after the capture of Shusha in 1992 by Armenian forces, its population diminished dramatically again and is now almost exclusively Armenian. The Gospel was created in Shusha by the calligrapher Ter-Manuel in 1428, panin, the Georgian king Erekle II documented that there was an ancient fortress which was conquered, through deceit, by one man from the Muslim Jevanshir tribe. The same information about the ancient fortress is confirmed by the Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov in his letter to Prince Grigory Potemkin, when discussing Karabakh and Shusha in the 18th century, the Russian diplomat and historian S. M. Bronevskiy (Russian, С. Броневский implied in his Historical Notes that Shusha was a possession of the Melik-Shahnazarian clan, Russian historian P. G. Butkov (Russian, П. The mid-18th century foundation is supported by Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Melik Shahnazar of Varanda, who was the first of the Armenian meliks to accept the suzerainty of Panah Ali Khan, Panah khan resettled to Shusha the population of Shahbulag and some nearby villages, and built strong fortifications. During the rule of Ibrahim-Khalil khan, the son of Panah Ali khan, although Panah Ali khan has been in conflict with Nader Shah, but the new ruler of Persia, Adil Shah, issued a firman recognizing Panah Ali as the Khan of Karabakh. Less than a year after Shusha was founded, the Karabakh Khanate was attacked by Muhammed Hassan khan Qajar, during the Safavid Empire Karabakh was for almost two centuries ruled by Ziyad-oglu family of the clan of Qajars, and therefore, Muhammed Hassan khan considered Karabakh his hereditary estate. Muhammed Hassan khan besieged Shusha but soon had to retreat, because of the attack on his territory by his opponent to the Iranian throne. His retreat was so hasty that he left his cannons under the walls of Shusha fortress. Panah Ali khan counterattacked the retreating troops of Muhammad Hassan khan, in 1756 Shusha and the Karabakh Khanate underwent a new attack from Fatali khan Afshar, ruler of Urmia. With his 30,000 strong army Fatali khan also managed to support from the meliks of Jraberd and Talish
29.
Karabakh
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Karabakh is a geographic region in present-day eastern Armenia and southwestern Azerbaijan, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras. It includes three regions, Highland Karabakh, Lowland Karabakh, and a part of Syunik, the name Karabakh or Gharabagh is generally believed to originate from Turkic and Persian, literally meaning black garden. The placename is first mentioned in the Georgian Chronicles, as well in Persian sources from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the name became common after the 1230s, when the region was conquered by the Mongols. The first time the name was mentioned in medieval Armenian sources was in the century, in Tovma Metsopetsis History of Tamerlane. However, it is possible that the region had earlier been part of Orontid Armenia from the fourth to second centuries B. C. After the partition of Armenia by Rome and Persia in 387 A. D. it became a part of the Caucasian Albanian satrapy of Sasanid Persia, the Arab invasions later led to the rise of several Armenian princes who came to establish their dominance in the region. Centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau forced many Armenians, including those in the Karabakh region, to emigrate, during the period of Mongol domination, a great number of Armenians left Lowland Karabakh and sought refuge in the mountainous heights of the region. In the fifteenth century, the German traveler Johann Schiltberger toured Lowland Karabakh and described it as a large and beautiful plain in Armenia, Armenian princes times ruled as vassal territories by the Armenian House of Khachen and its several lines, the latter Melikdoms of Karabakh. The Safavids appointed the rulers of Ganja khanate from Ziad-oglu Qajar family to govern Karabakh, the Iranian Qajar dynasty reestablished rule over the region several years later. In 1813, under the terms of the Treaty of Gulistan, under Russian rule, Karabakh was a region with an area of 13,600 km2, with Shusha as its most prominent city. Its population consisted of Armenians and Muslims, the Russians conducted a census in 1823 and had tallied the number of villages and assessed the tax basis of the entire Karabakh khanate, which also included Lowland Karabakh. According to the statistics of the survey carried out by the Russians in 1823. On the other hand, the population of the Karabakh khanate, an additional 279 Armenian families were settled in the villages of Ghapan and Meghri in Syunik. Though some of the returning Armenians wished to settle in Karabakh and this took place at the same time as a large number of the Muslims of the region departed for the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. The percentage of Armenians accordingly increased to 35% in 1832 and 53% in 1880 and these were also seen as consequences of Russo-Turkish wars of 1855-1856 and 1877-1878 because Russians saw the Muslims as unreliable and allies to their ethnically close Turks. In 1828 the Karabakh khanate was dissolved and in 1840 it was absorbed into the Kaspijskaya oblast, in 1876 it was made a part of the Elisabethpol Governorate, an administrative arrangement which remained in place until the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917. After the dissolution of Russian Empire Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhchivan were disputed between newly established republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, fighting between two republics broke out. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the British command affirmed Khosrov bey Sultanov as the provisional governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur, pending a final decision by the Paris Peace Conference
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Voyager Golden Record
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The Voyager Golden Records are phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. Carl Sagan noted that The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space, but the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet. Thus the record is best seen as a time capsule, the Voyager 1 probe is currently the farthest human made object from Earth. Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space, the region between stars where the plasma is present. This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and we are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, the selection of content for the record took almost a year. Sagan and his associates assembled 116 images and a variety of sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder. The record also includes the inspirational message Per aspera ad astra in Morse code, the collection of images includes many photographs and diagrams both in black and white, and color. The first images are of scientific interest, showing mathematical and physical quantities, the Solar System and its planets, DNA, care was taken to include not only pictures of humanity, but also some of animals, insects, plants and landscapes. Images of humanity depict a range of cultures. These images show food, architecture, and humans in portraits as well as going about their day-to-day lives, many pictures are annotated with one or more indications of scales of time, size, or mass. Some images contain indications of chemical composition, all measures used on the pictures are defined in the first few images using physical references that are likely to be consistent anywhere in the universe. The inclusion of Berrys Johnny B. Goode was controversial, with some claiming that music was adolescent, to which Sagan replied. The Golden Record also carries a long recording of the brainwaves of Ann Druyan. During the recording of the brainwaves, Druyan thought of many topics, including Earths history, civilizations and the problems they face, and what it was like to fall in love. After NASA had received criticism over the nudity on the Pioneer plaque, instead, only a silhouette of the couple was included. However, the record does contain Diagram of vertebrate evolution, by Jon Lomberg, with drawings of an anatomically correct naked male and naked female, the pulsar map and hydrogen molecule diagram are shared in common with the Pioneer plaque. The 116 images are encoded in analogue form and composed of 512 vertical lines, the remainder of the record is audio, designed to be played at 16⅔ revolutions per minute
31.
Voyager program
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The Voyager program is a continuing American scientific program that employs two robotic probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, to study the outer Solar System. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their mission has been extended three times, and both continue to collect and relay useful scientific data. Neither Uranus nor Neptune has been visited by any other than Voyager 2. On August 25,2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had become the first human-made object to enter space, traveling further than anyone, or anything. As of 2013, Voyager 1 was moving with a velocity of 17 kilometers per second relative to the Sun, Data and photographs collected by the Voyagers cameras, magnetometers, and other instruments revealed previously unknown details about each of the giant planets and their moons. Close-up images from the spacecraft charted Jupiter’s complex cloud forms, winds, saturn’s rings were found to have enigmatic braids, kinks, and spokes and to be accompanied by myriad ringlets. At Uranus Voyager 2 discovered a magnetic field around the planet and 10 additional moons. Its flyby of Neptune uncovered three complete rings and six hitherto unknown moons as well as a magnetic field and complex. Voyager 2 is still the only spacecraft to have visited the ice giants, the two Voyager space probes were originally conceived as part of the Mariner program, and they were thus initially named Mariner 11 and Mariner 12. The Voyager Program was similar to the Planetary Grand Tour planned during the late 1960s, the Grand Tour would take advantage of an alignment of the outer planets discovered by Gary Flandro, an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This alignment, which occurs once every 175 years, would occur in the late 1970s and make it possible to use gravitational assists to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The Planetary Grand Tour was to several pairs of probes to fly by all the outer planets along various trajectories, including Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto. Limited funding ended the Grand Tour program, but elements were incorporated into the Voyager Program, Voyager 2 was the first to launch. Its trajectory was designed to allow flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and this encounter sent Voyager 1 out of the plane of the ecliptic, ending its planetary science mission. Had Voyager 1 been unable to perform the Titan flyby, the trajectory of Voyager 2 could have altered to explore Titan, forgoing any visit to Uranus. Voyager 1 was not launched on a trajectory that would have allowed it to continue to Uranus and Neptune, but could have continued from Saturn to Pluto without exploring Titan. The New Horizons probe, which had a higher velocity than Voyager 1, is traveling more slowly due to the extra speed Voyager 1 gained from its flybys of Jupiter
32.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
33.
Seyid Shushinski
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Seyid Shushinski, born Mir Mohsun Seyid Ibrahim oglu Shushinski, was an Azerbaijani khananda folk singer. He was born in the town of Horadiz, near present-day Fizuli. He lost his father at an age, and was looked after by his aunt Meshadi Khurzad who was a folk singer. Shushinski received primary education at a school in his hometown. Due to his talent, he joined his first musical ensemble at the age of 15. He made his first public performance in 1908 in Shusha, which proved to be a great success, at his uncles insistence, Shushinski completed another 2 years of musical education at Mir Mohsun Navvabs school and was recognized as a professional khananda. His performance was admired outside the Azeri community, in 1911 he was invited by the Armenian club Obschestvennoe sobranie to give a concert in Tiflis, first one in a series of remarkable concerts given by Shushinski in this city in the next 8 years. The money made off these concerts were donated to various Azeri publishing houses, in 1913 a vinyl record was released in Kiev containing among others several folk pieces by Seyid Shushinski. In 1919 he moved to Baku, after Sovietization Shushinski was a soloist of a drama theatre in Baku, and in 1926–1933 he taught at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. In 1933 along with Jahan Talyshinskaya, he founded the Oriental Music Ensemble which toured Russia, Ukraine, in 1933–1938 he worked as the artistic director of the Fizuli State Drama Theatre, still continuing to give concerts in Baku. In 1939–1960 Shushinski was a soloist with the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society, in his last years he was a mugham opera consultant at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
34.
Azerbaijanis
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Azerbaijanis or Azeris, also known as Azerbaijani Turks, are a Turkic ethnic group in the Caucasus living mainly in Iranian Azerbaijan and the independent Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks and they are predominantly Shii Muslims, and have a mixed cultural heritage, including Turkic, Iranian, and Caucasian elements. They comprise the largest ethnic group in Republic of Azerbaijan and by far the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran, the worlds largest number of ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran, followed by Azerbaijan. The formation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 established the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, despite living on two sides of an international border, the Azeris form a single ethnic group. However, northerners and southerners due to nearly two centuries of separate social evolution of Iranian Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijanis in Russian/Soviet-influenced Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is believed to be named after Atropates, a Persian satrap who ruled in Atropatene circa 321 B. C. The name Atropates is the Hellenistic form of Aturpat which means guardian of fire, itself a compound of ātūr fire + -pat suffix for -guardian, -lord, present-day name Azerbaijan is the Arabicized form of Azarbaigān. The latter is derived from Ādurbādagān, itself ultimately from Āturpātakān meaning the land associated with Aturpat, the Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, written in the 1890s, also referred to Tatars in Azerbaijan as Aderbeijans, but noted that the term had not been adopted widely. In Azerbaijani language publications, the expression Azerbaijani nation referring to those who were known as Tatars of the Caucasus first appeared in the newspaper Kashkul in 1880, Ancient residents of the area spoke the Old Azeri, which belonged to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. In the 11th century AD with Seljukid conquests, Oghuz Turkic tribes started moving across the Iranian plateau into the Caucasus, the influx of the Oghuz and other Turkmen tribes was further accentuated by the Mongol invasion. Today, this Turkic-speaking population is known as Azerbaijani, caucasian-speaking Albanian tribes are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the region where the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan is located. Early Iranian settlements included the Scythians in the ninth century BC, following the Scythians, the Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras River. Ancient Iranian people of the Medes forged a vast empire between 900 and 700 BC, which the Achaemenids integrated into their own empire around 550 BC, during this period, Zoroastrianism spread in the Caucasus and in Atropatene. Alexander the Great defeated the Achaemenids in 330 BC, but allowed the Median satrap Atropates to remain in power, following the decline of the Seleucids in Persia in 247 BC, an Armenian Kingdom exercised control over parts of Caucasian Albania. Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the first century BC and largely remained independent until the Persian Sassanids made their kingdom a vassal state in 252 AD, sassanid control ended with their defeat by Muslim Arabs in 642 AD, through the Muslim conquest of Persia. Muslim Arabs defeated the Sassanids and Byzantines as they marched into the Caucasus region, the Arabs made Caucasian Albania a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by Prince Javanshir, surrendered in 667. Between the ninth and tenth centuries, Arab authors began to refer to the region between the Kura and Aras rivers as Arran, during this time, Arabs from Basra and Kufa came to Azerbaijan and seized lands that indigenous peoples had abandoned, the Arabs became a land-owning elite. Conversion to Islam was slow as local resistance persisted for centuries and resentment grew as small groups of Arabs began migrating to cities such as Tabriz and this influx sparked a major rebellion in Iranian Azerbaijan from 816–837, led by a local Zoroastrian commoner named Bābak
35.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
36.
Uyghurs
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The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China and they primarily practice Islam, and are a physically diverse ethnic group ranging from Western Eurasian to a more East Asian appearance. An estimated 80% of Xinjiangs Uyghurs live in the portion of the region. Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in Taoyuan County, outside of China, significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, and in Turkey. Smaller communities are found in Afghanistan, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Uyghur is often pronounced /ˈwiːɡər/ by English speakers, though an acceptable English pronunciation closer to the Uyghur peoples pronunciation of it is /uː. iˈɡʊər/, several alternate romanizations also appear, Uighur, Uygur, and Uigur. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region provincial government recommends that the ethnonym, adopted in the early 20th century. The meaning of the term Uyghur is unclear, the Old Turkic inscriptions record a word uyɣur which was transcribed into Chinese as * > Huíhé in Tang dynasty annals. Later, in response to an Uyghur request, this was changed to > Huíhú in 788 or 809 as mentioned in the Old History of the Five Dynasties, the earliest record of an Uyghur tribe is from the Northern Wei. At that time the ethnonym * > Gaoche was used, and later, the first use of Uyghur as a reference to a political nation occurred during the interim period between the First and Second Göktürk Khaganates. The term Uyghur disappeared from records in the 15th century. Throughout its history, the term Uyghur has taken on an expansive definition. Initially signifying only a small coalition of Tiele tribes in Northern China, Mongolia, finally it was expanded into an ethnicity whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842, which caused Uyghur migration from Mongolia into the Tarim Basin. This fluid definition of Uyghur and the ancestry of modern Uyghurs create confusion about what constitutes true Uyghur ethnography. DNA analyses indicate that the peoples of central Asia such as the Uyghurs are all mixed Caucasian, the Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travellers called Sart, while Western travellers called them Turki, in recognition of their language. The Chinese used to call them Chan-tou but this term has dropped, being considered derogatory. As a matter of fact there was for centuries no national name for them, people identified themselves with the oasis they came from, the term Uyghur was not used to refer to any existing ethnic group in the 19th century, but to an ancient people. The inhabitants of Xinjiang were not called Uyghur before 1921/1934, westerners called the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the oases Turki, and the Turkic Muslims in Ili were known as Taranchi
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Xinjiang
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Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is a provincial-level autonomous region of China in the northwest of the country. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and the 8th largest country subdivision in the world and it contains the disputed territory of Aksai Chin, which is administered by China. Xinjiang borders the countries of Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the rugged Karakoram, Kunlun, and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiangs borders, as well as its western and southern regions. Xinjiang also borders Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu, the most well-known route of the historical Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border. In recent decades, abundant oil and mineral reserves have been found in Xinjiang and it is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Han, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Hui, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Mongols, and Russians. More than a dozen autonomous prefectures and counties for minorities are in Xinjiang, older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan. Xinjiang is divided into the Dzungarian Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range, only about 4. 3% of Xinjiangs land area is fit for human habitation. With a documented history of at least 2,500 years, the territory came under the rule of the Qing dynasty in the 18th century, which was later replaced by the Republic of China government. Since 1949, it has been part of the Peoples Republic of China following the Chinese Civil War, in 1954, Xinjiang Bingtuan was set up to strengthen the border defense against the Soviet Union, and also promote the local economy. In 1955, Xinjiang was turned into a region from a province. In the last decades, there have been tensions regarding Xinjiangs political status, amnesty International said that activists in Xinjiang have been arrested and tortured. Under the Han dynasty, which drove the Xiongnu empire out of the region in 60 BC, Xinjiang was previously known as Xiyu or Qurighar and this was in an effort to secure the profitable routes of the Silk Road. Dzungaria was known as Zhunbu and the Tarim Basin was known as Huijiang during the Qing dynasty before both regions were merged and became the region of Gansu Xinjiang, later simplified as Xinjiang. The name Xinjiang, which literally means New Frontier or New Borderland, was given during the Qing dynasty, according to the Chinese statesman Zuo Zongtangs report to the Emperor of Qing, Xinjiang means an old land newly returned. For instance, present-day Jinchuan County was known as Jinchuan Xinjiang, in the same manner, present-day Xinjiang was known as Xiyu Xinjiang and Gansu Xinjiang. After 1821, the Qing changed the names of the other regained regions, the name East Turkestan was created by Russian sinologist Hyacinth to replace the term Chinese Turkestan in 1829. East Turkestan was used traditionally to only refer to the Tarim Basin, in 1955, Xinjiang province was renamed Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The name that was proposed was simply Xinjiang Autonomous Region
38.
Uzbeks
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The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group, the largest Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan but are found as a minority group in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia. Uzbek diaspora communities also exist in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the origin of the word Uzbek remains disputed. One view holds that it is named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg. Another states that the name means independent or the lord itself, from Oʻz, before, 5th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was part of Sogdia, mainly inhabited by Sogdians, an Indo-Iranian people. It was part of the Achaemenid Empire and later part of Sasanian Empire, from 5th to 6th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was part of the Hephthalite Empire. From 6th to 8th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was under the rule of Göktürk Khanate, Turkic and Chinese migration into central Asia occurred during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, and Chinese armies commanded by Turkic generals stationed in large parts of central Asia. But Chinese influence ended with the An Lushan rebellion, from the 9th century on, Transoxania was under the rule of Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate, their arrival in Transoxania signalled a definitive shift from Iranian to Turkic predominance in Central Asia. Kara-Khanid ruler Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan was the first Turkic ruler to convert Islam, in the 12th century, Transoxania was conquered by Qara Khitai, a sinicized Khitan dynasty, they brought to Central Asia the Chinese system of government. In the 13th century, Kara-Khanid Khanate was destroyed by the Turkic Khwarazmian dynasty, the language-shift from Middle Iranian to Turkic and New Persian was predominantly the result of an elite dominance process. This process was boosted during the Mongol conquest when millions were either killed or pushed further south to the Pamir region. The modern Uzbek language is derived from the Chagatai language which gained prominence in the Timurid Empire. The modern Uzbek population represents varying degrees of diversity derived from the high traffic routes through Central Asia. Once populated by Iranian tribes and other Indo-European people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Mongolia that would affect the region. According to recent genetic genealogy testing from a University of Oxford study, high levels of haplogroup 10 and its derivative, haplogroup 36, are found in most of the Altaic-speaking populations and are a good indicator of the genetic impact of these nomadic groups. The difference could be due to the density of the different geographical areas. Eastern regions of Central Asia must have had a low density at the time. Thus, the estimate from North-East Asia is high in the east
39.
Tajiks
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Tajik is a general designation for a wide range of Persian-speaking people of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Alternative names for the Tajiks are Fārsī, Fārsīwān, and Dīhgān, not all Tajiks speak a variety of modern Persian. They may speak any one of the extant Iranian languages, for example, the Tajiks of China are actually Pamiris and speak the Eastern Iranic Pamiri languages and are distinct from more western Tajiks. The Bactrian and the Sogdian people are the ancestors of modern-day Tajiks. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm and Bactria, over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to Farsi, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. In later works, Frye expands on the complexity of the origins of the Tajiks. The geographical division between the eastern and western Iranians is often considered historically and currently to be the desert Dasht-e Kavir, according to Encyclopaedia Iranica, The most plausible and generally accepted origin of the word is Middle Persian tāzīk ‘Arab’, or an Iranian cognate word. Hence the Turks of Central Asia adopted a variant of the Iranian word, täžik, for example, the rulers of the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and Rashtrakuta dynasty also referred to the Arabs as Tajika in the 8th and 9th century. Iranians soon accepted it as an ethnonym, as is shown by a Persian court official’s referring to mā tāzikān “we Tajiks”, the distinction between Turk and Tajik became stereotyped to express the symbiosis and rivalry of the nomadic military executive and the urban civil bureaucracy. The 15th century Turkic-speaking poet Mīr Alī Šer Navāī also used Tajik as a reference to Persians, Tajiks are a substantial minority in Uzbekistan, as well as in overseas communities. Historically, the ancestors of the Tajiks lived in a territory in Central Asia than now. According to the World Factbook, Tajiks make up about 27% of the population in Afghanistan, although in the past, some non-Pashto speaking tribes were identified as Tajik, for example the Furmuli. Tajiks comprise around 79. 9% of the population of Tajikistan, in the 1926 and 1937 Soviet censuses, the Yaghnobis and Pamiri language speakers were counted as separate nationalities. After 1937, these groups were required to register as Tajiks, according to official statistics, Surxondaryo Province accounts for 24. 4% of all Tajiks in Uzbekistan, with another 34. 3% in Samarqand and Bukhara provinces. Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 5% of the total population. However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks who, for a variety of reasons and it is only in the last population census that the nationality could be reported not according to the passport, but freely declared on the basis of the respondents ethnic self-identification. This had the effect of increasing the Tajik population in Uzbekistan from 3. 9% in 1979 to 4. 7% in 1989, expert estimates suggest that Tajiks may make up 35% of Uzbekistans population. According to the 1999 population census, there were 26,000 Tajiks in Kazakhstan, according to official statistics, there were about 47,500 Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan in 2007, up from 42,600 in the 1999 census and 33,500 in the 1989 census
40.
Uzeyir Hajibeyov
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Uzeyir bey Abdul Huseyn oglu Hajibeyov was an Azerbaijani composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure from Azerbaijan. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani composed classical music, Uzeyir Hajibeyov composed the music of the national anthem of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. He also composed the anthem used by Azerbaijan during the Soviet period and he was the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world. Uzeyir Hajibeyov was born in Agjabadi in the Elisabethpol Governorate of the Russian Empire and his father, Abdul Huseyn Hajibeyov, was the secretary to Khurshidbanu Natavan for many years, and his mother, Shirin, grew up in the Natavan household. Growing up, Hajibeyov was strongly influenced by Natavans work, Shusha, often dubbed as the cradle of Azerbaijani music and culture, had a reputation for its musical heritage. The town was referred to as the Music Conservatory of the Caucasus because of its many talented musicians. And the fact that Hajibeyov grew up in Shusha explains how at 22, in 1908, with little formal musical education. Hajibeyov received his education in a religious school, where he perfected his Arabic. Later he studied at a two-year Russian-Azerbaijani school, here, with the help of his favourite teacher Mirza Mehdi Hasanzadeh, he familiarized himself with the heritage of the famous classic writers of the East and the West. The richness of the performance tradition of Shusha greatly influenced the musical education of Uzeyir Hajibeyov. He would later reflect on his experiences, The first musical education I got as a child in Shusha came from best singers and saz-players, at that time I sang mughams and tasnifs. They would make me sing and teach me at the same time, Uzeyir Hajibeyovs first teacher was his uncle Agalar Aliverdibeyov, an excellent connoisseur of Azeri folk music. In 1897–1898, when Azerbaijani playwright Abdurrahim Hagverdiyev and singer Jabbar Garyagdyoglu staged the episode Majnun on Leylis grave from Leyli and Majnun, from 1899 to 1904 Uzeyir Hajibeyov studied at the Gori Pedagogical Seminary. There, along with education, he also acquired music. In this school Hajibeyov learned to play the violin, the violoncello, after his graduation from the Pedagogical Seminary, Uzeyir Hajibeyov was appointed a teacher to the village of Hadrut in Upper Karabakh. Having worked there for a year, Hajibeyov permanently settled in Baku, where he carried on his career in teaching mathematics, geography, history, Azeri and Russian languages, and music. Hajibeyov was no stranger to the chaos of war, he lived through the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the fall of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1920. The political repercussions of these military conquests often manifested in forms of chaos
41.
Prayer
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Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. Prayer can be a form of practice, may be either individual or communal. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence, when language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving. Thus, people pray for many such as personal benefit, asking for divine grace, spiritual connection. Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced a form of prayer, scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. Meta-studies of the studies in this field have been performed showing evidence only for no effect or a small effect. Some studies have indicated increased medical complications in groups receiving prayer over those without, the efficacy of petition in prayer for physical healing to a deity has been evaluated in numerous other studies, with contradictory results. There has been criticism of the way the studies were conducted. The act of prayer is attested in sources as early as 5000 years ago. Some anthropologists, such as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer, various spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotional acts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals, some Christians bow their heads and fold their hands. Some Native Americans regard dancing as a form of prayer, Jewish prayer may involve swaying back and forth and bowing. Muslims practice salat in their prayers, some pray according to standardized rituals and liturgies, while others prefer extemporaneous prayers. Friedrich Heiler is often cited in Christian circles for his systematic Typology of Prayer which lists six types of prayer, primitive, ritual, Greek cultural, philosophical, mystical, some forms of prayer require a prior ritualistic form of cleansing or purification such as in ghusl and wudhu. Prayer may be privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of fellow believers. Prayer can be incorporated into a daily life, in which one is in constant communication with a god. Some people pray throughout all that is happening during the day and this is actually regarded as a requirement in several Christian denominations, although enforcement is not possible nor desirable
42.
Lullaby
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A lullaby, or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music, usually played for or sung to children. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition, perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants. As a result, the music is simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in countries, and have existed since ancient times. Lullabies tend to share exaggerated melodic tendencies, including simple pitch contours, large pitch ranges and these clarify and convey heightened emotions, usually of love or affection. When there is harmony, infants almost always prefer consonant intervals over dissonant intervals, furthermore, if there is a sequence of dissonant intervals in a song, an infant will usually lose interest and it becomes very difficult to regain its attention. To reflect this, most lullabies contain primarily consonant intervals, tonally, most lullabies are simple, often merely alternating tonic and dominant harmonies. In addition to pitch tendencies, lullabies share several structural similarities, the most frequent tendencies are intermittent repetitions and long pauses between sections. This dilutes the rate of material and appeals to infants slower capacity for processing music, lullabies are usually in triple meter or 6/8 time, giving them a characteristic swinging or rocking motion. This mimics the movement a baby experiences in the womb as a mother moves, in addition, infants preference for rhythm shares a strong connection with what they hear when they are bounced, and even their own body movements. The tempos of lullabies tend to be slow, and the utterances are short. Again, this aids in the processing of the song. Lullabies almost never have instrumental accompaniments, infants have shown a strong preference for unaccompanied lullabies over accompanied lullabies. Again, this appeals to more limited ability to process information. Lullabies are often used for their nature, even for non-infants. One study found lullabies to be the most successful type of music or sound for relieving stress and these characteristics tend to be consistent across cultures. It was found that adults of various cultural backgrounds could recognize, infants have shown a strong preferences for songs with these qualities. Lullabies are often used to pass down or strengthen cultural roles and practices, in an observation of the setting of lullabies in Albanian culture, lullabies tended to be paired with the rocking of the child in a cradle
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