THE REAL ARCHITECT OF THE AZERBAIJANI TAR BAKU – 2019 The real architect of the Azerbaijani Tar (essays). Baku, “Təhsil”, 2019, 240 page. The book contains essays written from time to time about the master tar player Sadigjan and his successors. The book was published with the support of the International Mugham Center. A 2019 053 © “ Təhsil”, 2019 4502020000 A40 Author: Elkhan Jafarov Doctor of Philosophy in Economics Translator: Chingiz Jafarov Editor: Aslan Kenan Preface: Lala Huseynova Professor Publishing editor: Mustafa Chamanli Honored cultural worker PREFACE Mirza Sadig – lived in the second half of the 19 th and at the beginning of the 20 th century – got involved in the musical history of Azerbaijan as a great musician playing an exceptional role on the evolution of the tar and its performance. Undoubtedly, he is considered as a “Lord of the modern Tar”. A great number of materials about the factors and the reasons that would make people think so have been written so far and it is definitely possible to find abundant proofs in the collections that have been presented to the readers. Initially, the innovations Sadigjan led to the national musical art were reasonably mentioned in the article by Afrasiyab Badalbayli. Later on, getting benefits from the thesis, the musicians could enhance the innovations with quite new facts and point of views not only in their articles, but also on their studies and scientific researches. Finally, in 2016, valuable and persuasive inscriptions were published under the name of “Sadigjan”. The major merit of the mentioned edition is that, all the ideas have not only been expressed in the mother tongue, but also in the foreign language. Thus, it aims to spread and put forward all the knowledge and realities in a more international scale. It is a well-known and undeniable fact that, his mastery skills did not only leave a great trace in the history like a striking manifestation of the period he mastered. His modernization determined to turn out gifted followers by stimulating the art of tar in Azerbaijan, instrumental mugham performance and in the 20 th century, the substantial development of the art of tar in Azerbaijan during the current period we live, resulted in adding this craftsmanship to the UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The most crucial intention and idea of the current collection is not only to emphasize the historical significance of Mirza Sadig, but also to create a larger panorama 3 Preface * Lala Huseynova of the national school of tar, to put out a well observed inheritance originated from his traditions. According to this, I would like to attract attention to the report that was published 5 years ago, in 2013, named “The development of the proficient tar performance in Azerbaijan”. The many centuries old development and path of evolution of tar helped a couple of master tar players to appear during the second half of the nineteenth and the 20 th century in Azerbaijan. Looking at the problem from a completely different point of view obviously proves that, stringed instruments being in a great rivalry with violin musical instruments, thus they gained great fame among European academic musical outline with strong volume and virtuoso performance abilities towards the middle of the 19 th century, continued to exist only in the traditional-ethnic frame and was mainly used as a conductory musical instrument. So, according to the significant point, turns out that the Renaissance of the most widespread Western instrument guitar and the tar in the Caucasian music happened at the same time and with similar traditions. So, while Spanish music stated the musical techniques and the high advance of the guitar, Azerbaijani mugham led to the same betterness of the tar. Later on, almost identical cases were observed in the improvement of those two instruments and towards the second middle of 20 th century those instruments became to be used during the concerts more than conductory ones. In the second half of the 19 th century, the fundamental reconstruction of tar by Mirza Sadig in Shusha (the conservatoire of the Caucasus) tended to be a precious accident to release national self-awareness and was considered as a civilized discovery. The invention of a completely new brand tar, could tell us about the mutual live influence of loyal music mugham and the art of local ashiqs and how they enrich each other, as well. Mirza Sadig, making reasonable changes in the structure of tar, provided a completely new figure. Hence, he considered the vertical position of the instruments more considerable than the curved one. The increase in the number of strings (first from 5 to 8, then to 13 and finally, decreased to 11) strengthened the physical acoustic 4 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar consonance of the instrument and enlarged the opportunities of playing techniques amd simultaneously, it resulted in the creation of ‘ring bow’ traits (this method is also known as bows of Sadig). Instrumental solo mugham performance on the newly reconstructed tar dates back to 1901, first Eastern concert in Shusha, when Mirza Sadig played the mugham named “Mahur”. Unfortunately, currently we do not have any recorded plays of Mirza Sadig. However, there are quite many memories about the most effective manners used by this innovator tar player (played the tar over his head or at the back of his neck). It is an undeniable fact that, Mirza Sadig as a musician and a kamancha player played an overwhelming role with his abilities. Gurban Pirimov and Bahram Mansurov – great musicians, followed manners related to Mirza Sadig in a very beneficial way, and their tapes aims at creating imagination about the traditions of solo mugham which, based on classical traditions. Gurban Pirimov left an unforgettable trace in the history for playing a number of mughams, such as: “Zabul”, “Bayati-Shiraz”, “Mahur- hindi” and also as a first solo player of “Choban-bayati”, “Eraq” and the like. A couple of performance graphs related to his accomplishment style, like: “It seems like the tar is singing on Gurban’s hand”, “Gurban is capable of dealing with the versification of tar” or “there should not be a huge difference between the playing and the singer’s voice” are supposed to mention performing style which is close to vocal mugham and it is pretty restrained. Actually, his performance was much closer to rhythmical content of mugham. On the other hand, the broad range of the instrument and the virtuous possibilities (for instance, if “Eraq”, which is part of the mugham named “Rast”, is sung in the minor third interval range, it could reach half of 2 octave), the application of brand new features caused improvisation of colorfulness and also caused the variation progress techniques of the thematism of mugham. Gurban Pirimov was the very first tar player, who took part in a new quality in the first opera of Uzeyir Hajibeyli in 1908. Therefore, at the beginning of 20 th century, the art of mugham in Azerbaijan stopped being played in a daily living environment, like in artistic musical ceremonies and even 5 Preface * Lala Huseynova weddings, and taking a giant step towards great stages, the formation of instrumental mugham style in the “Eastern concerts”, last but not the least, turning out to be the living part of operas played an immense role in the prosperity of instrumental plays on tar. After Gurban Pirimov, Bahram Mansurov could successfully keep up with the same traditions. Over the period of 50 years, Bahram Mansurov was a soloist tar player at the opera band and having this chance led him to operate further improvements. Due to the fact that musicians were accompanied not by mugham trio, but with tar, so, Bahram Mansurov decided to change the thickness of diameter in order to increase the power of volume: so he increased the diameter of white strings from 0,21 mm to 0,25 mm, yellow strings from 0,25 to 0,29, and decreased the main stem from 0,54 to 0,51. While all these innovations could help the tar to sound like an orchestra itself, the role of complex features used by a tar player like-elif, qowa, chahar, jengi, zeng, zengi-shoter, gulriz – should be mentioned as well. Speaking briefly, while searching similar characteristics of Pirimov’s and Mansurov’s performing styles, initially, the calm and mindful styles should be noted. The next significant period of proficient tar performing is transition to the European musical notes and the creation of written repertoire during 20s–30s of 20 th century. That period required to operate important adjustments and this is directly connected with Uzeyir Hajibeyli. The brand new educational procedures caused to broaden repertoire of the tar. Initially, this problem was solved by copying and adapting the works of European and Russian composers, first of all, violin lessons for tar. The special texture, style, sharp tempo etudes of homophonic-harmonic music, articulation, passages, jumps, which are not typical for tar, led to the formation of new strokes and applications in tar performance, the style of instrumentation. Hence, tar started to perform its new repertoire under the accompany of the piano and in a very short period it became an equal right member of the band consisted of the works composed by Azerbaijani composers. First and foremost to mention Uzeyir Hajibeyli, other composers and tar players, like, Said Rustamov, 6 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar Haji Khanmemmedov, Suleiman Alasgerov, Aghabaji Rzayeva, Adil Geray Mammadbayli composed new repertoire. In 1952, Haji Khanmemmedov, revealing tar to the symphonic band at his very first concert named “The tar for the symphonic band”, proved that this instrument is capable of being in a contest with this band. Currently, 25 concerts have been composed which could be played on the tar. Those concerts played an immense role to spread new virtuous opportunities of tar, to widen its tone sphere and subjects of types, so, as a result it affected a high rise of virtuous performance of tar in mugham. Thereby, the development of instrumental techniques of tar occured due to the mutual influence of Eastern and Western instrumental cultures, the living track and integration of eternal repertoire of oral mugham performance and written composed performance. Apparently, the trace formed by Mirza Sadig in the 19 th century went on in an active and creative way in the 20 th century by outstanding tar players, like Mashadi Suleiman Mansurov, Mashadi Jamil Amirov, Mirza Faraj Rzayev, Gurban Pirimov, Shirin Akhundov, Bahram Mansurov, Ahmad Bakikhanov, Ahsan Dadashov, Haji Mammadov, Ramiz Guliyev and the like. Undoubtedly, this ritual is still alive and we are definitely sure that young generation members will be able to lead those rituals to the future successfully enough. 7 Lala Huseynova, Professor Preface * Lala Huseynova THE CREATION OF AZERBAIJANI TAR Members of Azerbaijani Turk ancestry was the lord of a couple of states involving large governmental areas in the Nearest and Middle Asia and this covers the period starting from 10-11 th centuries up to the late 19 th centuries. Azerbaijani descents, as well as White Sheep Turkomans 1 and Black Sheep Turkomans 2 , Safavid dynasty, Afshars dynasty and Gajar dynasty, ruling governmental orders throughout the empire, had a great role in the history of formation and growth of cultural heritage of Nearest and Middle Asian nations. However, in fact, turkoman emperors would rather prefer their personal ambitions than national ideology under religion tag lines and values, especially, the wars starting in 15 th century kept in memory with temporary signed contracts between shia Azerbaijani turkoman lord and sunni Ottoman lords and after that while ongoing fierce, severe, cruel wars led to the considerable weakness and destroy of those countries, on the other hand, this caused cultural renaissance of Moscow and European countries, revival of national values, and the foundation of powerful empires based on a new economic philosophy. So, according to the Treaty of Turkmenchay signed after the second Russo-Persian war between Persia and the Russian Empire, on 10 February 1828 in Torkamanchay, the vast majority of the population living in the north of Araz, was annexed by various turkish tribes, but all the Azerbaijani khanates consisted of Gajars dynasty and Javanshir dynasty in Karabakh and Ganja were annexed by the great Russian empire. Although, these Azerbaijani turkish lands were invaded by the empire, the formed social and economic environment being set up 8 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu , also called The White Sheep Turkomans – Wikipedia 2 The Qara Qoyunlu or Kara Koyunlu , also called The Black Sheep Turkomans – Wikipedia in a complete miscellaneous angle endured ideological trends, kept its infiltration and did not lose the importance in the social, economic and political life of Caucasus. Thus, starting from the second half of the 19 th century, it was possible to feel strong cultural renascence in the Northern Azerbaijan which was divided into governorships. The positivity of the mentioned renascence could firstly be seen in the historical accidents that aroused cultural and scientific progress of Shusha – the capital of Karabakh, which was considered as one of the cultural ports of Azerbaijan. A lot of restored and newly opened universities, muslim religious schools, schools and colleges set off during that period. As a result of great care and attention to the spread and promotion of art Shusha turned out to be the musical academy of Caucasus. Firidun Shushinsky, a prominent professor, musician, Honored art worker of Azerbaijan mentioned in his work named “Sadigjan” that there were more musicians, players, singers, dancers in Shusha than the other parts of Azerbaijan. Just in the 19 th century, in the place of talents, there were 95 poets, 22 musicians, 35 singers, and tar, kamancha and other instrumental players up to 70. 1 All the works written by very famous and outstanding musicians were occasionally performed by singers in a marvelous way, so this led to the fame of cultural values of Azerbaijan not only in Caucasus, but also in the Nearest and Middle Eastern countries. Owning rich inheritance and being able to caress people’s national spirit, the Azerbaijani tar was truly supposed to be the crown of musical instruments treasure with its lovely sound. The facts about the appearance of Tar in the middle ages and in the Eastern countries could be found in some articles written by famous scientists. However, an Honored Azerbaijani artist Afrasiyab Badalbayli in the article named “Relation to the judgement of Tar”, pointed to the fact that the instrument “nabla”, which was found 2000 9 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 1 Firudin Shushinsky. Sadigjan. Baku. “Azərnəşr”, 2007, page 13 years ago by Abu Nasr al-Farabi, had a great influence in the evolution of Tar. 1 Firudin Shushinsky, referred to the article which was in the 15th series of the paper named “Yeni yol” (The New Path) and was published in 1929, so Firudin Shushinsky mentioned the fact that the musical instrument Tar was prepared by Abu Nasr el-Farabi (was born in the village Farab, in Jarjo and was related to Turkestan). 2 Yet, there are quite many arguments about ethnic origins and the birthplace of Abu Nasr al-Farabi in other sources. A notable academician, orientalist, turkologist, arabist, Islamic scholar, historian, archivist, philologist Vasiliy Bartold in his book “The homeland of Farabi”, noted the birthplace of Abu Nasr al-Farabi – who was rewarded as “The second genius” after Aristotle and provided a great service in the development of peripatetic philosophy, was born in Otrar, the city was known as Farab and located on the river named Syr Darya which is on the southern part of Republic of Kazakhstan. 3 Aghin Gasimjanov was a PhD, professor and a researcher of Nasr al Farabi’s roots, and it is possible to see some evidences that he was born in the military family related to the turkish tribes who accepted Islam and the best material for it is the book names “Abu Nasr al-Farabi” by Aghin Gasimjanov. 4 In contrast, Otanazar Matyakubov stated that Abu Nasr al-Farabi is originally from Khorosani Turks and he mentioned it in his book named “Farabi and the basis of Eastern music”. 5 10 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 Afrasiyab Badalbayli. On the occation of judgement of the tar. “Kommunist” newsp. November 11, 1929 2 Firudin Shushinsky. Azerbaijani folk musicians. Baku, “Yazıçı” Publishing House, 1985, page 52 3 Vasiliy Bartold. “The Homeland of Farabi”. Moscow, “AH CCCP” Publishing House, 1963, t. 1, pages 234–236 4 Aghin Gasimjanov. Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Moscow, “Мысль” Publishing House, 1982, page 7 5 Otanazar Matyakubov. Farabi and basis of Eastern music, Tashkent, “Фан” Publishing House, 1986, page 6 Saadet Abdullayeva, the PhD of Azerbaijan Music Academy, she gives strong statements about the formation of Tar in her monograph named “Azerbaijani musical instruments is conquerying the world” 1: “Despite the fact that, there have been considerably more reports about the invention of tar by Abu Nasr al-Farabi, this instrument has been widespread only in Azerbaijan and Iran”. 2 All the detailed facts about the ethnic origins and the birthplace of Abu Nasr al-Farabi should be investigated through different historical occasions. Sadri Maksudi Arsal, gained popularity with his well-founded works of art, and is a very well-known scientist, historian, linguist and lawyer especially in Russia, France and Turkey, and in his monograph “Turkish rights and history” strongly states that, very first data about the Turks were mentioned in Chinese chronicles which were based during the ages of The Qin dynasty lasting from 221 to 206 BC. The more detailed facts would be written in a couple of chronicles that had been prepared during the ruling period of Vey dynasty covering the period from 220 to 265, from 581 to 618 Sui dynasty and the period of Tang dynasty from 618 to 907. 3 As a result of the wars that had been carried out from 6th to 8th centuries by Oghuz turks, consistion of 10 military tribes, could successfully possess the majority part of the Asian areas and ended up creating Turkic khaganates and succeeded in facing immense change in a formed political and economic system. 4 The invasion of the lands was related to the arrival of some Oghuz and turkish speaking tribes which secured dominance of turkish speaking people throughout those areas. Simultaneously, 11 1 Saadet Abdullayeva. Azerbaijani musical instruments is conquerying the world. Baku, “Nurlar” Publishing Printing Center, 2016, page 15 2 Sadri Maksudi Arsal. Turkish rights and history. Kazan, “Фен” Publishing House, 2002, pages 156–157 3 Sadri Maksudi Arsal. Turkish rights and history. Kazan, “Фен” Publishing House, 2002, pages 192, 195, 198, 204, 208–209 4 Aghin Gasimjanov. Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Moscow, “Мысль” Publishing House, 1982, page 7 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov the origination and the spread of Islam resulted in the abrupt fall of Sassanid Empire. Despite all the efforts, the battles over the capital city of the Empire, named Ctesiphon, that city was consequently invaded by Muslim forces. Therefore, the longest- lived Persian dynasty, that endured for over 4 centuries (224–651), ended. The Arabic, settled in the remains of this Empire, invited not only polytheistic nations, but also the turkish speaking tribes that oppose to the existance of God, to accept Islam by force. The Arabs annexed the lands that used to belong to the Sassanid Empire to the Islamic caliphate and gained achievement at the spread of Islam, so later on, in order to continue the policy, they decided to join the battle with the Central Asian turks. 1 At the beginning of the 8 th century, after the invasion of Central Asia, the Oghuz was gradually in close touch with Iranian speaking dwellers of Central Asia and basically, from 10 th century, the term Oghuz was substituted with the term Turkmen (Turcoman). So, taking into consideration the arrival of the Oghuz in the cities like, Farab, Jarjo and Khorasan and the acceptance of Islam by the Oghuz starting from 8 th century, in any case, it is quite convincing to consider the 873 year born prominent musician, philosopher, encyclopedist, world famed scientist Abu Nasr al- Farabi as Islamic Turcoman. The spread of Tar in Azerbaijan and Iran should be related to some factors, like, the leave of the Turcomans to the political ring as a military force, taking the advantage of the decline of the Islamic caliphate and achieving a considerable change of the geopolitical situations. In the 9 th century, after the fall of the Islamic caliphate, the Seljuks succeeded in forming the Great Seljuq Empire with bringing various Turcoman tribes in common. At its greatest extent over the areas, the Seljuks were able to defeat all the insidious plans made by the Byzantine Empire and gained a victory to keep the spread of Islam and became a main weapon to support improvement of cultural heritage and political relations formed in different areas. 12 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 Otanazar Matyakubov. Farabi and basis of Eastern music, Tashkent, “Фан” Publishing House, 1986, page 6 A remarkable turkologist Vasiliy Bartold, emphasized the importance of the Great Seljuq Empire on his own words: “The great victory of the Turks was accompanied by the victory of the Islam and the Muslims”. 1 In comparison with the Arabs, the Seljuks took a different step and approach to the spread of the Islam. Thus, they were trying to stress the ethical, social and civilized advantages of this religion and did their best not to touch the local people’s ideology. Last but not the least, it is important to mention the role of the policy that the Seljuks took which tended to support the preservation of cultural heritage and its improvement to a better way. Over the period of the supremacy, the Seljuk lords, went on with the policy that was established by the Ghaznavid dynasty in the 10 th and 11 th centuries, so, they kept the persian language as a main language of the Empire and always showed great care to the usage of this language both in the literature and art, to the widespread of this language as a communicative language among other nations. The usage of the turkish language only among the turkish speaking tribes was not random at all. However, taking into account that the realization of the structure and the improvement of the language was usually carried out by the ashiqs, the philosophers and the theoreticians, the representatives of literature and art could move forward at the poetry with gaining benefit from the Persian language in order to represent their works successfully and spread them throughout the Empire. After the decline of the Seljuks and Ghaznavid dynasties, the creation and development of the cultural heritage of Turkish speaking nations in the Nearest and the Middle East is connected with the formation of Persian literature and art. As a result, despite the fact that a great number of eminent philosophers and poets were not originally Persians, were supposed to write in Persian. For instance, we can mention Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1203), Gatran Tabrizi (1010–1080), Mahsati Ganjavi (1089–1183), Abul- ula Ganjavi (1096–1159), Xaqani Shirvani (1126–1199), Falaki 13 1 Vasiliy Bartold. History of Turkish-Mongol nations. Tashkent, 1928, page 19 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov Shirvani (1126–1160) from Azerbaijan, Movlana Jalaleddin Rumi (1207–1273), Yusuf Nabi (1642–1712) among Ottoman poets, then, Pahlavan Mahmud (1248–1326), Lutfi (1366–1465), Alishir Navai (1441–1501) among Uzbek poets, Amir Khosrov Dahlavi (1253–1325), Abul Fazl Alami (1551–1602), Muhammed Gasim Hindu Shah Astrabadi Firishta (1572–1623) and Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah (1580–1611) among Indian poets. Apart from the other factors, the outspread of the mughams sung in Persian all over the geopolitical areas, led to the formation and improvement of Persian art. Bakhtiyar Tunjay explored the developmental steps of Mugham throughout the areas ruled by turkish emperors and hints at the origination of local mugham based on the synthesis and combination of cultures in his article named “The homeland of Mugham”: “The usage of some arabic (Umayyad and Abbasid) and turkish dynasties’ (Kara-Khanid, Ghaznavid, Seljuks, Mamluk sultanate, Mongols) names during the arrangement of schools and trends of mugham at various periods and places, proves that the art of mugham was gaining more fame like a noble type of art mostly at palaces, or under the funding of the kings of the above mentioned dynasties and took a huge step towards the progress. Therefore, we would highly recommend future investigators of local, historical and geographical schools and trends of mugham to approach the usage of the same terminology. So, this step would help us to swell out exceptional role of turks’ and turkish dynasties’.” Around Middle Ages, Safiaddin Urmevi (after Abu Nasr al-Farabi) had an exert influence on the enhancement and development of regional schools and trends of mugham with his scientific investigations and this should definitely be mentioned. 1 Here, after Abu Nasr al-Farabi, first of all, the work of our world-famous compatriot Safiaddin Urmavi, should deifinitely be stressed out, who had a significant impact on the improvement and development of regional mugham schools and currents in the countries founded by the Turkic dynasties in the Middle Ages. 14 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 Bakhtiyar Tunjay. The Homeland of Mugham, “Olaylar” newsp. April 7, 2009 Zemfira Safarova, a very well-known scholar, musician, at the very first part of her monography named “The science of music in Azerbaijan in the 13–20 th centuries”, investigated the life and artistry of a prominent musician Safiaddin Urmevi and indicated the city Urmia as his birthplace in 1217. According to the author, the main works written by Safiaddin Urmevi in 1256 and 1267 under the title of “Kitab al-adwar” and “Risaleyi-Sharafiyye”, could advance a new developmental level of musical theory conceptually in the Nearest and Middle East. Each section of the translated scientific papers in the monography have been deeply investigated. Safiaddin Urmevi, was a calligrapher and a chief at the loyal library during the supremacy of Al-Motesim, and could give wide information about running the foundation of music. The evidence is his Arabic written tractate named “Kitab al-adwar” consisted of 12 columns or 12 main mughams, such as: Ushshaq, Neva, Buselik, Rast, Araq, Isfahan, Zirafkand and the like. Apart from that, the great musician, encyclopedist, philosopher and a poet Safiaddin Urmevi could successfully gain fame as a player on the musical instrument named “ud” as a result of his multifaceted occupation in the musical field. Namely this instrument involves a main part throughout his theoretical study of mugham. 1 While Afrasiyab Badalbayli got his article published in the 7 th series of the magazine “Science and life” under the title of “The origin of the nots in music”, he points to the specific facts related to music. Thus, according to his article, each sound of the musical instrument “ud” has been noted with some letters. 2 All the efforts done by Safiaddin Urmevi on the perfection of the musical instrument “ud” in order to attain mugham substantial enough while being performed by musicians on the musical instrument “ud”, have been mentioned through scientific and historical sources. And last but not the least, according to those 15 1 Zemfira Safarova. The science of music in Azerbaijan in the 13 th -20 th centuries, Baku, “Azərnəşr”, 2013, page 432 2 Afrasiyab Badalbayli. The origin of the nots in music. “Science and life” magazine, 1964, No 7 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov tractates Safiaddin Urmevi was considered as a founder of the “Systematical school”. After a period of 100 years, the scientific research of the theory to the enhancement of the very musical genre and recognition of the tracks been led by Safi al-Din al-Urmavi, was proceeded quite worthily by our compatriot Abd al-Gadir Maraghi who was born in 1353 in the city Maragheh, which was supposed to be the cultural and scientific center of Azerbaijan. So, in the second and third part of the monography named “Musical science of Azerbaijan in 13–20 th centuries”, written by Zemfira Safarova, not only the great writer on music Abd al-Gadir Maraghi’s works, but also, the changes and innovations related to the development and enhancement of music were surveyed. In accordance with the author, the great composer and musician, artist calligrapher, songster and a poet Abd al-Gadir Maraghi, proceeded the musical heritage in regard to Safi al-Din al-Urmavi, and initially, gained quite good fame with “Theory with 24 parts” throughout Near and Middle East. He was also the first to classify musical genres and forms thorough in his works and could create new rhythms with the help of enriching the rhythm system. 1 The Honored Art Worker, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Orientalism, musicologist, orientalist Suraya Aghayeva, points out to the fact that Abd al-Gadir Maraghi spent main part of his life and did his works in his motherland Azerbaijan, under the patronage of Jalairid Sultanate, and the rest part of his life was spent in Khorasan and Ma Wara an-Nahr, during Amir Teymur’s reign. Sultan Uveys Jalairid always tended to gather quite prominent singers, musicians and poets at the ceremonies, so, he also signed an order to reward Abd al-Gadir Maraghi with the title named – “the unique, irreplaceable of the music”. 16 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 Zemfira Safarova. The science of music in Azerbaijan in the 13 th –20 th centuries, Baku, “Azərnəşr”, 2013, page 432 Over the period of his life, while functioning in Azerbaijan, Abd al-Gadir could finalize a couple of his works, such as: “Al hani-siqane”, “The Spring Rhythm” and the like. After the arrival of Amir Teymur in Azerbaijan, the vast majority of the art workers were taken to Samarkand. Later in 1397, Amir Teymur appreciating his talent highly decides to name Abd al-Qadir Maraghi as “the expert of music”. Keeping up with his work in Samarkand, Abd al-Gadir Maraghi could successfully write his treatise “The treasure of melodies” and all the melodies in this treatise were written based on literal numerical system given by Safi al-Din al Urmavi. After completing his work named “The Melody Collection” in 1413, he went on with the other works named “The Purpose of Melodies”, “Lahiyye” (Melody), “Sharhul-adwar”, “Fevaid-i ashara”. Taking advantages of the changes and innovations laying out the musical theory on the mentioned works, Abd al-Gadir Maraghi could invent some musical instruments and did some work to make them better as well. Thus, it is possible to find some data about the string instruments (kamancha, hijaq, rubab, rudhan) and wind instruments (white and black ney, balaban, trumpet, drill) related to that period. While one of the musical instruments described in the works of Abd al-Gadir Maraghi got to be searched by Tabriz Shirvan, the other one was investigated by mongolian tanbur and as a result of the investigations a number of similar and different features of the musical culture were found. 1 The first inquirer of Abd al-Gadir Maraghi’s manuscripts, the author of numerous articles and books related to the history and theory of mugham in azerbaijani, russian, turkish, persian and english – Suraya Aghayeva made some satisfactory points during the interview to S.Soltanli in 2015: “People usually confuse some facts about mugham. Although, the initiation of mugham dates back to the old centuries and reached a high level after the 13 th century, 17 1 Suraya Aghayeva. Abd al-Gadir Maraghi. Baku, “Yazıçı” Publishing House, 1983, pages 10, 14, 17, 20–21, 33, 38 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov those composed works were not named as “mugham”. Safiaddin Urmevi is the first musical philosopher who classified types of mugham, found names to each part but never addressed to the word “mugham”. We can include Farabi, Ibn Sina to the list who did not tend to use the word “mugham” as well. However, Safiaddin Urmevi mainly focused on either 12 cycles or 6 different voices. According to some researchers, the art of mugham dates back to the very old times, even to the period of earliest civilization named Sumer. They strongly believe that, the formation of a professional music-mugham runs into that period. In fact, mugham is a musical art consisting of a couple of parts. A number of musicians, including Barbed Ibn Sureyj, put an effort to compose some works containing 7 sections in the 6 th and 7 th centuries. So, a variety kinds of mugham were mentioned in the Gabus-Name in the 11 th century. Yet, we can also see some description of mugham in Nizami Ganjavi’s works. While, he referred to the melodies of ancient priests more, he seems not to have used anything about the word “mugham”. Although, this genre had already evolved but did not reach the top and was well known with a quite different name, the word “mugham” seems not to be mentioned in the scientific musical treatises. In 1306, this word finally got to be used as a musical term in the encyclopedia written by Gutbeddin Shirazi. Although, Shirazi was not a musician, due to the necessities of that period, he tried to leave some information about the musical theory, till 14 th century. He tended to use the word “mugham”, but did not give any single description about it. We come across not only to the deep explanation of “mugham” and the names of its various branches, but also to the way how the sounds are noted with miscellaneous signs in the works written by Abd al Gadir Maraghi. 1 Apparently, the print of some academic materials concerning the arrangement of mugham and its sections, the extensive and comprehensive interpretation of its appropriate names, the mutual association, the indication of the sounds with special signs, the 18 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 1 Suraya Aghayeva. The word “mugham” seems not to be mentioned in the scientific musical treatises, till 14 th century. “Mədəniyyət” newsp. December, 2015 analysis, invention and improvement of musical instruments is strongly connected with the arrival of mongolian and turkoman countries, like, Azerbaijan, Anadolu and Iraq to the political arena. Thus, a great number of cities in Anadolu, Azerbaijan, Iran and Iraq became a big research based and cultural center forming public relations and cultural heritage in the geopolitical area and this let Abu Nasr al Farabi, Safiaddin Urmevi and Abd al Gadir Maraghi and other coryphaeus become more popular in the world as they are considered founders of both theoretical and practical issues of Eastern music. The school formed as a result of measures taken by great people in Azerbaijan revived the widespread of the given art throughout the Near and Middle East. It is very crucial to point the historical necessity of the musical instrument named “Ud” as this played a main role in the sounding of mugham and needs to be mentioned in the improvement of Eastern culture as well. We should take a look at the position and the importance of the musical instrument “tar” in the development of mugham through various points. Thus, it is actually connected with the national conventions in Azerbaijan and the poems written in the poetic meter called “Arud”. Almost all the rulers of Turkoman origin in Anadolu, Azerbaijan, Iran and Iraq starting in the 14 th century focused on writing works in Turkoman which makes up main parts of Azerbaijani and turkish, apart from Persian and Arabic. Hence, the artistry of Kadi Burhan al-Din and Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi – who gained fame in the classical literature of Azerbaijan and considered followers of philosophical ideology, should definitely be stated. Last but not the least, those followers mainly focused on writing in Azerbaijani turkish, and is usually based on the initiator of Azerbaijani poetry Nizami Ganjavi’s works. Kadi Burhan al-Din was born in Kayseri, in 1344, was in charge of public administration for 17 years as well as a well- known military leader and as a poet basically, he was writing his poems in three languages – Azerbaijani turkish, persian and arabic. 19 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov