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THE REAL ARCHITECT OF THE AZERBAIJANI TAR BAKU – 2019 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 A40 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. 4502020000 © “Təhsil”, 2019 A 2019 053 PREFACE Mirza Sadig – lived in the second half of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th 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 3 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 Preface * Lala Huseynova 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 20th 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 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 20th 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 19th 4 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 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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 20th century those instruments became to be used during the concerts more than conductory ones. In the second half of the 19th 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 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, 5 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 Preface * Lala Huseynova 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 20th century, the art of mugham in Azerbaijan stopped being played in a daily living environment, like in artistic musical ceremonies and even 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 6 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 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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 20th 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, 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 7 performance. Apparently, the trace formed by Mirza Sadig in the 19th century went on in an active and creative way in the 20th century by outstanding tar players, like Mashadi Suleiman Mansurov, Mashadi Jamil Amirov, Mirza Faraj Rzayev, Gurban Pirimov, Shirin Akhundov, Bahram Mansurov, Ahmad Bakikhanov, Ahsan Preface * Lala Huseynova 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. Lala Huseynova, Professor 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 10-11th centuries up to the late 19th centuries. Azerbaijani descents, as well as White Sheep Turkomans1 and Black Sheep Turkomans2, 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 8 personal ambitions than national ideology under religion tag lines and values, especially, the wars starting in 15th century kept in memory with temporary signed contracts between shia Azerbaijani The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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 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 19th 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. 9 Firidun Shushinsky, a prominent professor, musician, Honored The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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 19th 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 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 – 10 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 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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 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 11 first data about the Turks were mentioned in Chinese chronicles The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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, 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 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 8th century, after the invasion of Central Asia, the Oghuz was gradually in close touch with Iranian 12 speaking dwellers of Central Asia and basically, from 10th century, the term Oghuz was substituted with the term Turkmen (Turcoman). So, taking into consideration the arrival of the Oghuz The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar in the cities like, Farab, Jarjo and Khorasan and the acceptance of Islam by the Oghuz starting from 8th 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 9th 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. 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 10th and 11th centuries, so, they kept the persian language as a 13 main language of the Empire and always showed great care to the The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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 1 Vasiliy Bartold. History of Turkish-Mongol nations. Tashkent, 1928, page 19 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 14 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 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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. 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 13–20th 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 15 is his Arabic written tractate named “Kitab al-adwar” consisted of The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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 7th 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 1 Zemfira Safarova. The science of music in Azerbaijan in the 13th-20th centuries, Baku, “Azərnəşr”, 2013, page 432 2 Afrasiyab Badalbayli. The origin of the nots in music. “Science and life” magazine, 1964, No 7 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 13–20th 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. 16 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 The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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”. 1 Zemfira Safarova. The science of music in Azerbaijan in the 13th–20th 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”. 17 Taking advantages of the changes and innovations laying out The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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 13th century, 1 Suraya Aghayeva. Abd al-Gadir Maraghi. Baku, “Yazıçı” Publishing House, 1983, pages 10, 14, 17, 20–21, 33, 38 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 6th and 7th 18 centuries. So, a variety kinds of mugham were mentioned in the Gabus-Name in the 11th century. Yet, we can also see some description of mugham in Nizami Ganjavi’s works. While, he The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar 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 14th 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 1 Suraya Aghayeva. The word “mugham” seems not to be mentioned in the scientific musical treatises, till 14th 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 19 instrument named “Ud” as this played a main role in the sounding The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 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 14th 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. A professor and a talanted investigator of Azerbaijani literature in the medieval times Yaqub Babayev stressed satisfactory points in his knowledge-based monograph which was published in 2009 and was named “The path to the better improvement of 13 and 14th centuries lyrical poem”. Thus, according to him “The majesty was among the earliest ones who pursued I.Hasanoghlu and Safi-ad-din Ardabili with dignity and we could get his divan (selected poems of a poet) in Azerbaijani turkish. The only copy of his divan is currently preserved at the British Museum in London. Yet, the notes given in the preamble prove that this book of the divan was retyped in 1393, by a calligrapher Khalil bey Muhammed even when Kadi Burhan al-Din was alive. Yet, a couple of changes were made in this book, the investigators 20 strongly believe that those changes regard to the poet themselves. Well, we can find 1319 ghazal, 20 ruba’i, 108 tuyugh and so on in the divan”.1 Kadi Burhan al-Din left a trace not only in the Azerbaijani The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar literature, but also in the Turkic one as a first time user of the genre “tuyugh”. The other great member of Azerbaijani literature – Ali Imadud- Din Nasimi was born in Shamakhi, approximately in 1369, the place that was well known as a cultural and scientific center of the Nearest and Middle East and he also started his education life there as well. Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi – obtained deep knowledge in the fields of logic, mathematics, astrology and in the history of different religions, usually tended to write his poems about Hurufi in 3 languages – Azerbaijani turkic, arabic and persian. Although, the lyrical poet Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi spent a complicated and difficult life, initially he focused on writing about love, later the foremost topics of his works turned out to be political, social and moral ones. His poetry affected the Turkic literature quite severely during his lifetime and the copies of his manuscripts are being preserved in presentable libraries of the world. 1 Yagub Babayev. “The path to the better improvement of 13th and 14th centuries lyrical poem”. Baku, “Elm və təhsil” Publishing House, 2009, page 117 If we look at the monograph mentioned above, we need to add some more points made by Yagub Babayev. Hence, the monograph says: “The whole legacy of the poet is written in Arud. Because, he coped quite well with the difficulty of coordinating turkic poets with this very prosody. Yet, the main genre of his poetry is “ghazal”, he tried to address to the other genres and literary forms of classis poetry, such as: ghazal, qasida, mustazad, trajibend, tuyugh, ruba’i and the like. Last but not the least, Nasimi is considered one of the greatest representatives of social- philosophical poem not only in the Azerbaijani turkic, but also in the East”.21 Apart from various genres and literary forms of the literature, Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi is the one who used the genres mustazad, tarjibend and murebbe for the first time in Azerbaijani literature 21 in his mother tongue. Adapting the Arud meter to the Azerbaijani The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov poems, Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi played an unusual role in the improvement of the Azerbaijani language. So, Kadi Burhan al-Din and Ali Imadud-Din Nasimi are actually the founders of Azerbaijani ghazal in the Azerbaijani language. Therefore, his poetry left a very good impact in the other poets’ way of writing as well. Those poets that were inspired by them would be: Abd al- Gadir Maraghi, Muhammed Fuzuli, Kishveri, Habibi, Molla Panah Vagif, Shah Ismail Khatai and the like. It is fairly certain that, the literary action that was taken by the poets played a great role in the boost of the poetry and literary language and also was considered to be one of the main condition for the formation of Mugham. The social, economic and political occasions that happened at the end of the 14th century in the Nearest and Middle East caused some changes of the names of mugham and these changes resulted in formation of cultural heritage of the local nations. So, mugham and its sections expressing various nations’ performing traditions started being performed in a quite different and new style. 1 Yagub Babayev. “The path to the better improvement of 13th and 14th centuries lyrical poem”. Baku, “Elm və təhsil” Publishing House, 2009, pages 41–42 Apparently, Abd al-Gadir Maraghi had a couple of poems written in Persian and Arabic, but as he was quite popular in Azerbaijan, Anadolu and Iraq, some of his poems (or tuyughs) written in Azerbaijani turkic, designed according to the mughams named Segah, Ushshaq and Neva. As long as Abd al-Gadir Maraghi seemed very interested in music of Turkoman nations and ashiq music, he tended to define more commonly used names in Turkic music, so he stressed some interesting facts: “The sounds of mugham are sorted out according to the principles of moderation and tenderness of the consonance. And this amount usually rises up to 8 or 9. While Turkomans usually go for Ushshaq, Neva and Busalik mughams, the other types of mugham are definitely included to their performance”.1 22 Last but not the least, as a result of the political issues held by the lords, who established their power on the basis of Turkic ideology providing the spread and protection of islamic culture, the Turkmen language which was a common communication language The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar among turkic nations, ended up becoming one of the most amazing language of the period. Additionally, this language got abundant with the help of the words taken from persian and arabic languages. Starting in the 7th century as a result of the battles between Kara Koyunlu, Timurid and Jalairid, at the beginning of the 15th century the Black Sheep Turkomans achieved in creating a very strong and powerful monarchy. During that period almost all the areas, including the areas of Azerbaijan in the northern part of the Kura river, Armenia, Eastern provinces of Anadolu and Iraq were under the management of that government.2 So, exactly this period stimulated development of Azerbaijani mughams which were based on Azerbaijani Turkic and the very Azerbaijani national traditions. Thus, during Jahan shah’s reign, who started leading the country after Gara Iskander, the development of the civilization of the Black Sheep Turkomans 1 Suraya Aghayeva. Abd al-gadir Maraghi. Baku, “Yazıçı” Publishing House, 1983, page 24 2 History of Azerbaijan. In 7 tomes. 3rd tome, (13–16th centuries). Baku, “Elm Nəşriyyatı”, 2007, page 73 reached a very high level. While Jahan shah managed to expand the Kara Koyunlu’s territory to its largest extent, he was also writing his poems in two languages (Azerbaijani Turkic and Persian) under the nickname of “Haqiqi”.1 At the beginning of the 7th century, the leader of the White Sheep Turkomans, a brave commander and a wise statesman Uzun Hasan (the word “Uzun” means – Tall) – got advantage of the conflicts going on in the Black Sheep Turkomans and in 1467 could successfully defeat Jahanshah at the battle of Mush, so this ended up capturing all the areas of the Black Sheep Turkomans in 1468.2 While there are quite a lot of information about the background of the White Sheep Turkomans, according to Kh.Koroghlu “In the 7th century, the Bayandur tribe which is related to White Sheep Turkomans, arrived in Caucasus passing the wasteland named 23 Qipchag and settled in the edges of the rivers Kura and Araz”.3 The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov Uzun Hasan commanded to prepare a “Legislation” in order to realize the policy that was focused on creating a strongly centralized country involving the whole Azerbaijani lands, had “The Quran” translated into Azerbaijani Turkic, and asked the notable scientist Abu Bakr al-Tehrani to write an Oghuzname under the title of “Kitabi Diyarbekriyye”.4 The most important point of the White Sheep Turkomans’ rulers was to reach a high level of science, enlightenment and art and at the same time some assemblies were frequently held involving prominent scientists. After the death of Sultan Rustam, as a result of the civil wars in 1499 The White Sheep Turkomans were divided into two parts in 1499. Last but not the least, the Ak Koyunlu ended in Azerbaijan in 1501, and in Iraq in 1508 by Kizilbash. And after the disintegration of the Ak Koyunlu, its inheritance was transmitted 1 History of Azerbaijan. In 7 tomes. 3rd tome, (13–16th centuries). Baku, “Elm Nəşriyyatı”, 2007, page 123 2 History of Azerbaijan. In 7 tomes. 3rd tome, (13–16th centuries). Baku, “Elm Nəşriyyatı”, 2007, page 83 3 Kh.Koroghlu. Oghuz heroic epic. Moscow, 1978, page 69 4 History of Azerbaijan. In 7 tomes. 3rd tome, (13–16th centuries). Baku, “Elm Nəşriyyatı”, 2007, page 108 to the Safavid dynasty that was founded by Uzun Hasan’s grandson Shah Ismail I. Thereby, the cultural development of the geopolitical region surrounding Eastern Anadolu, Azerbaijan and Iraq was caused by the recognition of national mughams on the basis of Azerbaijani turkic that were commenced by the Black Sheep Turkomans originated from Oghuz-Turkoman, and later were carried on by the Ak Koyunlu, Safavid, Afsharid and Gajar dynasties and also played an unforgettable role in spreading them throughout the Nearest and Middle East.1 The way that the independent mugham and the identical names of its sections were already started to be played in a completely different method and style in mother tongue by musicians according to the usual performance styles, then occasionally, the 24 musical instrument tar took place among the instruments played by the musicians accompanying the singers’ performance. So, this proves that in comparison with the other string instruments the The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar membrane system of the tar was very suitable to the Azerbaijani mugham. In addition to this, in the 11th century the very first tar with 5 strings was mentioned in the poems written by Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Baba Tahir and Gatran Tabrizi. Since, the technical opportunities of the tar, the singers’ performing mughams not in Persian could not enclose all the single details of the mughams fully and profoundly, these necessitated to create prototypes of that instrument. A well-known art critic, composer, investigator of various musical instruments, restorer and skillful singer Abbasgulu Najafzadeh referred to very reasonable sources in his monography named “Idiophone musical instruments in Azerbaijan”. Hence, he points out to the fact that “As the founder of the Safavid dynasty Safi-ad-din Ardabili signed agreement, a chahartar by Kamal Akhi, a sheshtar by Alikhan Tabrizi and instruments of sheshkhana by a very notable and famous singer Rzaeddin Shirvani were made”.2 1 Asgar Ahmad. Spiritual culture of Azerbaijan in 12–15th centuries. Baku, “Elm” Publishing House, 2012, pages 7–8 2 Abbasgulu Najafzadeh. Idiophone musical instruments in Azerbaijan. Baku, 2010, page 22 With the assistance and support of the adherents of Shi’i Islam the reforms carried out in order to improve mughams in Azerbaijan ensured a very completely new style and techniques of singing mugham by Azerbaijani singers in contrast to the turkic speaking nations living in the Nearest and Middle Asia, and eventually this definitely demanded a creation of different prototypes of tar by Azerbaijani singers. After a 24 year long continued war between Russian Empire and Iran Gajar the treaty of Turkmenchay was signed in 1828 and according to the treaty Azerbaijan got to be divided into 2 parts and this treaty defined individual development of cultural heritage in northern and southern areas under the control of Russia and Iran Gajar. In spite of the annexation of the Azerbaijani khanates by 25 Russian Empire and the state policy managed by the empire, since The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov 14th century the turkism ideology has not been neglected by the nation yet. In comparison with the ideology based on the religious factors, this ideology mainly focused on enlightenment of the nation on the basis of progressive minded, social and economic relations, and this ideology took a step to develop influenced by philosophical movements which were formed and spread in Europe. Last but not the least, the war between Russian Empire and Iran Gajar had several outcomes, so the Azerbaijani khanates and Persia ceded to Russia control of several areas in Caucasus and Persian positions got stronger and stronger in this country. As the economy of the country got weakened and the country lost its military power, the Gajar dynasty deposed in 1925, however the Pahlavi dynasty came to power renamed the country as Iran and started its reign. As a consequence of revolutionary cases, after the deposition of the Russian Empire on the Azerbaijani lands (which were containing majority of the Caucasus), The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918. It is fairly certain that, from the 14th century up to the 19th century, as a result of the public policy carried out by Azerbaijani turkic emperors in order to deliver mugham in a profound and full way to the audience very first prototypes of the tar is considered as a common cultural heritage of Azerbaijan Islamic Republic of Iran and Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. Since, after the war between Russian Empire and Iran Gajar the lands were divided, the southern part was left to Iran and the northern part was left to Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan and as a result both new countries ensured legal inheritance of cultural heritage. The priceless role of the first mugham school in Shusha, which was developing in the mother tongue starting in the 14th century and was under the influence of the above-mentioned factors after the Russian-Gajar war and actually was leading usual rituals of 26 Azerbaijani mughams, should definitely be mentioned. Taking into consideration that the Azerbaijani tar is related to Mirza Sadig Asadoghlu, it is quite baseless to face any claims or The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar doubts in the historical documents whether the tar is in fact cultural heritage of Azerbaijan or not. The professor of the Musical Academy Saadet Abdullayeva referred to very supportive sources while investigating the creation of the tar and pointed out in her monography named “The musical instruments in Azerbaijan is fascinating the universe”: “Historically, the musical instrument tar popularized especially in a small areal on the borders of Azerbaijan and Iran. It consisted of 5 strings (2 yellow, 2 white and 1 bass), large and deep wooden bowl and there were 27–28 membranes. As it was too heavy, this instrument was usually played either over the knees or below the chest. During the 70s of the 19th century, this instrument got to be renovated by Mirza Sadig Asadoghlu. Firstly, he increased the amount of the strings up to 18, later as the 13–3 double courses, single and twin bass strings seemed quite satisfactory, he decided to keep just 22 membranes. In order not to allow the deflection of the deflection of the branch, it was tightened to the special ledge of the string-holder and a wooden pole was placed inside as well. Apart from these, Sadigjan lessened the thickness of the string holder, applied some changes to the edges, could expand the upper part of the trunk and increased sounding system. After all these changes, the weight of the instrument diminished so it was quite easy to play on a tar nestled to the chest. The instrument gained popularity with newly made shape throughout Caucasia, in the turkish province Kars and Central Asia very soon. However, people keep using 5 stringed instruments in Central and Southern Asia as well. At the beginning of the 20th century, an Iranian musician Gulamhusein Darvishkhan added the 6th string to the instrument. The new tar was named as “Azerbaijani tar” and starting in the last quarter of the 19th century was spread in Azerbaijan. Last but not the least, in 1929, the number of the strings was decreased to 11 to tune the instrument sustainable enough”.1 The contemporary musical instrument tar is named “Azerbaijani tar” due to the fact that, this time it was arranged according to the longevity forming stages of Azerbaijani mughams starting from the 27 medieval times. However, this instrument was able to bear technical The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov opportunities of its prototypes and as a result of the leading reforms over different types of tar, so this instrument is supposed to keep its eccentricity in sound structure that was based on quarter tones. Elkhan Babayev substantiated the fact that, the membranes of the tar were actually constructed rather properly to the musical note system in his article published under the title of “Where is the tar belonging to Sadigjan?” and he tended to compare sound settings of Iraq and Azerbaijani mughams named “Rast” with the other sound settings of “Rast” which was accepted as unit in the Arabic concert held in Cairo in 1932 and pointed out to some important parts. Sadigjan, who could nestle the tar to the chest raising from the knees, could successfully harmonize this exceptional instrument to mugham. It is and undeniable fact that, these two (tar and mugham) had an amazing harmony with each other. So, I strongly believe that, every single reform carried out over the tar, should be considered as a betrayal not only to Sadigjan, but also it definitely leads to simplify our mughams and leave a strong impact over it. However, on the one hand we are trying to simplify tar and attach it to the Western music, on the 1 Saadet Abdullayeva. Azerbaijani musical instruments is conquerying the world. Baku, “Nurlar” Publishing Printing Center, 2016, pages 26–27 other hand we keep trying to sound it on mezzo-soprano which is even quite strange to West itself”.1 A very well-known investigator of Azerbaijani tar Fikrat Abulgasimov writes in his article “The head of Azerbaijani Tar”: “Sadigjan was born with quite good natural qualities. His playing style was completely different from everyone. The inborn talent he owns and being very hardworking resulted in achieving high levels at his performance. Sadigjan gained equal leveled fame with the other singers and his skills led him to pass other tar players as well. His giftedness playing tar astonished not only the audience, but also the musicians as well. The tar player was able to get countless fans and could fascinate everybody with his marvelous secrets wherever he was. His playing skills reminded of a great 28 Italian violinist N.Pagganini”.2 The work of Sadigjan could be contrasted with the mastership of the reformer of the violin Antonio Stradivari and miraculous The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar performance of the virtuoso of the violin N.Pagganini. In comparison with the mentioned artists Sadigjan brought all the talents belonging to them together to himself and left an unforgettable trace as a reformer and virtuoso of the tar in the history of music. An art critic Irada Kocharli indicated two valuable achieved innovations related to the development of Azerbaijani music while investigating radical changes going on the musical instrument tar in her article named “The tar created by a great tar player Mirza Sadig”. Firstly, the physical acoustic sounding got stronger and expanded, original and technical means got extended, and these led to perfection of the sounding system and formed Azerbaijani tar which was considered pretty “mysterious” and “fascinating”. While this instrument was used as an accompanying instrument, after being upgraded the instrument started to be used as a “solo instrument”. Secondly, valuation of national intonation of Azerbaijan and precise sounding has been obtained which actually was serving 1 Elkhan Babayev. Where is the tar belonging to Sadigjan? Sadigjan. Baku, “Şuşa” Publishing House, 2016, page 64 2 Fikrat Abulgasimov. The head of Azerbaijani Tar. Baku, “Fəryad” newsp. July, 1998 growth and purification. This revealed “national identity”, features, characteristics and national musical ideology of the instrument. This innovation that was admitted to the “Azerbaijani Tar” played a great role in directing national music in a correct way. Azerbaijani tar was actually reformed by a great musician Mirza Sadig Asadoghlu. He was a tar player, skillful expert in mugham, creator of new types of mugham, especially one of the national genres called “zarb mugham”, innovator master of tar, and last but not the least, the leader of national musical ideology.1 An honored artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan Firudin Shushinsky was appreciating all the innovations made by Sadigjan quite highly and writing in his work named “Sadigjan” – “Sadigjan was the very first tar player playing on the tar solo performances at the stage. While, during that period majority of the musicians 29 preferred classical mughams and they were composing new songs The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov and arrangements. Generally, we should mention that, singers usually addressed classical music while composing new classifications, especially, a couple of poems written in Arud by Fuzuli, Molla Panah Vagif, Gasim bey Zakir, Seyid Azim Shirvani, Khurshidbanu Natavan. However, among classical singers Haji Husu, Meshedi Isi, Mirza Huseyn, Jabbar Garyaghdioghlu are popular as composers of some classical classifications and songs such as “Segah”, “Rast”, “Shur”, “Chahargah”. Yet, Jabbar Garyaghdioghlu – the founder of vocal school in Azerbaijan, gained more popularity. Jabbar Garyaghdioghlu composed a couple of classifications not only for classical poets’ poems, but also tried to compose some songs based on his own poems written in Arud”.2 Taking into account the innovations that brought by Sadigjan, we can bravely state that he had a turning point in our national musical history as an innovator. He gained access into the musical history as a composer and some classifications, songs are considered outputs of his creativity. 1 Irada Kocharli. Azerbaijani tar, created by the great tarzan Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu. Sadigjan. Baku, “Şuşa” Publishing House, 2016, page 68. 2 Firudin Shushinsky. Sadigjan. Baku, “Azərnəşr”, 2007, page 27. An honored art worker of the Republic of Azerbaijan Afrasiyab Badalbayli while leading a research regarding Mirza Sadig and his art life, he valued him as a very talented composer as well in his work named “Mirza Sadig Asadoghlu”. Undoubtedly, Mirza Sadig was said to be an author of a great number of modes of mugham, especially “Zabul Segah” and even the old tar players seem quite decisive with their ideas. Additionally, the other mode named “Bayat-i Shiraz” should definitely be added into the ones that were composed by Sadigjan. The most important side of the comprehensive art life of Mirza Sadig is not actually connected with the rhythmical music he made. The real distribution he made as a composer and musician, is that he composed and conducted musical part of “Leyli and 30 Majnun” that was played in Shusha in 1897.1 It is quite crucial to point out the importance of the source that was obtained by Gulhuseyin Kazimli and this source actually The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar proves Mirza Sadig’s unforgettable activities as a composer. However, Gulhuseyin Kazimli tended to explore great ideologist, philosopher and poet Huseyin Javid ’s life, and he decided to use some materials from Ertoghrul Javid’s (he was Huseyin Javid’s son) archive museum and as a result of this investigation he ended up finding some materials related to Mirza Sadig, yet those materials were prohibited to publish.2 There are quite enough conceptually justified ideas presented in some inscriptions written by Ramiz Guliyev, he was a professor and an honored art worker of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Hence, in his articles he mainly mentioned the advancement at the staging style, the innovations acquired about the development as a result of the reforms. Moreover, in the article named “A great reformer of the tar” by Ramiz Guliyev, he focused on these ideas: “Sadigjan arranged the system of 1 Afrasiyab Badalbayli. Asadoghlu Mirza Sadig. Sadigjan. Baku, “Şuşa” Publishing House, 2016, pages 26–27 2 Intangible cultural monuments of Azerbaijan and Ertoghrul Javid. Folk songs transcribed by Ertoghrul Javid. Unfinished works by Ertogrul Javid. 12–13th toms, page 10 membrane quite successfully. As, he regulated the arrangement of the strings and design of the membranes on the basis of our folk songs, he turned out to be an author of new invention to achieve perfect sounding of mughams and national songs in the new instrument. At this very responsible and complicated issue, he usually benefited some theories of Safi ad-Din al-Urmavi, Mir Mohsun Navvab and the like. Last but not the least, Sadigjan is also considered to be an author of jingle strings of a modern instrument tar”.1 In a nutshell, referring to very reliable and worthy writings about the work life of Sadigjan and we can mention some important achievements made in our national music as a result of revolutionary reforms: The inital made tar was based on poems written in eruz weight 31 in Azerbaijan since the 14th century, having the technical The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov capabilities of the first tar and its prototypes prepared in accordance with the centuries-old stages of development of mughams in the native language, as well as preserving the originality of the Karabakh mugham school. The invented tar is a newly created musical instrument called “Azerbaijani tar”. – In comparison with the tars that were made in the medieval centuries, the one that was made by Sadigjan owned a perfect sounding system, was adapted to the characteristics, tenderness and essence of Azerbaijani national music and especially this instrument could enrich our mughams, increased power of impact and developed new methods of singing. – The unique and talented tar player Sadigjan was the first one who performed mugham on the tar solo and he showed magnificent capability of his playing style. – Mirza Sadig left an unforgettable trace in our history not only as a skillful expert, but also as a composer and as well as new tones and classifications that he added to mugham, he is also considered a creator of a new national genre “Zarb”. 1 Ramiz Guliyev. A great reformer of the tar. Sadigjan. Baku, “Şuşa” Publishing House, 2016, page 49 – Mirza Sadig is among great musicians who had a turning point in our national musical history and had an amazing impact in the formation and determination of musical ideology. It is an undeniable fact that, the main followers of Sadigjan are definitely his learners. Mirza Sadig was born in Shusha in 1846, played amazing roles in the formation and improvement of national musical ideology, passed away at the age of 56, in 1902 and was buried in the graveyard named “Mirza Hasan”. In spite of spending a short life, the head of Azerbaijani tar Mirza Sadig Asadoghlu, could set up a school of musicians who became expert in deep mysteries of the tar. We can name some members of that school, for example; Gurban Pirimov, Mashadi 32 Zeynal, Malibeyli Hamid, Mashadi Jamil Amirov, Shirin Akhundov and so on. Even after his death, some popular tar players highly benefited The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar from the school that was established by Sadigjan, like, Mansur Mansurov, Bahram Mansurov, Aliagha Guliyev, Zarif Gayibov, Haji Mammadov, Baba Jeyran Hashimova, Vamig Mammadaliyev, Fikrat Verdiyev, Ramiz Guliyev, Mohlet Muslumov, Aghaselim Abdullayev, Serdar Farajov, Firuz Aliyev, Zamig Aliyev, Elkhan Mansurov and the others took advantage of this instrument quite masterly and showed great effort to demonstrate this instrument at international festivals. As a result of measures taken by Mehriban Aliyeva – the First Vice President of Azerbaijan, the Head of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the President of Culture Foundation and the goodwill ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO, and in 2012 Azerbaijani tar was added to the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Yet, this victory should definitely not stop our national ideology, on the contrary, we should keep looking ahead. Such a credible recognition of the history of Azerbaijan, which determines the formation and development of the national ideology of our people, is very important and timely to ensure protection and defense against baseless claims and theories that distort the true historical events by biased states to appropriate other musical instruments of our cultural heritage. The homeland does not only consist of nature, like, mountains, lands and the rivers that flow through this land. The real homeland consists of real loving and caring citizens, even of those who can sacrifice their lives anytime needed. Taking into consideration that Karabakh and the areas around are under the occupation of Armenian armed forces, leading firm and consistent policy in order to appropriate material and cultural values that actually belong to the occupied areas by Armenia, I would like to enumerate below the events held on behalf 170th anniversary of “the head of Azerbaijani tar” Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu: – On November 21, 2017, a memorial night was held at the 33 International Mugham Center on behalf of Mirza Sadig Asad The creation of Azerbaijani tar * Elkhan Jafarov oghlu’s life and this event was organized by International Mugham Center. – On December 20, 2017, The Executive Power of Shusha and National Conservatoire of Azerbaijan organized a memorial night dedicated to Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu and his life at National Conservatory. – On December 21, 2017, an academic conference was held organized by National Conservatoire of Azerbaijan at National Conservatory and this event was dedicated to Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu’s life and fame. Scientific conference on the life and work of Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu, organized at the National Conservatory in 2017: – About the life and work of Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu, organized by “Ishik” Public Union for Support of Socio-Economic Development within the project “Holding promotional events dedicated to the 170th anniversary of the founder of Azerbaijani history Sadigjan” funded by the Council of State Support to Non- Governmental Organizations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the presentation of the book “Sadigjan” published in English and Azerbaijani language. I strongly believe that, it is already time to manage a number of other events in order to immortalize Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu in our history and to convey to the world that he actually belongs to Azerbaijan, so here is the list of the things to do: 1. To carry out deep investigation about the innovations he made and an exceptional role he played in our musical culture. 2. To publish proper books in three languages, Azeri, russian and english to attract more and more readers. 3. To make a film dedicated to the life and activities of Sadigjan in Karabakh and focus on covering historical occasions of that period. 4. To set up “Azerbaijani musical instruments museum” and a non-governmental organization. 34 5. To raise a statue on behalf of Sadigjan in one of the central streets in Baku. Consistent and purposeful implementation of this approach or The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar measures should not be limited to the life and work of Mirza Sadig Asad oghlu. It should also apply to our compatriots who have rendered unparalleled service in the art of mugham from Karabakh within the empires established by the Azerbaijani dynasties of Oghuz origin, as well as became famous for the creation, application and spread of secular socio-philosophical currents. Elkhan Jafarov Doctor of Philosophy in Economics THE ROLE OF SADIGJAN IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR AZERBAIJANI MUSIC CULTURE AFRASIYAB BADALBAYLI People’s artist, composer ASADOGHLU MIRZA SADIG I t is really very surprising that, the life and activity (1846–1902) and scientific biography of Asadoghlu Mirza Sadig hasn't yet developed by our musicians according to his position in our music history. It isn't any other thing than the superficial approach to the history of Azerbaijani music of the XIX century to be satisfied with only his improving the number of tar 37 strings as a rule in the music works. While it was necessary for a long time to write and complete a sound and heavy monography by our musicians about the life and musical activity of Mirza Mirza Sadig * Afrasiyab Badalbayli Sadig, we can't perhaps highlight his comprehensive and rich activity at the desired level in a limit condition of this dictionary article. It is clear that, the most remarkable representative of the music history of Azerbaijan is Asadoghlu Mirza Sadig1 in the XIX century. He has collected the results of a full historical period in this musical activity basing on the achievements of activities of all other his predecessors especially of his great tutor Mirza Alasgar and has completed the formation process of mugham school of Azerbaijan on the base of national traditions. He has first of all made a clear and defined the artistic expression principles of original features belonging namely to the 1 Some of our authors call Mirza Sadig simply as “Sadigjan” in their works yet. It is possible to suppose that, he was firstly called so by his family members and close relatives for fondling and caressing purposes only, during his childhood. Then he was called so by some people who hadn't hesitated from the free behavior against him and delighted with his performance in the weddings. To call the great master as “Sadigjan” is to continue this past familiarity at the present for me. folk music of Azerbaijan in this work. He was really an innovator craftsman and brave novator with his grate and suitable activity made on various fields as enriching of performance methods and updating of singing ways. Activity field perceived by Mirza Sadig is very wide and his music activity is comprehensive. The real main feature of his wide and comprehensive activity is his opening the first bright creative page of the new Renaissance age drawing a border between the past and future of Azerbaijani mugham music. “Sadigjan” who was one of the young and talented pupils of Mirza Agha Alasgar has learned before to play kamanchah from his tar master as it was noted. The young Sadig has substituted Agha Alasgar who couldn't participate in one of the music 38 assemblies for his healthy case and amazed all due to his fine performance in city Shusha. Mirza Sadig has begun to work hardly on tar from that time. The real architect of the Azerbaijani tar He has prevailed over his countryman contemporaries as well as overall tar players coming from abroad with his skillful performance and virtuous play due to the success that he has owned for a short time. The expression power on his performance was so strong that while he took his tar on his breast and made the first mizrab, the listener has forgot all and paid his attention to the pretty melodies of tar. Mirza Sadig by experiencing on mugham performance was a permanent participant of music assemblies collected in “Majlisi- faramushan” and a demonstrator of the both opposite parties on tar on the whole disputed matters (as it was noted, Abdulla bay Asi has tired due to the strong disputes lasted long related to the theoretical matters of mugham and said as below dealing with Mirza Sadig in one of the assemblies “Majlisi faramushan”: – Hey Sadig, take the tar on your hand, Play "Shur" and exite me by anyway... Tarzan Mirza Sadig in his youth 39 Mirza Sadig * Afrasiyab Badalbayli