The art of Ozan-ashug has been formed in Azerbaijan since ancient times.

Ashug art is a form of oral folk music created in a folk environment and is a unique manifestation in terms of impact, popularity and perfection. It is a small play, where music, saz and author-ashug unite.

The art of ashug includes ancient epic epics, songs glorifying the freedom, heroism, friendship and love of the people. The art of ashug is synthetic, ie the ashug writes poetry, composes music, but also sings, plays the saz and dances. The lover is often accompanied by an ensemble of drums and wind instruments. However, the main musical instrument of the ashug is the saz.

Saz is an ancient Azerbaijani stringed musical instrument. The most widespread genre of ashug’s work is the epic genre – that is, epics, especially heroic epics. Vocal-instrumental parts in the epics replace the spoken parts of the poem.

Praises and “beautifications” are especially popular in the lyrical genre of ashug’s work. These “beautifications” can be dedicated to both the beloved, beautiful woman and the hero, for example, the brave Koroglu, his legendary Kirat. Some of the ashug songs are full of sorrow and grief (such as “Yanig Kerami”, “Dilgami”), and others are playful warm songs such as “Afshari”, “Sharili”, which are beautiful examples of ashug lyrics.

The genre of masterpieces consisting of instructive songs is also interesting in the work of ashugs.
Along with the genres of national poetry, the couplets, gerayli, mukhammas, ustadname, locks, as well as the poetic forms of the couplet, tajnis, cigali tajnis are the favorite poetic forms of ashugs. These forms can also be included in epics.

The most common verse in ashug’s work is syllables. The structure of most ashug songs is in the form of a couplet. At the beginning of each couplet there is an instrumental introduction and each couplet is separated from each other by an instrumental solo.

In ancient times and the Middle Ages, ashugs were called “ozan”, “varsaq”, “dada”.
The oldest written source dedicated to the life, love, patriotism and courage of the ancient poets, the ancestors of modern Azerbaijani ashugs, is the folk epic “Kitabi Dada Gorgud” of the seventh century.

Historically, folk music has had a great influence on the work of composers. For the first time, composer U.Hajibeyov used the features of ashug music in the opera “Koroglu”. Another composer, Gara Garayev, who combined the features of ashug music with the technical means of modern music, was able to unite them in the second part of his third symphony.

Although ashug art as a collective art combines several types of art, the main place in this collection belongs to the traditional air. Rich in musical means of expression and artistic generalizations, the traditional ashug air is characterized by its unchanging aesthetic value, polished language and style, deep philosophical meaning, and moral orientation.

The expressiveness of oral folk poetry (syllable weight of “finger-counting”) and written poetry (eruzun) is the basis of the poetry of ashug air.

As an integral part of the air, classical ashug poetry serves as a rule (normative).

Traditional classical ashug airs are bayati, gerayli, qoshma, tajnis, etc. based on poetic forms. There are more than 80 (“Kerami”, “Afshari”, “Kurdu”, “Dilgami”, “Yanig Kerami”) different territorial variants of ashug weather.

The interaction of poetic text with music in ashug airs has a significant impact on the formation of their melodic-rhythmic, form features. The main weight of ashug poetry is syllable weight. The structure of the weather is formed in connection with the form and syllable composition of the poem, the features of its distribution. Gurbani (16th century), Abbas Tufarganli, Sari Ashig (17th century), Khasta Qasim, Ashig Valeh, Ashig Dilqam (18th century), Ashig Ali, Ashig Alasgar, Ashig Huseyn Shamkirli (19th century) and b. They are considered classics of ashug art. Among the ashugs of the modern period are Ashig Huseyn Bozalganli, Ashig Asad, Ashig Mirza, Ashig Islam, Ashig Shamshir, Huseyn Sarajli, Amrah Gulmammadov, Huseyn Javan, Ashig Kamandar, Imran Hasanov, Mikayil Azafli, Akbar Jafarov and others. differs. Ashug art is especially widespread in Gazakh, Tovuz, Shamakhi regions of Azerbaijan, as well as in the historical Goycha and Borchali districts.