{{About, a form of Azerbaijani folk poetry, other uses, Bayat (disambiguation)
Bayati ( az, Bayatı) is one of the oldest forms of Azerbaijani folk poetry. A bayati consists of four lines, each of which has seven syllables. The rhyme scheme is aaba. Anonymous bayati have been collected as folk wisdom in editions such as ''Xalqimizin deyimlari va duyumlari'' (Our people's sayings and feelings). Bayati can also be strung together in sequence to form longer poems, and there are several bayati dastan, epics, in which all of the verses are bayati; one example is ''Arzu-Qamber''.
Some folklorists associate the bayati with women's folk creativity, but male
ashig
An ashik ( az, aşıq, ; tr, âşık; fa, عاشیق) or ashugh ( hy, աշուղ; ka, აშუღი) is traditionally a singer-poet and bard who accompanies his song—be it a dastan (traditional epic story, also known as '' hikay ...
s compose bayati as well. Intriguingly, some scholars argue that the bayati dastan are from a lost repertoire of women's dastan, but so far there is no firm evidence to support this theory. In the Zagatala region of northern
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
, male and female ashiqs who play the
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
sing poetry composed only in the bayati meter.Anna C. Oldfield. Azerbaijani Women Poet-minstrels: Women Ashiqs from the Eighteenth Century to the Present.
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