page_title: Ashik
section_title: Ashugh music in Armenia
hierarchical_section_title: Ashik / History / Ashugh music in Armenia
caption_attribution_description: English: Armenian_ashugh_school_in_Yerevan_of_Djivani. Русский: Армянская школа ашугов им Дживани в Ереване.
context_page_description: An ashik or ashugh is traditionally a singer-poet and bard who accompanies his song—be it a dastan or a shorter original composition—with a long-necked lute in Turkic, as well as non-Turkic cultures of South Caucasus. In Azerbaijan, the modern ashik is a professional musician who usually serves an apprenticeship, masters playing the bağlama, and builds up a varied but individual repertoire of Turkic folk songs.
  The word ashiq is the nominative form of a noun derived from the word ishq, which in turn may be related to the Avestan iš-. The term is synonymous with ozan in Turkish and Azerbaijani, which it superseded during the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Other alternatives include saz şair and halk şair. In Armenian, the term gusan, which referred to creative and performing artists in public theaters of Parthia and ancient and medieval Armenia, is often used as a synonym.
context_section_description: A concise account of the ashik (called ashugh in Armenian) music and its development in Armenia is given in Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. In Armenia, the ashugh are known since the 16th century onward, acting as the successors to the medieval gusan art. By far the most notable of the ashugh of all was Sayat Nova (1712–95), who honed the art of troubadour musicianship to crowning refinement.
caption: Armenian ashugh school in Yerevan
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