Xi Yang. Sayat`-Nova: within the Near Eastern bardic tradition and posthumous. Dissertation (2016)

Xi Yang. Sayat`-Nova: within the Near Eastern bardic tradition and posthumous. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Los Angeles: University of California, 2016, XIII+306 p.

Abstract

AšuƗ/aşık/aşıq (from the Arabic āshiq, or lover) is a skilled bard’s composite performing art– a unity of prose narrations, songs, instrumental accompaniment, and appropriate gesture. Of sixteenth-century Turkic origin, the art spread over a vast area covering modern Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and further. In the mid-eighteenth century Sayat-Nova, the best-known Armenian ašuƗ, was active in Tiflis (modern Tbilisi), the capital of Eastern Georgia. His songs were written in at least three languages–Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani–and won praise for their ardent emotion and artistic perfection. But despite his importance in Near Eastern culture, two issues in Sayat-Nova studies have rarely been studied. First, fully appreciating Sayat-Nova requires contextualizing his work within the developing Armenian ašuƗ tradition and the international ašuƗ/aşık/aşıq tradition in the Near East. Second, the history of Sayat`-Nova studies as a field and its growing popularity in relation to twentieth-century Armenian nationalism and Soviet cultural policies demands attention as well.

Focusing on these neglected issues will enable a richer understanding of Sayat`-Nova’s place in the history of the ašuƗ/aşık/aşıq tradition as well as his relation to the elevated poetic traditions in South Caucasia, the Armenian ašuƗs’ contribution within the broader matrix of the early modern Turkic aşık/aşıq tradition, and the evolution of a distinct ašuƗ tradition in the Armenian language. At the same time, exploring his posthumous adoption as a cultural icon will provide insight into the history of scholarship and of mass culture both in South Caucasia and for Armenians worldwide.