Абай атындағы ҚазҰПУ-нің Хабаршысы, «Филология ғылымдары» сериясы №4(62) 2017 ж.
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played an important role in the direction of development and expansion of this field of science. So, Ismail
Hikmat divided the epos that is marked with the name of “narrative type” in the mentioned chapter of the
book of “The history of Azerbaijani literature”: the novel, the story, the saga. In the next phase, he again
divided eposes that were called stories by him into four parts:
1) historical stories;
2) love stories;
3) heroic stories;
4) adopted stories.
It is also noteworthy that the author specially emphasizes that a number of legends which are named and
given information about them in that chapter are the spiritual wealth of the Azerbaijani people. He proposed
the idea that eposes such as “Ashug Garib”, “Koroghlu”, “Asli-Karam”, “Leyli-Majnun”, “Tahir-Zohra”,
“Farhad-Shirin”, “Shah Ismail”, “Mahmud-Alif” were being told at every assemblies and they were came
from mouth to mouth in the territory of Azerbaijan. While speaking about love stories, he states that though
there are the effects of mysticism and even hurufism in some parts, the most influential novel of love among
the other examples of folk literature is “Ashug Garib” [2, 58].
It should be noted that there were published some articles speaking about our love (as well as, heroic,
family etc.) eposes in the first half of XX century. Among these, there are prefaces written by Abdulla Shaig
for the book of “Azerbaijani ashugs”, Hanafi Zeynalli for the book of “Azerbaijani folk literature”, articles
entitled “People’s literature or people’s words” of R.Afandizade [3, 23-36] and “Certificates referring to
Azerbaijani literary in Tribes’ period” [4, 48-53] of Amin Abid.
Hard work of our famous academicians Hamid Arasli, Mammad Arif and others in the direction of
investigation and study, collection and publication of our love eposes is undeniable. First of all, Hamid
Arasli participated in the collection and publication of many of them and wrote extensive scientific articles
about some of love eposes. All the formation of saga is reviewed and followed in the historical background
from the parts of Dede Korkut up to the new works of ashugs who lived during the Soviet period in his
extensive report entitled “Azerbaijani ashugs” written on the eve of III Congress of Azerbaijani ashugs. The
author here tries to identify the century in which each epos was created along with explaining the secrets of
classical eposes’ living for centuries.
Although H.Arasli who had major efforts in the direction of study and research, as well as, their
collection and publication of our eposes had a number of controversial findings and opinions with which it is
impossible to agree, “Ashug creativity” deserves to be highly appreciated. It should be noted that the
doctoral thesis of the mentioned author entitled “History of XVII – XVIII centuries’ literature” is of
particular importance. He speaks about the public importance of “Ashug Garib”, “Abbas – Gulgaz”, “Shah
Ismail”, “Shahriyar” etc. eposes in this work by analyzing them from artistic point of view.
It should be noted that the study of Azerbaijani love eposes and their becoming into the subject of
extensive researches passed a long and contentious historical way. This process is accompanied by the
serious polemics, discussions and disputes, opposing views and opinions of the most outstanding folklore
scholars and writers and academicians. Academician Hamid Arasli, national writer Mirza Ibrahimov, Mirali
Seyidov, Feyzulla Gasimzade, Alyar Garabaghli, Ahliman Akhundov, Farhad Farhadov, Safura Yagubova,
Pasha Afandiyev, Mammadhuseyn Tahmasib and other authors expressed various views and opinions related
to the history of love eposes, their classification and formation methods in their works. Particularly,
provisions set forth about the ways of formation of these precious masterpieces of art draw attention with
their diversity, as they say, colorfulness. So professor F.Gasimzade, paying special attention to oral or folk
literature in his work entitled “The history of XIX century’s Azerbaijani literature”, gives information about
the life and activities of a number of master ashugs and speaks about the history of study and publication of
ashug literature and their unique features. Specifically focusing on Goshma (form of an Azerbaijani poem)
which is one of the main poem forms, as well as, tajnis that is considered to be the most difficult genre of
folk literature, he speaks about their history, artistic and poetic features, classifies them and finally, puts
forward interesting provisions related to our love eposes and their formation methods and ways.
Notwithstanding that, the author divides love eposes into two groups without saying any word about heroic
epics in the above – mentioned work. He states that the epics which belong to the first group are true love
eposes. Based on goshmas and geraylis of master ashugs who had passed away they are formed by ashugs
who lived and worked after them.
Therefore, there are two styles in those eposes: “… The part of tale entitled “Country” belongs to the author
of the epos, and the part of poem belongs to master ashug” [5, 137]. This opinion itself shows that F.Gasimzade
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