Ashiq Peri

Ashiq Peri (Azerbaijani: Aşıq Pəri, عاشیق پری; c. 1811 – c. 1848) was a 19th-century ashiq (folk poet) regarded as the first prominent female Azerbaijani ashiq. Her poetry primarily consisted of verbal poetic duels, where she used various folk forms in Azerbaijani. Born in 1811 in the village of Maralyan in the Karabakh Khanate (now in the Jabrayil District of Azerbaijan), she began writing poetry as a child and later moved to Shusha, the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. She often participated in local poetry contests, competing against and defeating her male counterparts, and eventually becoming the first renowned female ashiq in the region. She died young under unknown circumstances.

The main themes in Peri's work are love, the objection to injustices, and the expression of suffering and longing. She employs simple and direct language in her poetry. Being the only female in her artistic collective, she often adopted a playful, mocking tone towards her fellow collective members and conveyed an impression of command and competence. Her poetry is notable for its spirited defence of her independence, using the established structure of the ashiq verbal contest to broaden her expressive potential as a woman. She has been described as "a model of a strong, independent woman from within Azerbaijani culture"^[1] because, in her duels with male counterparts, she rebuffed their advances while maintaining her honour and modesty, always performing solo without requiring a man's guardianship.