Âşık, a term meaning “lover” (Ar. ʿāshiq), and frequently employed in Ṣūfī poetry in a mystical sense, is used in Turkish to refer to itinerant poet-singers and storytellers who accompany themselves on the saz (long-necked lute). The term came to be used in this sense in Anatolia and Azerbaijan by the tenth/sixteenth century, before which such figures were known as ozan. The âşık tradition spread to the Balkans during the Ottoman period. Minstrels belonging to a similar Armenian tradition are known as ashugh (ashough).

The âşık tradition emerged from two main streams: the epic-s…