Folklore issues in the newspaper “Sheki fehlesi”

Abstract

This article examines folklore materials published from the late 1930s to 1990 in the regional newspaper Şəki fəhləsi and under its former historical titles. The study aims to systematize newspaper sources and identify the distinctive features of the development of ashig art in Sheki, the reception of Ashig Molla Juma’s legacy, and the ways in which local folklore entered public cultural circulation. The research material comprises ashig poems, articles about performers, reports concerning manuscripts and biographical information, and publications devoted to folk ensembles, dances, children’s games, and humorous folklore. Historical-comparative, hermeneutic, and descriptive methods are employed. The newspaper materials are compared with later folklore scholarship and manuscript sources, allowing their documentary character, authorial interpretation, and ideological content to be distinguished. The findings show that Şəki fəhləsi preserved important historical information about the ashig milieu of Sheki. Materials concerning Molla Juma’s biography, manuscripts, the authentication of his photograph, and his influence on later performers establish his place in regional cultural memory. The analysis of poems by Ashig Mugum, Ashig Piri, and Ashig Musa reveals the coexistence of traditional poetic imagery and Soviet ideological vocabulary. Publications on folk ensembles, dances, children’s games, and anecdotes demonstrate the functions of folklore in everyday cultural life. The study’s originality lies in examining dispersed newspaper materials from different years for the first time within a unified historical and textual framework. The findings confirm the importance of regional periodicals as sources for reconstructing folklore history, preserving local traditions, and explaining the mechanisms of their intergenerational transmission.