Khan Shushinski (), born Isfandiyar Aslan oglu Javanshir (20 August 1901,

Shusha Shusha (, ) or Shushi () is a city in Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet Union, Soviet ...

– 18 March 1979,

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

), was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

khananda A khananda ( ; ; alternative spellings in English: khanende, khanande, khanandeh) is a name generally given to singers of mugham, an Culture of Azerbaijan, Azeri folk music genre. The word is of Persian origin and means "singer". When performin ...

folk singer.

Life

Despite Shushinski's relation to the khans of Karabakh, his stage name derives from an episode in his adolescence. In 1918, he and his

mugham Mugham () or Mughamat () is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik. It is an art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes. Mugham is a modal system. ...

teacher Islam Abdullayev attended a wedding in the village of Novruzlu (today in the Agdam Rayon of Azerbaijan), where guests were listened to a

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

of the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian singer Abul Hasan Khan performing the Kurd Shahnaz variety of mugham. After the song, young Isfandiyar was asked to re-sing that song live. Despite the complicated nature of Kurd Shahnaz, his performance impressed the guests to the point of them comparing Isfandiyar to Abul Hasan Khan and saying: "Now, here's the real Khan."Khan Shushinski
. ''Axtar.az'' Shushinski made his first appearance in Baku in 1923, at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall. He spent the next two decades touring cities of the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

, gaining huge popularity for his voice and being often mentioned in the local media, as well as in the poem ''Azerbaijan'' by Samad Vurgun. In 1944, a year after he became People's Artist of Azerbaijan, he visited

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

(along with four other cities in Iran) and was invited to perform at a

banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...

organized by Shah

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the last List of monarchs of Iran, Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until he was overthrown by the ...

. In 1960, he created the "Mugham studio" in the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic, where he gave private lessons to the younger hanendes. Khan Shushinski became known as a talented composer after writing a number of songs, the most famous of them being ''Shushanin daghlari'' ("The Mountains of Shusha"), dedicated to his native city. He later taught vocal arts at the Zeynally College of Music in Baku.

Awards

* People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1943) *

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

(1959) * Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"

Legacy

The Khan Shushinsky Foundation operates in Azerbaijan to perpetuate the singer's name. The director of the foundation is the singer's daughter Bayimkhanim Verdiyeva. There is a street named after him in Baku.

References

External links

The Soaring Voice
''El Jurnali''. August 2003 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shushinski, Khan 1901 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Azerbaijani male singers Musicians from Shusha People's Artists of Azerbaijan Soviet Azerbaijani people Mugham singers 20th-century Azerbaijani singers Shusha Realni School alumni