Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan and Turkey have applied for inclusion of balaban and other multinational objects in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.

Stories about Molla Nasreddin, tea culture and balaban are presented as multinational objects.

The application for inclusion of the balaban in the list was submitted jointly by Azerbaijan and Turkey, while the stories about Molla Nasreddin were submitted jointly by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Balaban is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument with seven finger holes and one thumb hole. When you play balaban you should use fingers of both hands to open and close certain holes. It can be made of mulberry or other harder woods, such as walnut.

Balaban refers to aerofoams. The silver ring, which is more than 2,000 years old, has been discovered during archaeological excavations in Bargoed village of Ujar region.

For the first time, balaban was mentioned in the epos of "Kitabi Dada Gorgud".

Ring with the blue stone imprinted the image of Balaban. The word "Balaban" combines two Azerbaijani-Turkish words "bal" and "ban".

"Bala" means small or fragile and “ban” is an archaism which means "voice".

The name of the first performer on this instrument in Azerbaijan is unknown. However, the oldest performer was poetess Mahsati Ganjavi. In his works, Nizami also notes the name of Nagisa, master harpist and composer of the royal court of King Khosrau II of Persia.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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