Shabende

Shabende 

(pen name of Abdulla, son of Miami). Born circa 1720; died 1800. Turkmen poet improviser. Born and lived in the region of Kunia-Urgench and Vas, in what is now Tashauz Oblast, Turkmen SSR.

Shabende studied in a madrasa in Khiva. He wrote lyric poetry and the dastans Shabekhram, Gul’ and Bul’bul (1800), and Khodzhamberdikhan. The poetic style of his dastans is similar to that of Turkmen folklore. Many of his song poems entered the repertoire of the bakhshi.

Shabende’s works are mainly written in Turkic meter, with lines of eight, 11, and 14 syllables. They also include quantitative verses, for example, ghazals, rubaiyat, and mukhammas.

WORKS

Shabekhram. [Chapa tayyarlan ve söz bashï yazan Akhundov-Gurgenli.] Ashkabad, 1943.
Türkmen ëdebiyatïnïng tarïkhï, vol. 2, book 1. Ashkhabad, 1975.