Aitys

Aitys, also spelled Aytysh, is a primarily folk-oriented oral tradition of improvised singing and oratory performed as a contest between two parties, called akyns, who take turns improvising rhymed verses in response to one another while accompanying themselves on traditional instruments such as the komuz among Kyrgyz performers, the dombra among Kazakh performers, or the baglama among Turkish performers. Those who could improvise and respond in witty, historically informed and inventive ways to their opponents won the most praise. Rooted in Kazakh and Kyrgyz tradition and traceable to earlier Kazakh folk forms such as zhar-zhar and badik, the genre appears across Turkic peoples more broadly, including a variant called meykhana among Azerbaijanis that is performed a cappella. Documented aitys narratives such as Birzhan and Sary and Ulbike and Kuderi date from the nineteenth century onward, and the tradition has continued into organized modern competition, including a first modern contest held in Bishkek in 2008 and further events in Osh in 2009; it received UNESCO intangible cultural heritage recognition in 2015 after formal protection through the Aytysh Public Fund beginning in 2001.