Bairam Shakhir

(surname, Mamedov). Born 1871 in the village of Garchydzhevsk, Krasnovodsk Raion; died 1948. Turkmen folk poet. Worked as a hired farm laborer from the age of seven.

Bairam Shakhir’s first verses, which he began composing when he was 16, were directed against the bais (wealthy landowners), mullahs, and ishans (religious leaders)—for example, “An Answer to Kiasim Mullah” and “Ata-eke.” He wrote about the hard lot of the people. His poems “Let’s Go, Brothers, Against the Enemy” (1919), “Advance,” and “Poverty” (1924) called the people to a new life. Bairam Shakhir wrote about collective labor and the homeland (“I Stay” and “Look”). His work is the connecting link between classical and modern Turkmen literature.