Mahzuni Şerif

Mahzuni Şerif — Biography

Âşık Mahzuni Şerif (born Şerif Cırık) was a folk bard from the Alevi tradition who also left a mark as a lyricist and composer. He turned everyday speech into poetry and carried social and political themes into his songs, which were also sung by artists as different as Selda Bağcan, Cem Karaca, Ahmet Kaya, İbrahim Tatlıses and Zeki Müren. Twenty-four years after his death he is still remembered every May.

As a boy he studied the Qur'an at a village madrasa, then entered a noncommissioned officers' school in Mersin. While studying in Ankara he was expelled after books of poems by Alevi-Bektashi bards were found in his bag, and in 1961 he left Kuleli Military High School because of financial hardship. From 1967 he built his repertoire through more than four hundred records and over fifty cassettes. Oy Bizim Eller, Dom Dom Kurşunu, Yalan Dünya, Ekmek Kölesi and Katil Amerika are among his best-known songs, and he dedicated Sivas Dramı to those who died in the 1993 Sivas events.

He was given a prison sentence over Erim Erim Eriyesin, a song satirising Prime Minister Nihat Erim. Between 1989 and 1991 the Federation of Folk Bards ranked him among the world's three greatest bards. He died in Cologne on 17 May 2002, and his grave lies at Çilehane near the Hacı Bektaş Veli complex. A play about his life was banned in some provinces in 2026, bringing his name back into debate.