Kerem and Aslı

These sing and tell the love between Kerem,[1] son of the Muslim Padishah of Isfahan, and Aslı, daughter of an Armenian-Christian monk or priest.

The story is handed down in numerous variants, describing in detail the adventures of Kerems' and Sofus', who are looking for Khoy, Tbilisi, Ganja and Yerevan.

The earliest known record is found in the 16th century Mecmûatü’l-Letâif Sandükatü’z-Zerâif (The Collections of Jokes, Chest of Giraffes).

In the same year Leopold Grünfeld translated Kerem and Aslı into German (Anatolian folk songs from the Kaba Dil.

Üzeyir Hacıbəyov processed the material into an opera ("Əsli və Kərəm") in 1912 as did Ahmed Adnan Saygun ("Kerem") decades later.