[3] Three major schools of mugham performance existed from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the regions of Karabakh, Shirvan, and Baku.

[citation needed] Uzeyir Hajibeyov asserted that the mugham tradition disintegrated around the end of the fourteenth century during the Mongol rule.

The masters of mugham of Azerbaijan sang gazals written in aruz genre by Fuzuli, Habibi and Khatai.

In the 19th century famous French writer Alexandre Dumas who attended the ceremony in Shamakhy, wrote in his works about his trip saying he was greatly impressed by mugham that sounded there.

[10] Such events held in Azerbaijan were attended by khanendes from Karabakh, Baku and Tabriz which in turn caused the blending of singing traditions of different regions.

[citation needed] In the early decades of the 20th century, a member of native intelligentsia, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, the author of the first national opera Leyli and Majnun, also formulated the theoretical basis of Azerbaijani mugham in his work The Principles of Azerbaijan Folk Music.

Fikret Amirov (1922–1984) was the first composer of symphonic mughams, namely Shur, Kurd Ovshari, and Gulistan Bayati Shiraz.

[citation needed] In 2005, International Center of Mugham created under the decree of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.

[18][19] The total area of center is 7500 meters squared, which also includes concert saloon of 350 people, recording studio, rooms for rehearsals.

It contains seven main modes – Rast, Shur, Segah (are especially common), Shushtar, Bayaty-Shiraz, Chahargah, Humayun and three collateral kinds – shahnaz, sarendj, chargah in some other form.

The famous Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev has the following explanation: "The expression mugham is used in two senses in the folk music of Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, in the case of a suite-rhapsody-mugham the concept of improvisation is not really an accurate one, since the artistic imagination of the performers is based on a strict foundation of principles determined by the respective mode.

[citation needed] With respect to the concept of improvisation, mugham music is often put in relation to jazz, a comparison that is accurate to a certain point only.

[citation needed] The songs are often based on the medieval and modern poetry of Azerbaijan, and although love is a common topic in these poems, to the uninitiated ear many of the intricacies and allusions are lost.

[29] Nevertheless, mugham composition is designed very similarly to Sufism in that it seeks to achieve ascension from a lower level of awareness to a transcendental union with god.

[30][31] In recent years, interest to jazz mugham has seen rise in many western countries, particularly in the United States, Austria and Japan.

During his official visit to the country in August 2005, the Director-General of UNESCO, in the company of President Ilham Aliyev and several Goodwill Ambassadors, attended a foundation stone-laying ceremony of a Mugham Centre.

In 2004, Mehriban Aliyeva, the First Lady of Azerbaijan, was named as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the oral and musical traditions.

[35][36] Mugham has lived and sounded in Azerbaijan in all periods, independently on political, public and economic situation and reserved its place in Azerbaijani culture.