Şerif Cırık, popularly known as Aşık Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish ashik, folk musician, composer, poet, and author. Aşık is a title used to indicate his position as a respected musician and his relationship with Alevism. Early life Mahsuni Şerif was born in the Berçenek village of Afşin, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey in 1939. His mother's name is Döndü, his father's name is Zeynel Cırık. There was no primary school in his village, Berçenek. Instead, he studied the Koran in Lütfü Efendi Madrasa, located in the village of Alembey, until he could graduate later on from the local primary school. He started playing baglama and writing poems in 1956 while attending military school. Career After Mahzuni left the army, he started to become a public poet by continuing to traditional Turkish Folk poetry. He was writing about political topics and his poems were all about public's problems. For instance one of his poems is about lack of education in villages (school without class [Sınıfsız Okul]). He interested in Turkish Folk tradition since he was 12. He learned playing baglama from his uncle Ashik Fezali (Pehlül Baba). His first record was released in 1964. He resided in Gaziantep for a while, after he moved to Ankara. He actively worked for the labor party's youth branch in 1963, 1964. He met with Fikret Otyam. Thanks to him he met with Cüneyt Arcayürek Form Gazette of Hürriyet. First writing in gazette about Mahzuni was written by Cüneyt Arcayürek. He found the Society of Ashiks for public poets. He gave concerts supported by Fikret Otyam and Union of Gazette. He founded a record firm with the money he earned in 1968. However, he bankrupt with his partners Ayhan Coşkun and Abbas Sütçü in a short time. In 1989–1991 years he was chosen as one of the World's biggest three poets by the Turkish Folk Poets Federation. He is known as these folk songs: Dom Dom Kurşunu, Yedin Beni, Yuh Yuh, Fadimem, Gül Yüzlüm, Ciğerparem, Merdo, Dostum, Han Sarhoş Hancı Sarhoş, Çeşmi Siyahım, Yalan Dünya, Ağlasam mı, Abur Cubur Adam, Katil Amerika, Ekmek Kölesi. His folk songs are vocalized by a lot of folk music and pop music artists. Some of them are Ersen ve Dadaşlar, Edip Akbayram, Cem Karaca, Gülden Karaböcek, Zeki Müren, İbrahim Tatlıses, Ahmet Kaya, Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Murat Göğebakan, Selda Bağcan. Mahzuni released 453 records, 50 tapes and 9 books. His Lawsuits In 1974,