Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), usually known as just Aşık Veysel, was a Turkish alevi minstrel and highly regarded poet of Turkish folk literature. He was born on the 25th October 1894 in the Sivrialan village of the Şarkışla district, Sivas. He was an ashik, a poet, songwriter, and a bağlama and saz virtuoso, the best-known representative of the Anatolian ashik tradition in the twentieth century. He was blind for most of his lifetime. His songs are usually sad tunes, often talking about the inevitability of death.