Âşık Ömer (ʿĀşıq ʿÖmer, d. 1119/1707), one of the most important and renowned bards of Turkic folk literature, was born in Kezlev (Ott. Gözleve; Yevpatoriya), on the west coast of Crimea, in the twelfth/seventeenth century. Recent studies indicate that his family was involved in the fur trade. His father's name was Abdullah (ʿAbdullāh) and his mother's Şerife (Sharīfa). He was educated by Şarifi (Sharīfī), an illustrious scholar of Kezlev's Cuma Medresesi, and was influenced by a number of prominent poets of the East, including Fuzuli (