Qobylandy Batyr
Kazakh · mortal · Kazakh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Qobylandy Batyr is the hero of one of the most ancient and widely sung of Kazakh heroic epics, a champion of the Qara-Qypshaq (Black Kipchak) people. The poem follows his birth to long-childless parents, his winning of the wise Qortqa, and his campaigns against the enemy khans Qazan and Alshagyr, defenders and raiders of the steppe frontier. Central to his fame is the tulpar Taiburyl, reared by Qortqa and celebrated in the epic's bravura account of its gallop, which covers in a single night a distance of many days. Rooted in the memory of Kipchak warfare, the cycle belongs to the core repertoire of the zhyrau and remains among the best-known of the batyrlar zhyry.
Domains
- war battle
- heroism valor
Powers
- rides the tulpar Taiburyl
Epithets
- Қобыланды батыр — Qobylandy the HeroChadwick and Zhirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia (1969). (secondary)
Sources
- Qobylandy Batyr is the hero of one of the oldest Kazakh heroic epics, a warrior of the Qara-Qypshaq who defends his people against the Kyzylbash and Kalmyk, aided by his wife Qortqa and his tulpar Taiburyl.: Qobylandy batyr recorded in Radloff, Proben, Bd. III (1870). (primary); Chadwick and Zhirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia (1969). (secondary)