Qorqyt Ata

Qorqyt Ata is the legendary bard and seer at the root of the Kazakh musical and shamanic tradition, the maker of the first qyl-qobyz and the archetype of the baksy and zhyrau who followed him. In the most famous legend he sought to escape a death foretold him in a dream, riding to the four quarters of the earth; but at each place he found men already digging a grave, and understood there was no flight from fate. Returning to the Syr Darya, he spread a carpet upon the water and played his kobyz without cease, so that death could not take him while the music sounded; only when weariness stilled the strings did a serpent bite him and end his life. His melodies are held to be the source of all kobyz music, and his domed mausoleum on the Syr Darya remains a place of pilgrimage.

Domains

• music song
• prophecy wisdom

Powers

• created the qyl-qobyz and the art of song
• fled from death across the earth

Epithets

• Қорқыт ата — Grandfather QorqytZhirmunsky, 'Oguzskii geroicheskii epos i Kniga Korkuta' (1962). (secondary)

Sources

• Qorqyt Ata is the legendary bard, seer and first baksy of the Oghuz-Kazakh tradition, credited with inventing the qyl-qobyz and revered as patron of shaman-musicians.: Zhirmunsky, 'Oguzskii geroicheskii epos i Kniga Korkuta' (1962). (secondary); Tursunov, Vozniknovenie baksy, akynov, seri i zhyrau (1999). (secondary)
• Kazakh legend tells that Qorqyt fled his foretold death across the world and died of a snake-bite while playing the kobyz on the Syr Darya, where his mausoleum stands.: Zhirmunsky, V. Skazanie ob Alpamyshe i bogatyrskaya skazka (Moscow: Nauka, 1960), with the Korkut cycle. (secondary)