Er Targın is the hero of one of the best-loved Nogai heroic epics, sung also among the Kazakhs and Karakalpaks. A batyr forced into exile, he enters the service of a khan, overcomes the enemy's dreaded champion in single combat mounted on his tulpar Tarlan, and wins the maiden Aq-Jünıs. His tale belongs to the great Nogai repertoire of the 'forty batyrs' and celebrates the ideals of loyalty, prowess and horsemanship central to steppe heroic song.