Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana ISSN: 1315-5216 ISSN: 2477-9555 [email protected] Universidad del Zulia Venezuela Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition KABDESHOVA, K; RAKYSH, ZH; ALBEKOV, T; AUYESBAYEVA, P; ALPYSBAYEVA, K Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, vol. 24, núm. Esp.5, 2019 Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=27962050014 Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Internacional. PDF generado a partir de XML-JATS4R por Redalyc Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto K KABDESHOVA, et al. Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition Artículos Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition Epopeyas históricas kazajas y la tradición épica K KABDESHOVA Redalyc: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa? Al-FarabiKazakh National University, Kazajistán id=27962050014 [email protected] ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4783-5705 ZH RAKYSH Al-FarabiKazakh National University, Kazajistán [email protected] ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7574-072X T ALBEKOV Al-FarabiKazakh National University, Kazajistán [email protected] ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-663X P AUYESBAYEVA Al-FarabiKazakh National University, Kazajistán [email protected] ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7716-9715 K ALPYSBAYEVA Al-FarabiKazakh National University, Kazajistán [email protected] ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-732X Recepción: 05 Septiembre 2019 Aprobación: 19 Octubre 2019 Abstract: Historical epics have great significance in world literature. Kazakh historical epics were created by folk poets. In the study, authorial historical epics are compared with heroic poetry and historical epics. In the narrative, common motives are defined between the historical epics by folk poets and the heroic poetry; the attributes are listed differentiating the former from the heroic epics. e subject of this research is the historical epics made by folk poets, their place in the Kazakh literature, the ancient motives, epical traditions in the structure, plot of compositions of this category. Keywords: Historical epic, author, epical tradition, folk poets, improvisation. Abstract: Las epopeyas históricas tienen un gran significado en la literatura mundial. Las epopeyas históricas kazajas fueron creadas por poetas populares. En el estudio, las epopeyas históricas de autor se comparan con la poesía heroica y las epopeyas históricas. En la narrativa los motivos comunes se definen entre las epopeyas históricas de los poetas populares y la poesía heroica, se enumeran los atributos que diferencian a las primeras de las epopeyas heroicas. El tema de esta investigación son las epopeyas históricas hechas por poetas populares, su lugar en la literatura kazajo, los motivos antiguos, las tradiciones épicas en la estructura, la trama de composiciones de esta categoría. Keywords: Historical epic, author, epical tradition, folk poets, improvisation. Palabras clave: Epopeya histórica, Autor, Improvisación, Poetas Populares, Tradición épica PDF generado a partir de XML-JATS4R por Redalyc Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto 103 Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, 2019, vol. 24, núm. Esp.5, Noviembre-Diciembre, ISSN: 1315-5216 24... 1. INTRODUCTION When studying the history of any nation, its sources, facts, literature, culture, etc. shall be taken into account. at said, there is a lot that literature can provide for cataloging history. Genres of literature such as yearbook, genealogy, heroic poetry, historical poetry, epics, tales, and stories provide information about historical events and historical heroes. Aer Kazakhstan gained independence, those historical epics banned from research in the Soviet era and strange to the scientific community have been published, and their research has been started. Vitality, liberty, and love for Motherland of the nation that fought with the enemy and injustice are one of the main ideas of historical epics. e poetry praising the patriotic pathos has gained its appreciation in the world literature. For example, the Egyptian pyramid texts regarded as literary composition tell about the life and adventures of the person in that tomb. e ‘Iliad' of Homer tells of the world- famous ten-year war between the Greeks and Trojans, and his ‘Odyssey' describes the Odyssey's trip to his wife, Penelope, from Ithaca, aer the end of the war (Akhmetzhanova et al.: 2015, pp. 240-241). e Indian epic ‘Mahabharata' (800-400 BC) describes the formation of the nation, and ‘Ramayana' (about 200 BC) tells of Rama's quest to rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana. In the composition s found in the Library of Assyria's king Asurbanipal (647-627 BC), the struggle and heroic deeds of ancient kings, gods, and queens of ancient Mesopotamia such as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh are described. e history of the entire human race has been longing for a peaceful life aer having troublesome times. ey never forgot their heroes that brought peace to their land. at is why the best samples of the world literature have been devoted to the deeds of the heroes. 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS e Kazakh people, who had occupied the Great Steppe, have had enough heroic sons. Historical and political events in the Kaganate, Khanate, and colonial eras involved the direct participation of heroes. In those times, the aqyn, zhyrau, and poets who were always among the people, narrated the history of the country in the form of poetry and passed it down through the generations. ‘e concept of zhyr, zhyrshy comes from zhar. Zhyr, yir, ir in Tatar, Kyrgyz and other Turkic languages means a poem or a rhyme, while in Kazakh poetry it means a rhyme, term which is not divided into verses, in the form of a long speech with a free rhyme having seven, sometimes eight syllables’ according to Prof. Y. Ismailov who shares his opinion on zhyrshy suggesting that, ‘In the Buryat-Mongolian language the zhyrshy and sheshen has the same origin, khurchi, khurchin - to play a golden violin or a gulchin - an honored woman, a soson - sheshen – meaning a smart woman, flower, respected by aqyn-zhyrshy and sang in their epics (Ismailov: 1996). Most Kazakh poets, who lived in the XV-XIX centuries and at the beginning of the ХХ century, were illiterate. erefore, their poetry was created orally and spread among the community, and only later they werewritten on paper. For example, the great poet Zhambyl Zhabayev (1846-1945) improvised his epics and kept them in memory and spread to the people orally. Abdilda Tazhibayev, Kapan Satybaldin, Kalmukan Abdykadirov, Gali Ormanov, Tair Zharokov, who were his literary secretaries in the Soviet era, helped to write down and publish the composition s that the old poet remembered. To date, many authors of historical epics and their main heroes such as batyr , historical individuals have not been thoroughly familiar to the typical reader and scientific community, and therefore many of them have not received due appreciation in the national literature and history. In the context of the Soviet ideology, there were shared opinions about some poets such as Zhambyl, Nurpeis and some batyr such as Amangeldy, Suranshi, Isatai, Makhambet, and popularization was carried out among the community. e names of dozens of other heroes, poets were ignored, and their compositions were kept in literary archives. Above, it was mentioned that the compositions of folk poets were created orally and passed down in the form of word of mouth. It is known that in the history of the world culture, the improvisational art was PDF generado a partir de XML-JATS4R por Redalyc Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto 104 K KABDESHOVA, et al. Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition also inthe composition s of bards, minnesingers, sasans, and scalds. ere were famous European improvisers such as Tommaso Sgricci, Eugen de Pradell, Adam Mickiewicz, and Max LangerSchwartz. Many Kazakh folk poets created their composition s orally till the October Revolution, and some poets - till the middle of the twentieth century, maintaining the tradition of oral literature. Folk poets, along with their own composition s, kept the memory of those of other aqyn-shyrau, bii, and sheshen, sal-Seri of aitys, of epic epics and spread them among the community. For their improvisational talent they gained sympathy and an excellent reputation among the people in the community. ‘In the Kazakh society, making verses, i.e., poetic art, was not an occupation or something to learn, but it was only an outward form of thought, a way to express ideas through talent. Making a verse or zhyr sometimes required efforts to reflect and rectifying errors in it, but sometimes the poetry came out spontaneously, like a stream, and the poet in this case used prose and sang incessantly and without any effort for rhyming. In sudden situations such as sending soldiers to war, decapitating the khan, people would wait for a poet to tell the story, and there the verses were made right away. Moreover, those who would sit and reflect did not do poetry. ey did not memorize their rhymes, or do recording on paper, but just uttered when it was needed' (Atash: 2013). When the written literature developed and the books were published, interest in the improvising art decreased, and its scope was narrowed. Nowadays, the improvisational tradition is kept in the form of aitys. is trend has remained in the Kyrgyz and Karakalpak nations along with Kazakhs. Folk poets improvised extensive and sophisticated samples of epics, as well as major epic epics. e subject of this research is the historical epics made by folk poets, their place in the Kazakh literature, the ancient motive s, epical traditions in the structure, composition, plot of composition s of this category. e scenes of intense clashes for the independence of the high steppes and the independence of the country were described in historical al epics, epic compositions, and in authorial historical poems with expressive language.