The Koroglu epic: four branches

In the 2026 exam the Koroglu task gave statements about five characters of the branch Həmzənin Qıratı qaçırması (“Hamza Steals Qirat”) and asked candidates to find the mismatches. The trap was a small detail: for example, the key to which horse does Koroglu give Hamza? In this lesson we read the four branches named in the programme with that precision. The dastan genre itself is covered in the lesson “Oral folk literature: from bayatis to epics”.

Source, theme, idea

Koroglu is a heroic dastan. Its historical source is considered to be the Jalali uprisings of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and it took its final shape in the 17th–18th centuries. Rovshan, son of the poor horse-herder Ali Kishi, takes up arms to avenge his father: Hasan Khan, on the advice of Hasan Pasha of Tokat, had his father blinded. Rovshan becomes Koroglu (“son of the blind man”) and builds a free homeland at Chanlibel; brave men fed up with oppression — the delis (dəli, his daring companions) — gather around him. Theme: the people's struggle against tyranny and injustice; idea: freedom, justice, courage. Respect for mothers and women and sympathy for working people run through the whole epic.

*Düratın itməyi* and *Durna teli*

The Loss of Durat (Düratın itməyi). In spring Koroglu lets Durat run with the herd. The wild Durat drives the herd down from Chanlibel into the reserve of Qara Khan of Ballija. The cruel and greedy khan, who poses as a relative of the shah of Iran, seizes the herd, yet no herder will look after it — everyone knows it is Koroglu's. Dali Mehtar cannot find the herd, and Nigar tries to calm Koroglu (Nigar, Düratın itməyi / Yandırır məni, yandırır... — “Nigar, the loss of Durat burns me”). The news is brought by Qara Khan's own groom, who recognised whose herd it was by Durat. Koroglu, dressed as a herder, presents himself as a herder sacked by Koroglu; the khan boasts, Koroglu roars, the delis pour in and Qara Khan is killed. The groom is given a horse and a sword and joins the delis.

The Crane Feather (Durna teli). Seeing Eyvaz with a crane feather in his cap, Telli Khanum wants crane feathers for the ladies too. With Nigar's leave, Eyvaz rides Qirat, and Damirchioglu and Balli Ahmad their own horses, to the outskirts of Baghdad. While they sleep after the hunt, the warden of Aslan Pasha of Baghdad reports them; Qirat neighs and wakes them, but they are captured. When the pasha's head groom mounts Qirat, the horse pretends to be lame, is taken for “a servant's horse” and given to the warden. Koroglu's merchant friend Khoja Aziz buys Qirat, glues himself to its back with pitch and resin and reaches Chanlibel. On the way Koroglu has the delis reap the field of a weeping hundred-year-old reaper, then enters Aslan Pasha's square dressed as an ashiq. Giziroglu Mustafa Bey throws his famous forked mace into the square. When Koroglu strokes his moustache, the delis attack and Aslan Pasha is killed. Finally Koroglu and Giziroglu fight by a river and become sworn brothers.

*Həmzənin Qıratı qaçırması* (Hamza steals Qırat)

1. The sultan gathers his pashas and complains of Koroglu; Hasan Pasha undertakes to catch him and is given forty days.
2. At the council in Tokat, Bolu Bey, who loves Dunya Khanum, agrees to lead one of the armies. Mehtar Murtuz says: half of Koroglu's valour is in Qirat.
3. Bald Hamza promises to bring Qirat; he wants neither wealth nor a title nor adoption, but the pasha's younger daughter, Dona Khanum, and gets a sealed paper from him.
4. At Chanlibel Hamza poses as a poor herder who “wasted his life at the gates of beys and pashas”. Though the delis and the ladies object, Koroglu keeps him and names him Kaloglan.
5. Hamza fattens up a skinny packhorse; Koroglu entrusts him with the run-down Durat and gives him Durat's hobble key.
6. One night Hamza flees on Durat. Koroglu catches up with him on Qirat at the Forty Mills; Hamza tricks the miller into swapping clothes and, while Koroglu deals with the miller, mounts Qirat and escapes. Koroglu begs: Həmzə, incitmə Qıratı! — “Hamza, don't hurt Qirat!”
7. Koroglu comes back on Durat; Eyvaz reproaches him (Bu sövdan mübarək olsun! — “Congratulations on your bargain!”) and the delis want to leave. Nigar stops them and scolds Koroglu; he lies three days and nights without food or water.
8. After the reconciliation Koroglu goes to Tokat dressed as an ashiq, stays with an old woman and learns of “Hamza Bey's” wedding and that Qirat is in the pasha's stable.
9. At the wedding Hasan Pasha boasts of having “taken” Qirat from Koroglu; the ashiq promises to cure the horse's “madness” with his saz and is pushed into the stable. Meanwhile Dona Khanum reproaches Hamza for stealing a hero's horse for the sake of a girl.
10. Hamza holds Koroglu's stirrup; Hasan Pasha flees up a castle tower. Koroglu cuts through the army, swims across the Tona river, returns to Chanlibel and admits his mistake to the delis: “I should not have trusted him with the keys.” He forgives Hamza.

*Koroğlu ilə Bolu bəy* (Koroghlu and Bolu Bey)

Koroglu's friendship with Alamqulu Khan alarms Hasan Pasha, and the pashas plan to attack from three sides: Bolu Bey from Erzincan, Arab Reyhan from Kars, Hasan Pasha from Tokat. Each looks out for himself; Bolu Bey hurries to win the glory alone. Koroglu, out without weapons or horse, comes face to face with Bolu Bey and calls himself a warden. Mehtar Murtuz recognises him and signals to Bolu Bey; they beat Koroglu and throw him into a lake, but he insists: İnan, Bolu, mən Koroğlu deyiləm — “Believe me, Bolu, I am not Koroglu.” Bolu Bey believes him and has him untied; when asked “man to man”, Koroglu admits who he is. Bolu Bey slyly says he will hand him to Hasan Pasha in exchange for Dunya Khanum. True to his word, Koroglu fetches his weapons and comes back, kills Qajar Ali, throws Bolu Bey down and then has his own arms tied. On the road Bolu Bey treacherously strikes his bare head with a sword.

Seeing this, Khoja Aziz warns Chanlibel, and Nigar sends Isabali after Koroglu. In Erzincan Koroglu is thrown into a deep well in Bolu Bey's courtyard. Dunya Khanum, who cannot bear Bolu Bey, hears the song rising from the well and, with her maidservant, sends Koroglu food. When Isabali arrives, the captain of the guard reports it to Bolu Bey; Isabali pulls Koroglu out with a rope. Koroglu kills Bolu Bey, forgives Mehtar Murtuz, who falls at his feet saying Qul xətasız olmaz, ağa kərəmsiz (“no servant is without fault, no master without mercy”), and takes Dunya Khanum and her maidservant to Chanlibel.

Artistic features and characters

In the dastan prose and verse alternate: events are told in prose, while feelings are mostly expressed in qoshmas and gerayli poems. Dastan formulas (“Of whom shall I tell you...”, “he went a little, he went a lot”), hyperbole (Koroglu eating pilaf by the cauldron; half a carcass of seven sheep as “one meal”), litotes, similes, metaphors, repetition and proverbs (“The eye fears what it has seen”) bring the language alive, and there is plenty of humour. Qirat is more than a horse: At igidin qardaşıdı — “a horse is a hero's brother”. The delis share courage, fearlessness and loyalty in friendship, but each has his own features: Dali Hasan is composed and prudent, Eyvaz sincere, Balli Ahmad modest, Damirchioglu patient and enduring. Hasan Pasha, Arab Reyhan and Bolu Bey are base, cunning, cowardly and two-faced; Koroglu's victory is the victory of right and justice.