Irchi Kazak

Irchi Kazak 

Born circa 1830 in Muslimaul, in present-day Buinak Raion, Dagestan ASSR; died circa 1879. Kumyk poet; forefather of Kumyk literature. Born into a peasant family.

Irchi Kazak composed romantic and philosophical didactic poems and songs notable for their rich imagery and musicality. Because he helped his friend Atabai kidnap the slave girl he loved from the palace of the Kumyk feudal lord, he was exiled to Siberia with Atabai. Irchi Kazak sent back letters in verse with gloomy pictures of the exiles’ hard lot, which quickly spread throughout the poet’s homeland. The most brilliant are “How Could I Foresee the Khans’ Treachery?,” “Fallen Into an Iron Trap,” and “Do Not Blame Me for My Complaint.” After his exile, Kazak wrote markedly denunciatory poetry. He condemned the rapacity of the avaricious princes and beks (“Happiness” and “Other Times”). Irchi Kazak was treacherously slain at the height of his career.

WORKS

Yïrlarïndan bïrleri. Makhachkala, 1957.
[Yïrlar] Makhachkala, 1966.
In Russian translation:
Inye vremena: Stikhotvoreniia. Makhachkala, 1960.
(“Stikhotvoreniia.”) In Dagestanskie Liriki. Leningrad, 1961.

REFERENCES

Musakhanova, G. Ocherki dorevoliutsionnoi kumykskoi literatury. Makhachkala, 1959. Pages 15-40.
Sultanov, K. Poety Dagestana. Makhachkala, 1959. Pages 3–19.

G. B. MUSAKHANOVA [10–1337–4.]