Jirshi

Kazakh folk-epic reciters. Heroic and social, everyday epics, the dastans, are the main genre of thejirshi. Especially well known are Marabai (19th century), Muryn Sengerbaev, Aisa Baitabynov, and Nurpeis Baiganin (late 19th and 20th century). The best variants of Koblanda-batyr and the collection Forty Warriors, as told byjirshi, have been transcribed. After the Great October Revolution, they com-posed original epic works, such as Song of the Hero (1945) and Twenty-five (1945) by N. Baiganin.