Dastan

Dastan is an ornate form of oral history and epic narrative found across Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan; the word itself is Persian for story or tale. A dastan is generally centered on one individual who protects his tribe or people from an outside invader or enemy, functioning as both narrative entertainment and a vehicle for moral instruction. The genre spans many Turkic and Caucasian traditions, including the Oghuz Turks and the Karakalpaks, and is carried by distinct performance styles: among Karakalpak and related Turkic communities, a baqsi performs lyrical epics of love and adventure accompanied by the dutar, while a zhyrau performs heroic epics accompanied by the kobyz. A celebrated example is the Oghuz Turkic Korkut Ata, or Book of Dede Korkut, which may have been created as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century. During the period of Russian expansion into Central Asia, new dastans emerged protesting the occupation, and Soviet authorities are said to have worked to suppress these texts in order to diminish their heroic impact.