Korkut Ata
Korkut Ata is the legendary sage-musician of the Oghuz Turks, revered across Kazakhstan as a wise, artistic culture hero. His lament for the impermanence of the world is said to have given birth to the kobyz, the bowed Kazakh instrument, granting a kind of immortality through music and story. His legacy survives in the Book of Dede Korkut and the Korkut Ata mausoleum cult.