Epic of Koroghlu

The hero is Rovshan. When the khan has the eyes of his father, the groom Ali, put out, Rovshan builds a fortress in the Chanlibel mountains to take revenge, gathers brave men around him and becomes known as Koroghlu — "son of the blind man".

Koroghlu is a symbol of the struggle for justice: he fights tyrannical khans and pashas and protects the poor. His horse Girat, his Egyptian sword and his saz are inseparable from the tale, and he is an ashiq too, reciting goshmas before battle.

Passed down by ashiqs, the epic exists in Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh and other versions. Uzeyir Hajibeyli's opera Koroghlu is based on it.