Ergash Jumanbulbul-ogli

Ergash Jumanbulbul-ogli was born in 1868 in the village of Qo'rg'on, now in the Qo'shrabot district of the Samarkand region (the village used to be counted as part of the Nurota district; the area was then part of the Emirate of Bukhara). He came from a peasant family in which dastan singers go back seven generations. He learned the art of the dastan from his father, the well-known bard Jumanbulbul.

In 1884–1886 he studied at one of the Bukhara madrasas, learned Persian, became acquainted with Arabic and practised calligraphy. After his father died in 1886 he had to leave his studies for lack of means. In 1887–1889 he served as a mirza (clerk) to an official of the Nurota beklik in the Emirate of Bukhara.

During years of famine, locust plagues and cholera he lost members of his family, and from about 1904–1905 he spent several years wandering. In 1912–1922 he worked as a healer, storyteller and reciter of verse in villages around Bulung'ur, G'allaorol, Urgut, Jizzakh and Panjakent, sometimes performing dastans as well. In 1923 he returned to his village, and in 1924 he opened a one-room school in the village of Qorakisa.

He came to Samarkand in 1925. In 1926–1928, at a centre for recording epics set up in the village of Qirqshodi in the Bulung'ur district, he dictated the dastans he knew together with Po'lkan shoir and Fozil Yo'ldosh o'g'li. In 1929–1936 he lived mostly in his own village, farming and teaching pupils the art of the dastan.

The bard knew about thirty dastans, many of which were written down, among them “Kuntug'mish”, “Ravshan”, “Alpomish”, “Dalli”, “Xushkeldi”, “Qunduz and Yulduz” and “The Birth of Goroghli”. He also composed many termas (sung verses), including a well-known one about Tashkent. The folklorist Hodi Zarifov studied and documented his work.

In 1936 he came to Tashkent and lived in the house of Hodi Zarifov until April 1937. At the end of April 1937 he returned to his village and died the same year, on 12 May (sources give 11–12 May), in the village of Qo'shtamg'ali; he was buried there.

Ergash Jumanbulbul-ogli is regarded as the greatest representative of the Qo'rg'on school of dastan singers. In the village of Qo'rg'on there is a house-museum, a statue and a mausoleum dedicated to him. In 2017 restored statues of him, Islom shoir, Fozil Yo'ldosh o'g'li and Po'lkan shoir were unveiled in the Poets' Garden in Samarkand, and in 2026 an international scholarly conference on his legacy was held in Qo'shrabot.