(b Zheti-Oguz, near Katakol [now in the Issyk-Kul province], 1894; d Frunze, 1971). Kyrgyz Manas bard. He belonged to the Kyrgyz bugu clan. His family was poor, and Karalayev took part in rebellions during 1916; he later joined the Red Army as a volunteer, and until 1922 he fought with the White Guards in Central Asia. He was also a collective farm activist. He learnt to perform Manas from his fellow countryman Choyuke Omurov (1863–1925), a famous bard whose biography was the subject of many later poems. Karalayev became a Manas bard in 1924, and from 1935 he worked as an actor for the Kyrgyz Philharmonic Society. Between 1935 and 1947 he produced a full version of Manas (250,000 verses), including two chapters entitled Semetei and Seitek, about the son and grandson of Manas, and a fairy-tale in verse, Er Tyoshtyuk, connected with the Manas cycle. Following the traditional principles of genealogical cycles, he also created a new chapter about the descendants of Manas, namely the hero Kenen (the son of Seitek), a grandson and his sons Alymsaryk and Kulansaryk. The version performed by Karalayev, a solo recitation without instrumental accompaniment, was recorded on eight LPs and afterwards partially transcribed by V.S. Vinogradov. On the basis of this version, the composers Abdïlas Maldïbayev, Vladimir Vlasov and Vladimir Fere together wrote two operas, Aychurek (1939) and Manas (1946). A large part of Manas was published in English in 1977, and since 1986 all three parts of Karalayev's version of Manas have been published in five volumes in Kyrgyz. Karalayev was acclaimed for his skill in poetic improvisation and became known as a representative of the Issyk-Kul tradition of epic performance.
A.T. Hatto, ed.: The Memorial Feast for Kökötöy-khan: a Kirghiz Epic Poem (Oxford, 1977)
V.S. Vinogradov: ‘Napevï “Manasa”’ [Tunes of Manas], Manas: kirgizskiyi geroicheskiy ėpos [Kyrgyz heroic epic], i (Moscow, 1984), 492–509
V. Krivonosov: ‘O napevakh kirgizskogo ėposa “Manas”’ [On singing the Kyrgyz epic Manas], SovM [Soviet music], no.6 (1939), 31–5
ALMA KUNANBAYEVA