Christ as the Bandit of Peace: Russell Talks at NAASR About the Legacy
of the Koroglu Epic

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By Andy Turpin – on September 24, 2009

BELMONT, Mass. (A.W.) – On Sept. 17, Prof. James R. Russell, the
Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, spoke at
the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in
a lecture titled, `From Parthia to Robin Hood: The Armenian Version of
the Epic of the Blind Man’s Son.’

Marc A. Mamigonian, NAASR’s director of programs and publications,
introduced Russell, stating, `It’s pretty well known in this room that
NAASR established the Armenian studies chair at Harvard, and over the
years we’ve kept in very good relations with the two professors of
that chair, Professor Thomson and Professor Russell. It must be
mentioned that when the chair was first established in 1958, there had
never been a chair created by Harvard, or in fact America, in Armenian
studies and created by such grassroots community efforts.’

`NAASR is proud to have been the publisher or co-publisher of many of
these books over the last quarter century,’ he noted of Russell’s
research in Armenian studies.

The epic of Koroglu is a heroic legend prominent in the oral
traditions of many Turkic clans and groups. The legend typically
describes the hero Koroglu, who seeks to avenge the wrongful blinding
of his father and becomes an infamous bandit leader. It was often put
to music and played at sporting events as an inspiration to the
competing athletes.

The legend first began to take shape sometime around the 11th
century. It exists in many variants in a number of different Turkic
languages and is common to several different cultures.
Russell said that `most reciters of the epic were poor sharecroppers
and did not know all the episodes of Koroglu entirely.’

He also noted two facts that make the Koroglu epic stand out
historically – the first, that `Koroglu’s best friend is, in fact, his
horse’ and the second that `Koroglu is a Shia, not Sunni,
Muslim. Koroglu was an Ottoman Turk by race. His actual dwelling place
was somewhere around Kars.’

Unlike the epic of David of Sassoun or tales of Vartan Mamigonian,
Russel said, the Koroglu epic is the only epic historically told and
re-told by Armenians that features a very Muslim hero.

Koroglu himself is an anti-hero, whose views on life and the
justifications for his actions are summed up in his quote within the
narrative, that `repaying good for good is the work of every man, but
repaying evil for evil is the work of the brave.’

Russell talked about the socio-economic and geo-political factors that
came into play during the origin period of the Koroglu epic. `There
was no strong ruler in the kingdom, so men did as is natural to their
inclination… Poverty was so great in the region at the time that
there were instances of cannibalism and in fact this chronicle may
perhaps be the first large migration of Armenians into the
diaspora. Political and economic chaos allowed charismatic leaders to
rise, as many believed they were living in the end times.’

Russell compared the Koroglu epic to it natural correlations with the
Robin Hood mythos of northern Europe as well as to the Gospels of
Christ – the latter standing out all the more for its inversion of
similar themes and tailoring to notions of love and brotherhood.

`The ones about whom legends grow usually do not start out as
criminals, but as avenging figures,’ he said. `And the charismatic
leader is always killed by treason or betrayed and cannot be killed
conventionally. Bandits also often rise up against foreign
oppressors.’ In the Gospels the oppressors are the Romans, and in
other regions in other periods the tribe or group of the hero and
oppressors vary depending on the affinity of the bard.

Though unlike the jaunty brigands of Robin Hood’s merry men, Koroglu’s
cohorts are dark and their names reflect the infamy of their deeds and
modes: `Cut and Cut Some More,’ `The Dark Hour,’ and `Son of the
Dagger.’

Even the ending of the Koroglu epic is rooted in darkness and
vengeance. As Russell said, `He will remain in Crow’s Rock in Van
until the earth in the end of days is hardened with the corruption of
man and his horse’s hooves will at last be able to grip the earth to
bring forth the Apocalypse.’

Turning to compare the epic’s themes to those in real life that have
been motivated by real bandit leaders resisting authority and
oppression, Russell cited the anonymous Spanish Republican soldier
that committed bandit raids during the Spanish Civil War. `We were
knightly, but also spiritual,’ he had recalled.

Russel also compared the themes in Koroglu to those of the real-life
deeds of the Bielski Brothers operating in German-occupied Poland
during World War II. `Tuvia [Bielski] is a stately figure, always
talked about riding a horse wearing his leather jacket, with Tommy gun
in hand, known as Judah the Maccabee.’
`Human affairs and human nature being what they are – we’ll have to do
it again, and that’s why studying these narratives matter,’ he ended.

Asked during the Q&A to explain his parameters for an epic, Russell
said that `it depends on the definition of an epic, but an epic hero
is someone who is plausible but also larger than life and engages in a
battle crucial to the community that embodies the social values of
that community and always with supernatural elements.’

`I usually look for a magical horse,’ he said, `but one of the salient
features is that epics are a collective social work of
literature. Epics are social and meant to be told. When they aren’t
told, they don’t survive. Look at Gilgamesh; it didn’t survive, it had
to be rediscovered.’

In regards to the scholarly processes he used to study the Koroglu
epic, Russell noted of its arduousness, `There’s a vast amount of
information in Turkey on the Koroglu epic, but one of the impediments
to the study of the epic are the national affinities that block the
study by co-opting it for Turkish nationalism.’