Kaztugan-zhyrau (date of birth and death are precisely unknown) was a Kazakh poet improvisator, a storyteller, one of the founders of the national epos. According to national legends Kaztugan-zhyrau was commander-batyr. Kaztugan-zhyrau was born approximately in 1420 in Kyzylzhar near the city of Kazhi-Tarkhan (Astrakhan). Data about the place and time of his death did not remain. Grew on Edil's (Volga) coast and his inflows — the Akhtuba and Bodan Rivers. After 1480 Kaztugan-zhyrau together with the tribe Alshyn joined the Kazakh khanate and removed on Edil's east coast.
Kaztugan-zhyrau left a creative heritage consisting of a set of songs describing life, the native land and a military life of Kazakhs. Many of them did not remain. Only three tolgaus reached up to now: «Two convex foreheads», «My people worry and anxious», «Visible but unattainable peak». Nevertheless, these works of Kaztugan-zhyrau allow him to take a certain place in the history of literature.
Kaztugan-zhyrau's poems allow exploring his epoch. In tolgay «Two convex foreheads» he appears in an image of the poet-zhyrau and batyr. In his poem “My people worry and anxious” is about his people who left the native land on Edil and removed to other places. In the poem «Visible but unattainable peak» the author acts already as a soldier-zhyrau.
Kaztugan-zhyrau's poetry shows with clarity nomad consciousness of soldiers, their world outlook and reflects their life, thoughts on the nature surrounding them. The sharpness, width of the imagination of the poet storyteller, wealth and beauty of his artistic touches speak not only about high level of poetic art of Kazakhs of that time, but also about its originality. Being national brightly painted, grown by the creative romanticism, rich on aphoristic reflections and art sketches Kaztugan-zhyrau's songs remained as school of art and literary samples for many centuries. His creations belong to the chosen examples of ancient Kazakh poetry. The songs which have remained in oral national creativity of the poet were published in collections «Turkish anthology» (in the 2 volumes) by I.Berezin in 1862, «Shayyr or the main poems of the Kazakh poets» by Gabdulla Mushtak in 1910, and "Aldaspan" in 1970.
