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Bamsi Beyrek

is a character in the Book of Dede Korkut and in Turkish, Azeri and some Altai legends and fairy tales.

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ6862371 ↗
Source-derived summary

Bamsi Beyrek (Azerbaijani: Bamsı Beyrək, بامسی بئیرک, Turkish: Bamsı Beyrek, Turkmen: Bamsi Beýrek) is a legendary character in the Book of Dede Korkut and in Turkish, Azeri and some Altai legends. Despite his stories being far-stretched, it is believed that he may have indeed been a real person.

In the Book of Dede Korkut

Character and appearance

Bamsi Beyrek was the best friend of Salur Kazan, the main character in the stories. He was also one of the four most handsome men of all the Oghuz noblemen but was quite emotional, and he took irrational steps sometimes. His horse's name was Dengiboz or Bengiboz, and it was grey in colour, as “boz” here refers to a grey, ash-grey, or silver-grey coat of a horse.

Storyline

Birth and "how he got his name"

Legend II (Bamsi Beyrek, Son of Bay Büre Bey or Bamsi Beyrek of the Grey Horse according to translator Geoffrey Lewis) is centered around Beyrek. In the legend, it says that once the Oghuz princes all gathered somewhere. The father of Beyrek, Bay Büre, wept when he saw everyone had a son besides him. The prince asked why he was crying, he replied that it was because he doesn't have a son to carry on his family. The princes all started to pray that Bay Büre would get a son.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Bamsi Beyrek” as is a character in the Book of Dede Korkut and in Turkish, Azeri and some Altai legends and fairy tales. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bamsi, Beyrek and character.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current 222-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Bamsi, Beyrek and character providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bamsi Beyrek”, the useful work is to connect “is a character in the Book of Dede Korkut and in Turkish, Azeri and some Altai legends and fairy tales” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6862371. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bamsi Beyrek”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bamsi Beyrek primary sources, Bamsi Beyrek archive and Bamsi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bamsi Beyrek”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bamsi Beyrek” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.