Mailykozha Sultankozhauly (1835-1898) was Kazakh people's poet-improviser. He was born in Kozhatogai village of Otyrar municipality in South-Kazakhstan Oblast.  

Being a child he studied at local mullah and then continued his education himself.

Mailykozha - was the first Kazakh poet which due to his skilled ability of a story-teller turned one of the Kazakh heroic songs "Shora Batyr" into prose. This heroic story is considered to be one of the outsets of Kazakh prose of the end of XIX century.

He created his literary works in oral and written forms. There are known his several sayings as "Yer Kogerer Dugamen", "Zholdas Bolsan Zhaksymen"; including his songs - "Akhmet Torege", "Turlybekke"; poems, fables and others.

In 1883 "Kirgiz Chrestomathy" collection composed by Y. Lyutshe was published in Tashkent which covered five songs wrote by Mailykozha.

Mailykozha also collected and recorded several works of the Kazakh folklore. Later he gave his collections to famous folklorist and ethnographer A.A. Divayev.

His creations were published in several collections as "Ush Gasyr Zhyrlaidy", "Bes Gasyr Zhyrlaidy" and etc.

One of the streets in Shymkent city received his name. There is also his monument in Shymkent.

A scientific conference titled "The Tradition of Book Poets in Kazakh Literature" dedicated to the 175^th anniversary of Mailykozha was held in Jassavi Kazakh-Turkish University in 2009.

 

Source: Kazakhstan, National Encyclopedia, Volume 3.