Yashlaba

Excerpt from the Eshkul manuscript, a 13th century edition of the Yashlaba. Nationales Geschichtsmuseum, Westbrücken.

The Yashlaba (Zalyk: Яшлабa), also known as Yashla ba Ungen, Tam-Ungen, or the Soravian Bog-Khan is the ancient epic poem of the Zalyk people of Zalykia, in western Soravia. In Estmerish, the poem is variously known as Yashla or Yashla and the Foxes, though the common name Yashlaba is now frequently used. The poem's 2,466 lines tell the story of the mythical king Yashla protecting his people from the trickster god Gal.

The epic is attributed to the mediaeval Zalyk poet Azhar, and historians estimate that the Yashlaba was written sometime in the 10th century. Tagamologists and australists studied the poem extensively, producing the first modern translations of the poem into Soravian in the 1730s. There has been debate as to the extent the Yashlaba influenced Euclean artistry during this period.

The Yashlaba is generally seen as a cornerstone of Zalyk literature, and has played a crucial role in both the translation of mediaeval Zalyk and in the transliteration and solarianisation of the old Tagamic script. The qagans of Zalykia later claimed descendence from Yashla.