Abstract
Since ancient times, an epic tradition has been functioning in Kazakh folklore, within the framework of which epic legends are formed and developed. In addition to the classical examples of the heroic and romantic epic, there is a later layer consisting of legends of the Nogai period. The relevance of the material presented is determined by the coverage of some issues in the study of this cycle of epic legends. The novelty of the study is determined by a comprehensive consideration of the genre features of these legends, by the fact that among the Nogais they were preserved in the form of a separate epic, and among the Kazakhs in the form of a whole complex – a cycle of genealogical legends. Kazakh scholars began to study the epic of the Nogai period back in the 1940s. In the performance of the Kazakh storyteller Muryn Sengirbekuly, three genealogical cycles are recorded, containing about thirty epic tales. Unfortunately, in the Soviet period, the study of these samples of the epic was difficult. Nevertheless, individual researchers published their research on the Nogai epic. The main purpose of the article is to emphasize the cognitive nature and degree of knowledge of the Nogai epic. the study of the Nogai epic. I must say that the texts of the Nogai epic began to be published in full only after the collapse of the USSR. During the period of independence, several works were written on this topic, but the cognitive nature of the Nogai epic was not part of the task of study. They are valuable in that they contain numerous information of the onomastic order, shedding light on the past history of the Nogais and Kazakhs. The main provisions of this article were formed in the conditions of the historical, ethnic and ethnographic method of studying the Nogai epic. A comparative method was used, which made it possible to distinguish the main ethnic names in the epic. The conclusion summarizes the conclusions that the genealogical samples of the Nogai epic went through a cyclization process. Despite the abundance of historical information, in contrast to the classical examples of the Kazakh heroic epic, ethnonyms are very sparsely represented in them. Quite often there are anthroponyms, little unknown to the Kazakh epic tradition. Of course, the study of the Nogai epic is not limited to this. All onomastic names of the epic, not fully studied by academic science, need further in-depth study. Suffice it to recall the presence of one ethnonym "Hindu," which is a mystery to epic scholars.