Onomastics and Terminology in Kazakh Religious Dastans

Abstract

This study addresses the lack of a systematic linguistic description of religious onomastics in Kazakh qissa-dastans, where proper names carry a strong text-forming and ideological load. The article identifies and lexico-semantically organises the onomastic units found in religious dastans, refining their terminological status and classification principles within an Islamic worldview. The analysed material includes theonyms and divine epithets, names of prophets, companions and revered figures, sacred place names and names of worship sites, as well as otherworldly names referring to angels, Paradise, Hell and eschatological objects. The methodology combines continuous sampling from the Babalar Sözi corpus with descriptive and contextual analysis, lexico-semantic grouping, componential analysis and terminological verification. The study proposes a two-component classification model based on the opposition pänilik (this-worldly) versus bäqilik (otherworldly), and clarifies how general onomastic terms such as theonym and agionym can be applied to Islamic folkloric material. The results show that proper names structure narration, map sacred geography and character hierarchies, and serve a didactic function, while also revealing continuity between Tengri-related and Islamic naming traditions. These findings support the further development of a terminological framework for Islamic religious onomastics in Turkic contexts.