The Alans (Alani) originated as an
Iranian-speaking subdivision of the
Sarmatians. They were split by the invasion of the
Huns into two parts, the European and the Caucasian. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the
North Caucasian plain and the foothills of the
main mountain chain from the headwaters of the
Kuban River in the west to the Darial Gorge in the east.
Alan Triskelion and Symbolism The triskelion on the
Ingush flag originates from Scytho-Sarmatian nomads who inhabited the central Caucasus, showing the continuity of their ancient cultural symbols.
As vassal of Khazaria Alania was an important buffer state during the
Byzantine-Arab Wars and
Khazar-Arab Wars of the 8th century.
Theophanes the Confessor left a detailed account of
Leo the Isaurian's mission to Alania in the early 8th century. Leo was instructed by Emperor
Justinian II to bribe the Alan leader Itaxes into severing his "ancient friendship" with the
Kingdom of Abkhazia, which had allied itself with Caliph
Al-Walid I. He crossed the mountain passes and concluded an alliance with the Alans, but was prevented from returning to Byzantium through
Abasgia. Although the Abkhazians spared no expense to have him imprisoned, the Alans refused to convey the Byzantine envoy to his enemies. After several months of adventures in the Northern Caucasus, Leo extricated himself from the precarious situation and returned to
Constantinople. on a 19th-century photo by
Alexander Roinashvili. On the hill behind the modern Russian fortress are the remains of the medieval border castle (sometimes called "
Tamara's castle") separating Alania from Georgia. After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies was invaded by
Umar II's forces. The
Khazar Khagan,
Barjik, hastened to their succour and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general
Tabit al-Nahrani. The Khazars erected
Skhimar and several other strongholds in Alania at this period. In 728
Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik, having penetrated the
Gate of the Alans, devastated the country of the Alans. Eight years later,
Marwan ibn Muhammad passed by the Gate in order to ravage the forts in Alania. In 758, as
Ibn al-Faqih reports, the Gate was held by another Arab general,
Yazid ibn Usayd. As a result of their united stand against the successive waves of invaders from the south, the Alans of the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the
Khazar Khaganate. They remained staunch allies of the Khazars in the 9th century, supporting them against a
Byzantine-led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king
Benjamin. According to the anonymous author of the
Schechter Letter, many Alans were during this period adherents of
Judaism.
Independence and Christianization (late 9th–10th centuries) , the
Shoana Church, and the
Senty Church. In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars. In the early 10th century, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire due to King
Constantine III of Abkhazia's activities in the North Caucasus. He sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch
Nicholas Mystikos, converted the Alans to
Christianity. The conversion is documented in the letters of Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus to the local archbishop, Peter, who was appointed here through King
George II of Abkhazia's efforts. When
Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was Christian by then. The Persian traveler came to Alania from
Sarir, a Christian kingdom immediately to the east:
Later history (11th–13th centuries) and king of Alania, 1030–1045 , in the
Senty church After the downfall of Khazaria, the Alan kings frequently allied with the
Byzantines and various
Georgian rulers for protection against encroachments by northern steppe peoples such as the
Pechenegs and
Kipchaks.
John Skylitzes reports that
Alda of Alania, after the death of her husband, "George of Abasgia" (i.e.,
George I of Georgia), received
Anakopia as a maritime fief from Emperor
Romanus III. This happened in 1033, the year when the Alans and
the Rus sacked the coast of
Shirvan in modern-day
Azerbaijan. The raids were possibly orchestrated by the Byzantine Empire and its Rus vassal in
Tmutarakan, prince
Mstislav, and might have been meant to intimidate the various Muslim emirates in the Caucasus in face of the planned Byzantine expansion in Armenia. The Rus raiders might have been arrivals from Scandinavia who entered Byzantium in 1030. The Alan king at that time seems to have been called Gabriel, known from a contemporary Greek seal where he styled himself by the Byzantine title
exousiokrator. Alania is not mentioned in East Slavic chronicles, but archaeology indicates that the Alans maintained trade contacts with the
Rus' principality of
Tmutarakan. There is a stone grave cross, with a Cyrillic inscription from 1041, standing on the bank of the Bolshoi
Yegorlyk River in present-day
Stavropol Krai, immediately north of Alania. Two Russian crosses, datable to ca. 1200, were discovered by archaeologists in
Arkhyz, the heartland of medieval Alania. The Alans and Georgians probably collaborated in the
Christianization of the
Vainakhs and
Dvals in the 12th and 13th centuries, Georgian missionaries were active in Alania. The Mongols, led by the generals
Jebe and
Subutai, met the Alans for the first time in 1222 after passing through Shirvan and Daghestan. They were confronted by a Kipchak-Alan alliance, which they defeated by scheming with the Kipchaks. Afterwards, they pushed further west, crushing a Rus alliance at the
Kalka river in 1223. . The helmet is said to have belonged to legendary "Os Baqatar", an Alan warrior chief who lived around the turn of the 14th century. The second Mongol invasion of Alania began in 1239 under
Möngke and
Güyük. While some Alanian fortresses, in particular the capital; Maghas, resisted the Mongols it seems that many local noblemen actually collaborated with the invaders to gain an advantage over their rivals. Those who resisted formed a confederation led by a certain Ajis. The climax of the invasion was the siege of Maghas, which began in November or December 1239 and lasted until February 1240. Aided by Alan auxiliaries, the fortress eventually fell and the population got massacred. Ajis himself was captured. A sizeable portion of the Alans fled westwards into Europe, where some settled in
Hungary probably still in 1239, where they became known as the
Jassic people (
jászsok) who preserved their language until the 16th century. While others continued on reaching as far as Northern Africa. After the invasion the Mongols installed two local vassal princes, called, according to the
Yuan chronicle, Arslan and Hanghusi, to rule on their behalf. Both joined the Mongol army, but were killed in combat soon afterwards. With the departure of the army in 1240 Mongol influence quickly weakened, especially in the highlands. Appreciating their skill as horsemen, the Mongols deported thousands of Alans to Mongolia in their need of fresh warriors for the
conquest of the
Southern Song and
Dali. They became known as
asud in
Mongolian or
asu in
Mandarin and were part of the privileged
semu class, foreigners from western and central Asia who were employed in the administration and the higher echelons of the military. When
Kubilai Khan, who had a
daughter with an Alan woman himself, founded the
Yuan Dynasty in 1271 he also established an influential Alan guard unit of 3.000 men that until 1309 was said to number 30.000 men. Converted to Catholicism by a
Franciscan missionary in 1299, they stayed loyal to the Yuan until the fall of the dynasty in 1368, when they escorted
Toghon Temür to Mongolia. They continued to play a significant factor in Mongolian politics until a failed rebellion in 1510, although remaining, while now completely Mongolized, distinct clans to this day. Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of
Patriarch Germanus II (1222–40). The French-Flemish monk and traveller
William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey through
Eurasia to the
Great Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in
Crimea,
Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capital
Karakoram, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars"). 's invasion. Classic Alania finally came to an end in the late 14th century, when the Turco-Mongol warlord
Tamerlane invaded. Crushing the Golden Horde at the
Battle of the Terek River in 1395, he subsequently attacked several Alan chiefs, resulting in months of massacres and enslavement that are still remembered in a popular Ossetian folk song called "the mother of Zadalesk". The invasion of Tamerlane resulted in the flight of the Alans deep into the Caucasian mountains and the end of the Alans' presence in the steppes north of the Caucasus. The few who remained were eventually absorbed into the
Circassian Kabardians and the Turkic
Karachays and
Balkars. The Alanian retreat into the mountains resulted in the subsequent
ethnogenesis of the modern-day Ossetians, represented by various subgroups like the
Digor in the west and the
Iron in the east. The Ossetes/
Ossetians remained in a state of near-total isolation until 1774, when they requested protection from the
Russian Empire, resulting in the foundation of
Vladikavkaz in 1784 and the beginning of the
Russian conquest of the Caucasus. == Known rulers ==