Ancient Alans history. Who are the Alans, and what does the Ossetians have to do with it?

Alans. Who are they?

M. I. ISAEV, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences .

From the preface to the Russian edition of Vernard S. Bachrach's book "Alans in the West." (Original: “A history of the Alans in the West”, by Bernard S. Bachrach)

Peoples are like people. Just as each person has his own biography, any ethnic group has a history unique to it.

There is one similarity between personality and ethnicity. For more complete identification of a person, along with his name, the patronymic is usually called, that is, the name of the father, and in some nations, the name of the son (or daughter). In the same way, scientists strive to identify the ancestor of the people being studied and their descendants (if they themselves have already sunk into oblivion as an ethnos).

Fortunately, scientists have sufficient information about the Alans so that they can be considered in a single succession chain: Scythians - Alans - Ossetians.

Scythians

A child announces his birth with an energetic cry, and the Scythians marked their arrival into the fold of history with the boom of galloping cavalry, by war with the Cimmerians, who were driven out by them by the 7th century. BC e. from populated areas in the vast Northern Black Sea region. In the next century, they made victorious campaigns in Asia Minor, conquering Media, Syria, and Palestine. However, after a few decades, they were forced out of there by the recovered Medes.

There is no exact data on the settlement of the Scythians during different periods of their history. It has only been established that they settled mainly in the steppes between the lower reaches of the Danube and Don, including the steppe Crimea and areas adjacent to the Northern Black Sea region.

According to the father of history, Herodotus, the Scythians were divided into several large tribes. The predominant position among them was occupied by the so-called “royal Scythians,” who lived in the steppes between the Dniester and Don. Scythian nomads lived along the right bank of the lower Dnieper and in the steppe Crimea. Not far from them and interspersed with them, Scythian farmers settled.

The Scythians had a tribal union that resembled a slave-owning state. They carried on an intensive trade in livestock, grain, furs and slaves.

The power of the Scythian king was hereditary and deified. However, it was limited to the so-called union council and people's assembly.

As often happens, wars greatly contributed to the political unity of the Scythians. In this regard, their campaign in 512 BC played an important role in the consolidation of the Scythians. e. to Persia, which at that time was ruled by King Darius I. By the 40s of the 4th century. BC e. The Scythian king Atey, having eliminated his rivals, completes the unification of all Scythia from the Sea of Azov to the Danube.

About the heyday of the Scythians by the 4th century. BC. evidenced by the appearance in Transnistria of grandiose mounds, the so-called “royal mounds” - up to 20 m high.

They had deep and complex structures, in which kings or their closest associates were buried. In the rich burial grounds there were copper, silver and gold utensils, dishes, as well as Greek painted ceramics, amphorae with wine, and fine jewelry made by Scythian and Greek craftsmen.

End of the 4th century BC e. considered the beginning of the fall of the Scythians.

In 339 BC. Scythian king-unifier Atey dies in the war with the Macedonian king Philip II. And by the end of the same century, related tribes of the Sarmatians were advancing from across the Danube, significantly displacing the Scythians, who were now concentrated mainly in the Crimea and the lower reaches of the Dnieper.

Here are the Scythians in the 2nd century. BC e. acquire a second wind and subjugate Olbia and some possessions of Chersonesos, actively trading bread and other products on the foreign market. Perhaps the last rise in the power of the Scythians occurred in the second half of the 1st century. already AD. Then there is a gradual decline in the importance of the Scythians in the historical arena.

The Scythian kingdom, centered in Crimea, existed until the second half of the 3rd century. AD, when it was defeated by the Goths. From this time on, a gradual attenuation of the independence of the Scythians and their ethnic identity began, and they mostly dissolved among the tribes of the Great Migration of Peoples.

However, the “Scythian trace” did not disappear, as sometimes happens with ethnic groups.

Firstly. The Scythians made an invaluable contribution to the artistic culture of mankind. Of particular interest are products decorated in the so-called “animal style”. These are the linings of scabbards and quivers, sword handles, parts of bridle sets, and women's jewelry.

The Scythians depicted entire scenes of animal fights, but they achieved particular brilliance in showing the figures of individual animals, the most favorite of which is considered to be the deer.

Secondly. The Scythians as an ethnic group did not disappear without a trace, since, according to competent scientists, their direct descendants were the Alans, no less famous in history, to which we now turn.

Alans

Just as a young man snatches a sword from the weakening hand of his warrior father and continues his work, in the last century BC. From among the semi-nomadic Scythian-Sarmatian population of the Northern Caspian region, Don and Ciscaucasia, energetic Alans emerged and rushed on their fast horses to the south, and then to the west.

As if guided by the genetic memory of their Scythian and Sarmatian ancestors, they made victorious campaigns in the Crimea, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Media. Some of the Alans, together with the Huns, took part in the Great Migration of Peoples and reached North Africa through Gaul and Spain. At the same time (first half of the 1st century AD), another part of the Alans approached the foothills of the Caucasus, where, under their leadership, a powerful union of Alan and local Caucasian tribes was formed, called “Alania”.

There is a partial settlement of the Alan nomads, who begin farming and pastoralism.

It has been established that in the VIII-IX centuries. Feudal relations arose among the Alans, and they themselves became part of the Khazar Khaganate. In the IX-X centuries. The Alans create an early feudal state and play an important role in the external relations of Khazaria with Byzantium. From there Christianity penetrates them.

Medieval Alans created their own original art. They painted specific geometric patterns and images of animals and people on stones and hewn slabs. As for applied art, it is represented mainly by jewelry made of gold and silver, stones or glass, and ornaments.

The Alans also developed cast bronze images of humans and animals. Alan art reached its peak in the 10th-12th centuries, as evidenced by numerous objects found in the Zmeysky burial ground (North Ossetia). Among them are clothes, scabbards of sabers, a unique gilded horse guard in the form of a female half-figure, ornamented gilded plaques, etc. There is strong evidence that during the heyday of the original Alan culture they had writing in Greek script (Zelenchuk inscription on a gravestone, 941). ). In the same era, the world-famous Nart epic arose among the Alans, which later spread also among some neighboring peoples.

The existence of Alania as a powerful state was interrupted at the moment of its highest prosperity by the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar hordes, which finally captured the entire plain of Ciscaucasia (1238-1239). The remnants of the Alans went into the gorges of the mountains of the Central Caucasus and Transcaucasia, partially assimilated with the Caucasian-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes, but retained their continuity with the Alans. They were reborn under the names Yassy, Ossy, Ossetians.

Ossetians

Deprived of the power and glory of their Alan ancestors, the Ossetian tribes disappeared from the arena of history for five long centuries.

During this entire period, everyone seemed to have forgotten about them - no one remembers them in any treatises. That is why the first travelers - Caucasian scholars of modern times - when faced with the Ossetians, were at a loss: what kind of people are they that are not like their neighbors of the “Caucasian and Turkic races”? Various hypotheses of their origin have emerged.

The famous European scientist and traveler Academician Gyldenstedt, who visited the Caucasus in 1770 and 1773, put forward a theory of the origin of the Ossetians from the ancient Polovtsians. He found similarities between some Ossetian names and Polovtsian ones.

Later, in the first half of the 19th century, another travel scientist, Haxthausen, substantiated the theory of the Germanic origin of the Ossetians. He proceeded from the fact that individual Ossetian words coincided with German ones, as well as from the commonality of a number of cultural and everyday objects among these peoples. The scientist believed that the Ossetians were the remnants of the Goths and other Germanic tribes, defeated by the Huns, who survived in the Caucasus.

Somewhat later, the scientific world learned about the third theory of the formation of this people. It belongs to the famous European traveler and ethnologist Pfaff, according to whom the Ossetians are of mixed Iranian-Semitic origin. He believed that the Ossetians were the result of a mixture of Semites and Aryans.

The initial argument for the scientist was the external similarity he discovered between many highlanders and Jews. In addition, he found some common features between both peoples. For example: a) the eldest son remains with his father and obeys him in everything; b) the brother is obliged to marry the wife of the deceased brother (the so-called “levirate”); c) with a legal wife, it was possible to also have “illegal” ones, etc. However, with the development of science, in particular comparative ethnology, it became known that similar phenomena were observed among many other peoples.

Unlike sports, where the required result is achieved in three attempts, in this case the scientists “hit the mark” on the fourth try.

In the first half of the 19th century. the famous European traveler J. Klaproth expressed the hypothesis of the Iranian origin of the Ossetians. Following him, in the middle of the same century, the Russian academician Andrei Sjögren, using extensive linguistic material, proved once and for all the correctness of this point of view.

The point here is not only the level of development of science. As it turns out, the most important determinant of an ethnic group is language. It is not for nothing that the classification of peoples is also based on linguistic criteria.

This means that the genetic classifications of languages and peoples (ethnic groups) almost completely coincide...

Analysis of the linguistic material of Academician Sjögren (“the father of Ossetian studies”) helped determine not only the origin of the Ossetians, but also their place in the Iranian branch of the most extensive Indo-European family of peoples. But this is not enough. Language turned out to be a kind of mirror in which the entire history of its speakers is reflected. As the wonderful Russian poet P. A. Vyazemsky said:

Language is the confession of the people,

His nature is heard in him,

His soul and life are dear...

This property is especially important for peoples who did not have ancient written traditions.

The fact is that many nations have important information about their history in the written sources of ancient eras. Among unliterate people, to a certain extent they are replaced by language, from the history of which scientists pave the way to the history of the people themselves.

Thus, according to the language data, the main contours of the history of the Ossetian people for almost four thousand years have been reliably established.

Scientists have determined that Ossetian turned out to be one of the most archaic languages within the huge Indo-European family of languages, whose speakers appeared on the arena of history back in the 2nd millennium BC. and continuously play an ever-increasing role in it. As is known, this family of peoples included and includes: the ancient Hittites, Romans, Greeks, Celts; Indians, Slavic, Germanic and Romance peoples; Albanians and Armenians.

At the same time, it was established that Ossetian belongs to the Iranian group of Indo-European languages, which also includes languages such as Persian, Afghan, Kurdish, Tajik, Tat, Talysh, Baluchi, Yaghnobi, Pamir languages and dialects. This group also included dead languages: Old Persian and Avestan (approximately VI-IV centuries BC), as well as Saka, Pahlavi, Sogdian and Khorezmian, called “Middle Iranian”.

Thanks to the evidence of linguistic data in the works of the largest academician Iranian-Ossetian scholars V.F. Miller and V.I. Abaev, the immediate ancestors of the Ossetians were also established. The closest of them chronologically are the medieval tribes of the Alans, and the “distant” are the Scythians and Sarmatians of the 8th-7th centuries. BC. - IV-V centuries. AD

Having discovered direct continuity along the line of Scythians - (Sarmatians) - Alans - Ossetians, scientists have found the keys to unlocking the secrets of the largely mysterious Scythians and Alans.

The linguistic material of the Scythian-Sarmatian world, which stretched over a vast space from the Danube to the Caspian Sea, is preserved in several thousand toponymic names and proper names. They are found in the writings of ancient hysterics and Greek inscriptions, found mainly on the site of old Greek colony-cities: Tanaids, Gorgipgia, Panticapaeum, Olbia, etc.

The absolute majority of Scythian-Sarmatian words are recognized through the modern Ossetian language (just as, say, ancient Russian vocabulary is recognized by us through the vocabulary of the modern Russian language). For example, the names of the rivers Dnieper, Dniester, Don, dating back to the Scythian era, are deciphered through the Ossetian language, in which don means “water”, “river” (hence Dnieper - “Deep River”, Dniester - “Big River”, Don - “ river").

The very meager linguistic material remaining from the Alans is all the more fully explained from the modern Ossetian language, more precisely, from its more archaic Digor variety.

However, the Ossetians, having formed as a people already in the Caucasus, experienced significant influence from the Turkic and Iberocaucasian peoples. This affected the language, the “second nature” of which is rightly called “Caucasian”.

The mixing of the Iranian element with the Caucasian element also affected the racial identity of the people (which scientists now define as “Balkan-Caucasian”), not to mention the culture. In the life, rituals, and customs of the Ossetians, the Caucasian element won an almost complete victory over the Iranian one. Only special scientific research makes it possible in some cases to reveal traces of Iranianness under the “Caucasian layer.”

In the religious views of the people there is a bizarre interweaving of various beliefs: Christian, Muslim and pagan.

Most Ossetians are considered adherents of Orthodoxy, which penetrated them back in the 6th-7th centuries. from Byzantium, later from Georgia, and from the 18th century. From Russia. A minority are adherents of Islam, the influence of which penetrated to the Ossetians mainly from the Kabardians in the 17th-18th centuries. Both religions did not take deep roots among the Ossetians and often replaced each other in certain places. In addition, like grass through the asphalt, pagan beliefs often seeped through Christian and Muslim dogmas, destroying and leveling the characteristics of the two “world religions.”

The religious institutions of the Ossetians suffered the most significant degradation during the years of Soviet power. Churches and mosques were damaged, which were closed almost everywhere and partially destroyed. Only in the last 3-4 years has there been a revival of both religions, as well as pagan cult rituals.

Nowadays there is a deepening interest in the historical roots of the people, in the world famous Nart epic of the Ossetians, which captures the poetic image of the people, historical facts, and realities. It was the epic that became the moral university of the newly-literate people. Passing it on from mouth to mouth, Ossetians from generation to generation affirmed in the minds of young people such moral values as honesty, hard work, respect for guests, women, and elders. The epic glorifies love of freedom, daring and courage. It is no coincidence that many associate the following phenomenal fact in the “biography of the people” with the influence of the Nart epic. According to absolutely official and published statistical data, the Ossetians were in first place among the peoples of the former USSR in terms of such indicators as the number of generals, heroes of the Soviet Union, commanders and recipients in general (in proportion to the size of the nation) in the Second World War. As they say, you can’t erase words from a song...

In the formation of the current appearance of the nation, in addition to the discovery of its own potential, comprehensive contacts with neighboring peoples, and especially with the Russians, played a huge role.

It is characteristic that centuries-old Ossetian-Russian relations have always (including the Alan era) been peaceful and fruitful, which was a significant factor in the economic and cultural progress of Ossetia.

Suffice it to say that the formation of Ossetian writing is associated with the name of the Russian academician A. Sjögren; the founder of the Ossetian literary language and fiction Kosta Khetagurov (1859-1906) received an excellent education at the Russian Art Academy in St. Petersburg.

Dozens and hundreds of students from Russian universities played a significant role in the development of Ossetian culture, as well as Ossetians - officers of the Russian army. They were the pioneers of the creation of a national Ossetian school and press.

Ossetian-Russian multifaceted contacts especially intensified after Ossetia became part of Russia. This act occurred in two stages. In 1774, North Ossetia's request to be accepted into Russia was granted, and in 1801, South Ossetia joined Russia, so that the unity of Ossetia continued to be preserved.

Ossetia joined Russia as indivisible. Of the three Ossetian ambassadors, two were southerners.

However, this unity was shaken in the early 20s due to the “disengagement” of two union republics - the RSFSR and the Georgian SSR. Initially, the main obstacle to intensive contacts between the two parts of the united Ossetian nation was, perhaps, only the mountains. But gradually the Georgian authorities began to implement Stalin’s well-known “Marxist thesis” that “North Ossetians will assimilate with the Russians, and southern Ossetians with the Georgians.”

The matter was set in such a way that this “predestination” was put into practice as soon as possible. Even the alphabet of South Ossetians at one time (from 1938 to 1954) was transferred to Georgian graphics. Quite often they began to add a Georgian ending to Ossetian surnames -shvili. Resistance to massive Georgianification was suppressed in the most brutal way: with the label “nationalist,” “saboteur,” or “enemy of the people,” hundreds and hundreds of South Ossetians ended up in prison.

Some “easing” has occurred since the mid-50s. For example, a single Ossetian alphabet was restored for South Ossetians, many “nationalists” and “enemies of the people” returned to their homeland. Contacts between the two parts of Ossetia, as well as with Ossetians scattered in other regions of the country and the world, have intensified.

For the most part, Ossetians inhabit the central part of the Caucasus and are located on both sides of the Main Caucasus Range. Its branches, running from Mount Sanguta-Khokh to the southeast, divide Ossetia into two parts: the larger, Northern, and the smaller, Southern. North Ossetia forms a republic within the Russian Federation, in which other compact groups of Ossetians also live, in particular in the Stavropol Territory, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachay-Cherkessia. In Georgia, in addition to South Ossetia, numerous groups of Ossetians live in the city of Tbilisi and a number of regions. Many Ossetians live in Turkey and the Arab countries of the Middle East.

The total number of Ossetians in the former USSR reaches 580 thousand people. (according to 1985 data). Of these, approx. 300 thousand live in North Ossetia and 65.1 thousand in South Ossetia. In total, more than 160.5 thousand people live in Georgia. It must be emphasized that the division of Ossetians into northern and southern has always been considered a purely geographical phenomenon. However, the political events of our century are turning it into an administrative one.

The fact is that, by the corresponding laws of the Soviet authorities, the South Ossetians received autonomy as part of the Georgian Union Republic, and the northern ones - as part of the Russian one. With the collapse of the USSR, two parts of one nation found themselves in two states. This is all the more absurd because a few years ago the centuries-old dream of the Ossetians came true - a highway was built and is operating through a tunnel in the Main Caucasus Range, i.e. and geographically connected two parts of a single living organism of a single nation. Things were moving towards its unification (following the reunification of the two parts of Vietnam and Germany). However, fate had its own way...

The collapse of the USSR led to the formation of independent states on the basis of the Russian and Georgian republics. The Georgian authorities, relying on nationalist forces, interrupted the process of unification of Ossetia, the resistance of the South Ossetian people is suppressed by force... The blood of an innocent freedom-loving people is being shed.

Nowadays, there is a time of bloody lawlessness against the Ossetians, as well as some other peoples. They say that all happy people are alike, but every sufferer suffers in his own way...

Peoples really look like people. They work, they suffer, they hope. The hopes of the Ossetian nation are connected with the democratization of all aspects of social life, which should lead to strict observance of human rights and individual rights. And any people is also an individual.

In our time - a time of general devastation and destruction of familiar forms of life - every nation is looking for spiritual support in its roots, its history. Ossetians turn their attention primarily to their closest ancestors - the Alans, who became famous throughout the world for their daring and valor, outstanding achievements in economics and culture.

In this regard, the publication of objective historical evidence is of utmost importance. The work of Bernard S. Bachrach is rich in just such things, the translation of which will undoubtedly be met with interest by a wide readership who wants to know as much as possible about the Alans - the famous ancestors of the Ossetians and the descendants of the no less glorious Scythians and Sarmatians.

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Jump to: navigation, search This term has other meanings, see Alan.

Alans(ancient Greek Ἀλανοί, lat. Alani, Halani) - Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes of Scythian-Sarmatian origin, mentioned in written sources from the 1st century AD. e. - the time of their appearance in the Azov region and Ciscaucasia.

Some of the Alans from the end of the 4th century took part in the Great Migration of Peoples, while others remained in the territories adjacent to the foothills of the Caucasus. The Alan tribal union became the basis for the unification of Alan and local Caucasian tribes, known as Alania, and the formation of an early feudal state in the central Ciscaucasia, which existed until the Mongol campaign.

The Mongols, who defeated Alania and captured the fertile lowland regions of the Ciscaucasia by the end of the 1230s, forced the surviving Alans to take refuge in the mountains of the Central Caucasus and Transcaucasia. There, one of the Alan groups, with the participation of local tribes, gave rise to modern Ossetians. The Alans played a certain role in the ethnogenesis and formation of the culture of other peoples of the North Caucasus.

1 Ethnonym
- 1.1 Etymology
- 1.2 Names of Alans among neighboring peoples
- 1.3 Modern form
2 History
3 Data from DNA archaeology
4 Culture
- 4.1 Wedding rituals
5 Language
6 Religion
- 6.1 Christianity and Alans
7 Legacy of the Alans
- 7.1 Caucasian Alans
- 7.2 Cultural and ethnographic influence of Alans in the West
- 7.3 Alans and Eastern Slavs
- 7.4 Alan heritage controversy
8 See also
9 Notes
10 Literature
11 Links

Ethnonym

The ethnonym “Alans” was first found in 25 AD. e. in Chinese sources as the name of the Sarmatian tribe that replaced the Aorsi (Yantsai): “the possession of Yancai was renamed Alanliao; is dependent on Kangyu... The customs and attire of the people are similar to those of Kangyu.”

Another interesting piece of evidence from the Chinese annals dates back to a later time: “Government in the city of Alanmi. This country formerly belonged to the Kangyu appanage owner. There are forty large cities, up to a thousand small trenches. The courageous and strong are taken into zhege, which translated into the language of the Middle State means: combat warrior.”

Later, in the 1st century AD. e., evidence of the Alans is found in Roman authors. We find their earliest mention in Lucius Annaeus Seneca, in the play Thyestes, written in the middle of the 1st century AD. e.

The name “Alans” was used by the Romans, and then by the Byzantines, until the 16th century (the last mention of the Alan diocese in Byzantine chronicles).

The Arabs also called the Alans by the name Al-lan, derived from the Byzantine "alans". Ibn Rusta (about 290 AH/903) reported that the Alans were divided into four tribes. It is known that the westernmost of them was called “aces”. In the 13th century, Western scientists (Guillaume de Rubruk) testified that “Alans and Ases” are one and the same people.

Etymology

Currently, science recognizes the version substantiated by V.I. Abaev - the term “Alan” is derived from the common name of the ancient Aryans and Iranians “arya”. According to T.V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. Sun. Ivanov, the original meaning of this word “master”, “guest”, “comrade” develops in certain historical traditions into “tribal comrade”, then into the self-name of the tribe (arya) and the country.

Various opinions have been expressed about the origin of the word "Alans". Thus, G. F. Miller believed that “the name of the Alans was born among the Greeks, and it comes from the Greek verb meaning to wander or wander.” K.V. Mullengoff derived the name Alans from the name of a mountain range in Altai, G.V. Vernadsky - from the ancient Iranian “elen” - deer, L.A. Matsulevich believed that the issue of the term “Alan” was not resolved at all.

Names of Alans among neighboring peoples

In Russian chronicles, the Alans were called by the word “Yasy”. The Nikon Chronicle in 1029 reports a victorious campaign against Yasov by Prince Yaroslav.

In Armenian chronicles Alans more often called by their own name. In Chinese chronicles, the Alans are known as the Alan people. The Armenian medieval geographical atlas Ashkharatsui describes several Alan tribes, including the “people of Alans ash-tigor” or simply “the people of Dikor”, which is seen as the self-name of modern Digorians. The Alans from the eastern region of Alania described by him - “Alans in the country of Ardoz” - are the ancestors of the Ironians.

In Georgian sources, Alans are mentioned as ovsi, osi. This exononym is still used by Georgians in relation to modern Ossetians.

Modern form

The natural development of the ancient Iranian *āruаna in Ossetian, according to V.I. Abaev, is allon (from *āryana) and ællon (from *ăryana). The ethnonym in the form ællon has been preserved in Ossetian folklore, but is not used as a self-name.

She hid the young sledges in a secret room. And then Uaig just returned and immediately asked his wife:
- Do I hear the smell of allon-billon?
- Oh my husband! - his wife answered him. “Two young men visited our village, one played the pipe, and the other danced on his fingertips. People were amazed; we had never seen such a miracle. It was their smell that remained in this room.

Story

Main article: History of the Alans Alan migration map. Yellow indicates the places of settlement of the Alans in the 4th century, before and after the Great Migration; red arrows - migrations, orange - military campaigns

The first mentions of the Alans are found in the works of ancient authors from the middle of the 1st century AD. e. The appearance of Alans in Eastern Europe - in the lower reaches of the Danube, the Northern Black Sea region, Ciscaucasia - is considered a consequence of their strengthening within the North Caspian association of Sarmatian tribes, led by the Aors.

In the I-III centuries. n. e. The Alans occupied a dominant position among the Sarmatians of the Azov and Ciscaucasia regions, from where they launched raids on the Crimea, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Media.

“Almost all Alans,” writes the 4th century Roman historian Ammianus and Marcellinus, “are tall and beautiful... They are terrifying with the restrained, menacing look of their eyes, and are very mobile due to the lightness of their weapons... Among them, the one who gives up the ghost in battle is considered lucky.”

In the 4th century, the Alans were already ethnically heterogeneous. Large tribal associations of Alans were defeated by the Huns in the 4th century, and by the Avars in the 6th century. Some Alans took part in the Great Migration of Peoples and ended up in Western Europe (in Gaul) and even in North Africa, where, together with the Vandals, they formed a state that lasted until the middle of the 6th century. All these events were accompanied everywhere by the partial ethnocultural assimilation of the Alans. Alan culture of the 4th-5th centuries. represent the settlements and burial grounds of the foothill zone of the Northern and Western Caucasus and the richest Kerch crypts of the Crimea. From the 7th to the 10th centuries. a significant part of medieval Alania, stretching from Dagestan to the Kuban region, was part of the Khazar Kaganate. For a long time, the North Caucasian Alans waged a stubborn struggle against the Arab Caliphate, Byzantium and the Khazar Kaganate. An idea of the rich Alanian culture of the 8th-11th centuries. give the famous catacomb burial grounds and settlements on the Seversky Donets (Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture) and especially settlements and burial grounds in the North Caucasus (fortifications: Arkhyzskoe, Upper and Lower Dzhulat, etc., burial grounds: Arkhon, Balta, Chmi, Rutha, Galiat, Zmeisky, Gizhgid, Bylym, etc.). They testify to the wide international ties of the Alans with the peoples of Transcaucasia, Byzantium, Kievan Rus and even Syria.

Materials from the Zmeysky burial ground indicate a high level of development of the culture of the North Caucasian Alans in the 11th-12th centuries. and about the presence of trade ties of the local population with Iran, Transcaucasia, Russia and the countries of the Arab East, as well as genetic ties between the Sarmatians and Alans, Alans and modern Ossetians. Finds of weapons confirm information from written sources that the main force of the Alan army was cavalry. The decline of the late Alan culture was caused by the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the 13th century as a result of the campaign of 1238-1239. a significant part of plain Alania was captured by the Tatar-Mongols, Alania itself as a political entity ceased to exist. Another factor that contributed to the fall of the Alan state was the intensification of avalanche activity in the 13th-14th centuries. G.K. Tushinsky, the founder of Russian avalanche science as a science, believed that as a result of the increasingly frequent severe and snowy winters in the Caucasus, many high-mountain Alan villages and roads were destroyed by avalanches. Since then, villages have been located much lower on the slopes.

In the 14th century, Alans, as part of Tokhtamysh’s army, took part in battles with Tamerlane. The general battle began on April 15, 1395. Tokhtamysh’s army suffered a complete defeat. This was one of the largest battles of that time, which decided the fate of not only Tokhtamysh, but also the Golden Horde, at least its great-power position.

If by the end of the XIV century. On the Cis-Caucasian plain there were still relict groups of the Alan population, but the invasion of Tamerlane dealt them the final blow. From now on, the entire foothill plain up to the river valley. Argun passed into the hands of Kabardian feudal lords during the 15th century. advanced far to the east and developed almost deserted fertile lands.

The once vast Alanya has become depopulated. The picture of the death of Alanya was outlined by a Polish author of the early 16th century. Matvey Mekhovsky, who used earlier information from Jacopo da Bergamo:

“The Alans are a people who lived in Alania, the region of European Sarmatia, near the Tanais (Don) River and in its vicinity. Their country is a plain without mountains, with small elevations and hills. there are no settlers or inhabitants, since they were expelled and scattered into foreign regions during the invasion of enemies, and there they died or were exterminated. The fields of Alanya lie wide open. This is a desert in which there are no owners - neither Alans nor strangers."

Mekhovsky talks about Alania in the lower reaches of the Don - that Alania that was formed in the Don region back in the first centuries AD. e. with its center on the Kobyakov settlement.

If in the foothills the remnants of the Alans ceased to exist, then in the mountain gorges they, despite the massacre, survived and continued the ethnic tradition of the Ossetian people. It was Mountain Ossetia after the invasions of 1239 and 1395. became the historical cradle of the Ossetians, where finally during the XIV-XV centuries. both ethnicity and traditional folk culture were formed. At the same time, the division of the Ossetian people into gorge societies probably took shape: Tagaur, Kurtatin, Alagir, Tualgom, Digor.

DNA archeology data

Analysis of the remains of the population of the Saltovo-Mayak archaeological culture revealed its haplogroup G2, the subclade is unknown. From the point of view of the authors of this study, the catacomb nature of the burial, a number of craniological indicators and other data that coincide with previously studied samples in the Caucasus allow us to identify those buried as Alans. For example, according to anthropological indicators, individuals from pit burials were identified as carriers of an admixture of the eastern odontological type, while the samples studied by haplogroup were of Caucasoid origin.

A number of researchers compare the population of the Saltovo-Mayatsk archaeological culture with the Alans, Bulgars and Khazars.

Culture

Wedding rituals

Johann Schiltberger describes in detail the wedding customs of the Caucasian Alans, whom he calls Yas. He reports that

“Yas have a custom according to which, before giving a girl in marriage, the groom’s parents agree with the bride’s mother that the latter must be a pure virgin, so that otherwise the marriage is considered invalid. So, on the day appointed for the wedding, the bride is led to the bed with songs and laid on it. Then the groom approaches with the young men, holding a naked sword in his hands, with which he strikes the bed. Then he and his comrades sit down in front of the bed and feast, sing and dance. At the end of the feast, they strip the groom to his shirt and leave, leaving the newlyweds alone in the room, and a brother or one of the groom’s closest relatives appears outside the door to guard with a drawn sword. If it turns out that the bride was no longer a maiden, the groom notifies his mother, who approaches the bed with several friends to inspect the sheets. If they do not find the signs they are looking for on the sheets, they become sad. And when the bride’s relatives appear in the morning for the celebration, the groom’s mother is already holding in her hand a vessel full of wine, but with a hole in the bottom, which she plugged with her finger. She brings the vessel to the bride's mother and removes her finger when the latter wants to drink and the wine pours out. “That’s exactly what your daughter was like!” she says. For the bride’s parents, this is a great shame and they must take their daughter back, since they agreed to give away a pure virgin, but their daughter did not turn out to be one. Then the priests and other honorable persons intercede and convince the groom's parents to ask their son whether he wants her to remain his wife. If he agrees, then the priests and other persons bring her to him again. otherwise, they are divorced, and he returns the dowry to his wife, just as she must return dresses and other things given to her, after which the parties can enter into a new marriage.”

Language

Main article: Alan language

The Alans spoke a late version of the Scytho-Sarmatian language.

The Ossetian language is a direct descendant of Alan. Some toponyms are etymologized as Eastern Iranian on the basis of modern Ossetian vocabulary (Don, Dniester, Dnieper, Danube); the few surviving written fragments in Alan are deciphered using Ossetian material. The most famous is the Zelenchuk inscription. Another well-known evidence of the Alan language is Alan phrases in the “Theogony” of the Byzantine author John Tzetz (12th century).

On the other hand, having a Caucasian past, the Ossetian language did not fully adopt the language of the Alans. Doctor of Philology, Ossetian professor V.I. Abaev indirectly wrote about this: “among all the non-Indo-European elements that we found in the Ossetian language, the Caucasian element occupies a special place, not so much in quantity... but by the intimacy and depth of the connections revealed“, therefore, in the Ossetian language, the Caucasian element is “an independent structural factor, as a kind of its second nature,” because “the common elements of Ossetian with the surrounding Caucasian languages are in no way covered by the term “borrowing”. They touch on the deepest and most intimate aspects of the language and indicate that Ossetian in many significant respects continues the tradition of local Caucasian languages, just as in other respects he continues the Iranian tradition... A bizarre combination and interweaving of these two linguistic traditions and created that unique whole that we call the Ossetian language.”

Religion

Christianity and Alans

Back in the 5th century. n. e. The Alans were not perceived as a Christian people, which can be seen from the statement of the Marseille presbyter Salvian:

“But are their vices subject to the same judgment as ours? Is the debauchery of the Huns as criminal as ours? Is the treachery of the Franks as reprehensible as ours? Is the drunkenness of an Alaman worthy of the same condemnation as the drunkenness of a Christian, or is the rapacity of an Alan worthy of the same condemnation as the rapacity of a Christian?”

“The Alamanni went to war against the Vandals and, since both sides agreed to resolve the matter through single combat, they fielded two warriors. However, exposed by the Vandals, he was defeated by the Alamann. And since Thrasamund and his Vandals were defeated, they, leaving Gaul, together with the Suevi and Alans, as agreed, attacked Spain, where they exterminated many Christians for their Catholic faith.

In the future, the Alans are mentioned as a people of Christian faith. However, the religion did not become widespread among the Alans.

Impressions of the Franciscans after traveling through Comania in the 13th century. n. e.:

“the brothers who walked through Comania had on their right the land of the Saxons, whom we consider Goths, and who are Christians; further, the Alans, who are Christians; then the Gazars, who are Christians; in this country is Ornam, a rich city, which the Tatars captured by flooding it with water; then the Circasses, who are Christians; next, the Georgians, who are Christians.” Benedictus Polonus (ed. Wyngaert 1929: 137-38)

Guillaume de Rubruk - mid-13th century:

“asked us if we wanted to drink kumis (cosmos), that is, mare’s milk. For the Christians among them - Russians, Greeks and Alans, who want to keep their law firmly, do not drink it and do not even consider themselves Christians when they drink, and their priests reconcile them then, as if they had renounced it, the Christian faith "

“On the eve of Pentecost, certain Alans came to us, who are called there as aas, Christians according to the Greek rite, having Greek letters and Greek priests. However, they are not schismatics, like the Greeks, but honor every Christian without distinction of persons.”

Alan heritage

Caucasian Alans

The Alan origin of the Ossetian language was proven back in the 19th century. F. Miller and confirmed by numerous later works.

The language in which the well-known written evidence of the Alan language is written (Zelenchuk inscription, Alan phrases in the “Theogony” of John Tsets) is an archaic version of the Ossetian language.

There is also indirect evidence of Alan-Ossetian linguistic continuity.

In Hungary, in the area of the city of Jasbereny, the Yasov people live, related to the Ossetians. By the middle of the 19th century, Yassy completely switched to the Hungarian language, so the oral Yassy language has not survived to this day. The surviving list of Yas words allows us to conclude that the vocabulary of the Yas language almost completely coincided with Ossetian. Thus, in English-language scientific literature, the Yas language is usually called the Yas dialect of Ossetian.

Cultural and ethnographic influence of Alans in the West

The Alans lived in what is now Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania and other countries. Through the Sarmatian-Alan influence, the heritage of the Scythian civilization entered the culture of many peoples.

Neither great cultural and political influence, nor participation in the most important events of the Great Migration of Peoples saved the Western European Alans from rapid extinction. Their extraordinary military achievements were put at the service of foreign emperors and kings. Having fragmented their forces and failed to build a lasting state, most of the Alans in the West lost their native language and became part of other nations.

Alans and Eastern Slavs

V.I. Abaev believed that, for example, the change in the plosive g, characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language, into the velar palatal fricative g (h), which is recorded in a number of Slavic languages, is due to the Scythian-Sarmatian influence. Since phonetics, as a rule, is not borrowed from neighbors, the researcher argued that the Scythian-Sarmatian substrate must have participated in the formation of the south-eastern Slavs (in particular, the future Ukrainian and South Russian dialects). A comparison of the area of the fricative g in Slavic languages with the regions inhabited by the Ants and their direct descendants definitely speaks in favor of this position. V.I. Abaev also admitted that the result of the Scythian-Sarmatian influence was the appearance of the genitive-accusative in the East Slavic language and the closeness of the East Slavic with the Ossetian language in the perfective function of preverbs.

Alan heritage controversy

The Alan heritage is the subject of controversy and numerous publications in the genre of folk history (not recognized by the academic scientific community). These disputes so define the modern context of the North Caucasus region that they have received the attention of researchers on their own.

Notes

1 2 Encyclopedia Iranica, “Alans”, V. I. Abaev, H. W. Bailey
1 2 Alans // BRE. T.1. M., 2005.
1 2 3 Perevalov S. M. Alans // Russian Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. acad. A. O. Chubaryan. T. 1: Aalto - Aristocracy. M.: OLMA MEDIA GROUP, 2011. pp. 220-221.
1 2 3 TSB, art. "Alans"
TSB, Art. "Ossetians"
Agustí Alemany, Sources on the Alans: A Critical Compilation. Brill Academic Publishers, 2000. ISBN 90-04-11442-4
PALEOANTHROPOLOGY OF NORTH OSSETIA CONNECTIONS WITH THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF OSSETIANS
Bichurin 1950, p. 229.
Bichurin 1950, p. 311.
Senecae, Thyestes, 627-631.
History - Website of the Alan Diocese
Abaev V.I. Ossetian language and folklore. M.-L., 1949. P. 156.
Abaev V.I. Historical and etymological dictionary of the Ossetian language. T. 1. M.-L., 1958. P. 47-48.
Zgusta L. Die Personennamen griechischer Stadte der nordlichen Schwarzmeerkuste. Praha, 1955.
Grantovsky E. A., Raevsky D. S. About the Iranian-speaking and “Indo-Aryan” population of the Northern Black Sea region in ancient times // Ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Balkans and the Northern Black Sea region. Linguistics, history, archaeology. M.: Nauka, 1984.
1 2 Gamkrelidze T.V., Ivanov Vyach. Sun. Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans. T. II. Tbilisi, 1984. P. 755.
Oransky I. M. Introduction to Iranian philology. M.: Nauka, 1988. P.
Miller G.F. About the peoples who have lived in Russia since ancient times. TsGADA. F. 199. No. 47. D. 3.
Mullenhoff K. Deutsche AJtertumskunde. T.III. Berlin, 1892.
Vernadsky G. Sur l’Origine des Alains. Byzantion. T. XVI. I. Boston, 1944.
Matsulevich L.A. The Alan problem and the ethnogenesis of Central Asia // Soviet ethnography. 1947. No. VI-VII.
Wei Zheng. Chronicle of the Sui State. Beijing, Bona, 1958, Ch. 84, S 18b, 3.
Kambolov T. T. Essay on the history of the Ossetian language: Textbook for universities. - Vladikavkaz: Ir, 2006.
Explanatory dictionary of the Ossetian language: in 4 volumes / Under general. ed. N. Ya. Gabaraeva; Vladikavkaz scientific. center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and North Ossetia; South Ossetian scientific research. Institute named after Z. N. Vaneeva. - M.: Nauka, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-02-036243-7
Tales of Narts
1 2 History of the Don and the North Caucasus from ancient times to 1917. Web-tutorial. Faculty of History of RSU
Essays on the history of the Don-Azov region. Book I (Lunin B.V.)
Soviet Historical Encyclopedia / Ed. E. M. Zhukova. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982.
Kussaeva S.S. Some results of archaeological excavations of the catacomb burial ground in the village. Zmeyskaya
The persistence of anxiety // Magazine “Around the World”. 1987. No. 9 (2564).
Afanasyev G. E., Dobrovolskaya M. V., Korobov D. S., Reshetova I. K. On the cultural, anthropological and genetic specificity of the Don Alans // E. I. Krupnov and the development of archeology of the North Caucasus. M. 2014. pp. 312-315.
Savitsky N. M. Residential buildings of the forest-steppe variant of the Saltovo-Mayatsky culture: dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences. - Voronezh: Voronezh State University, 2011.
Bariev R. Kh. VOLGA BULGARS. History and culture. St. Petersburg, 2005
Schiltberger Johann. Traveling through Europe, Asia and Africa. Baku: Elm, 1984. pp. 766-67.
Ossetian language // Large encyclopedic dictionary “Linguistics”. M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.
Kambolov T. T. Zelenchuk inscription
Abaev V.I. Ossetian language and folklore. M.-L., 1949. P. 76, 111, 115.
Salv. Gub. 4, 68 (ed. Halm MGH A A 1.1, p. 49
Fredegarius. 2, 60 (ed. Krusch MGH SRM II, p. 84)
Guill. de Rubruc 10.5 (ed. Wyngaert 1929:191)
Guill. de Rubruc 11,1-3 (ed. Wyngaert 1929:191-192)
Kambolov T. T. Alanian phrases in the “Theogony” of John Tsets
Abaev V.I. About Hungarian jars // Ossetian philology. No. 1. Ordzhonikidze, 1977. pp. 3-4.
Nemeth J. Eine Wörterliste der Jassen, der ungarländischen Alanen //Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Klasse für Sprachen, Literatur und Kunst. Jahrg. 1958. No. 4. Berlin, 1959.
Nemeth J. List of words in the language of the Yas, Hungarian Alans. Per. with him. and notes by V.I. Abaev. Ordzhonikidze, 1960. P. 4.
Quote from http://www.xpomo.com/rusograd/sedov1/sedov4.html
Abaev V.I. On the origin of the phoneme g (h) in the Slavic language // Problems of Indo-European linguistics. M., 1964. S. 115-121.
Abaev V.I. Preverbs and perfectivity: About one Scythian-Slavic isogloss // Problems of Indo-European linguistics. M., 1964. P. 90-99.
V. A. Shnirelman. To be Alans. Intellectuals and politics in the North Caucasus in the 20th century. M., 2006. - 696 p.

When writing this article, material was used from the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907).

Literature

Kovalevskaya V.B. The Caucasus and the Alans: Centuries and Peoples. - M.: Science (Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature), 1984. - 194 p. - (In the footsteps of the disappeared cultures of the East). - 10,000 copies. (region)
Agustí Alemany. Alans in ancient and medieval written sources (djvu) = Sources on the Alans. A Critical Compilation. - Moscow: Manager, 2003. - 608 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-8346-0252-5.
Kuznetsov V. A. Essays on the history of the Alans. - Vladikavkaz: IR, 1992. - 390 p. - ISBN 5-7534-0316-6.

Alan Information About

From the unimaginable depths of history, the name of the ancient people – Alans – has come down to us. The first mentions of them are found in Chinese chronicles written two thousand years ago. The Romans were also interested in this warlike ethnic group that lived on the borders of the empire. And if today in the atlas of the living peoples of the world there is no page of “Alana” with a photo, this does not mean that this ethnic group has disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace.

Their genes and language, traditions and attitude were inherited by direct descendants -. In addition to them, some scientists consider the Ingush to be the descendants of this people. Let’s lift the veil over the events of bygone eras in order to dot all the i’s.

Thousand-year history and geography of settlement

Byzantines and Arabs, Franks and Armenians, Georgians and Russians - with whom the Alans have not fought, traded or entered into alliances over their more than thousand-year history! And almost everyone who encountered them, one way or another, recorded these meetings on parchment or papyrus. Thanks to eyewitness accounts and records of chroniclers, we can today restore the main stages of the history of the ethnos. Let's start with the origin.

In IV-V Art. BC. Sarmatian tribes roamed across a vast territory from the Southern Urals to the south. Eastern Ciscaucasia belonged to the Sarmatian union of Aorsi, whom ancient authors spoke of as skillful and brave warriors. But even among the Aors there was a tribe that stood out for its particular warlikeness - the Alans.

Historians believe that, although the relationship between this warlike people with the Scythians and Sarmatians is obvious, it cannot be argued that only they are their ancestors: in their genesis in a later period - from about the IV century. AD – other nomadic tribes also took part.

As can be seen from the ethnonym, they were an Iranian-speaking people: the word “Alan” goes back to the word “arya” common to the ancient Aryans and Iranians. Outwardly, they were typical Caucasians, as evidenced not only by the descriptions of chroniclers, but also by DNA archaeological data.

About three centuries - from I to III AD. – they were known as a threat to both neighbors and distant states. The defeat inflicted on them by the Huns in 372 did not undermine their strength, but, on the contrary, gave a new impetus to the development of the ethnos. Some of them, during the Great Migration of Peoples, went far to the west, where, together with the Huns, they defeated the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and later fought with the Gauls and Visigoths; others settled in the central territory.

The morals and customs of these warriors of those times were harsh, and the way they waged war was barbaric, at least in the opinion of the Romans. The main weapon of the Alans was the spear, which they wielded masterfully, and fast war horses allowed them to get out of any skirmish without loss.

The troops' favorite maneuver was a false retreat. After an allegedly unsuccessful attack, the cavalry retreated, luring the enemy into a trap, after which it went on the offensive. The enemies who did not expect a new attack were lost and lost the battle.

The Alans' armor was relatively light, made of leather belts and metal plates. According to some reports, these protected not only the warriors, but also their war horses.

If you look at the territory of settlement on a map in the early Middle Ages, what will catch your eye, first of all, are the enormous distances from North Africa to North Africa. In the latter, their first state formation appeared - which did not last long in the 5th-6th centuries. Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans.

However, that part of the ethnic group that found itself surrounded by tribes that were distant in culture and traditions quite quickly lost its national identity and assimilated. But those tribes that remained in the Caucasus not only retained their identity, but also created a powerful state -.

The state was formed in the VI-VII centuries. Around the same time, Christianity began to spread across its lands. According to Byzantine sources, the first message about Christ was brought here by Maximus the Confessor (580-662), and Byzantine sources call Gregory the first Christian ruler of the country.

The final adoption of Christianity by the Alans took place at the beginning of the 10th century, although foreign travelers noted that Christian traditions in these lands were often intricately intertwined with pagan ones.

Contemporaries left many descriptions of the Alans and their customs. They were described as very attractive and strong people. Among the characteristic features of the culture are the cult of military valor, combined with contempt for death, and rich ritualism. In particular, the German traveler I. Schiltberger left a detailed description of the wedding ceremony, which attached great importance to the chastity of the bride and the first wedding night.

“The Yas have a custom according to which, before giving a girl in marriage, the groom’s parents agree with the bride’s mother that the latter must be a pure virgin, otherwise the marriage will be considered invalid. So, on the day appointed for the wedding, the bride is led to the bed with songs and laid on it. Then the groom approaches with the young men, holding a naked sword in his hands, with which he strikes the bed. Then he and his comrades sit down in front of the bed and feast, sing and dance.

At the end of the feast, they strip the groom to his shirt and leave, leaving the newlyweds alone in the room, and a brother or one of the groom’s closest relatives appears outside the door to guard with a drawn sword. If it turns out that the bride was no longer a maiden, the groom notifies his mother, who approaches the bed with several friends to inspect the sheets. If they do not find the signs they are looking for on the sheets, they become sad.

And when the bride’s relatives appear in the morning for the celebration, the groom’s mother is already holding in her hand a vessel full of wine, but with a hole in the bottom, which she plugged with her finger. She brings the vessel to the bride's mother and removes her finger when the latter wants to drink and the wine pours out. “That’s exactly what your daughter was like!” she says. For the bride’s parents, this is a great shame and they must take their daughter back, since they agreed to give away a pure virgin, but their daughter did not turn out to be one.

Then the priests and other honorable persons intercede and convince the groom's parents to ask their son whether he wants her to remain his wife. If he agrees, then the priests and other persons bring her to him again. Otherwise, they are divorced, and he returns the dowry to his wife, just as she must return dresses and other things given to her, after which the parties can enter into a new marriage.”

The language of the Alans, unfortunately, has reached us in very fragmentary ways, but the surviving material is sufficient to classify it as Scythian-Sarmatian. The direct carrier is modern Ossetian.

Although not many famous Alans went down in history, their contribution to history is undeniable. In short, they, with their fighting spirit, were the first knights. According to scholar Howard Reid, the legends about the famous King Arthur are based on the enormous impression that the military culture of this people made on the weak states of the early Middle Ages.

Their worship of the naked sword, impeccable possession, contempt for death, and the cult of nobility laid the foundation for the later Western European code of chivalry. American scientists Littleton and Malkor go further and believe that Europeans owe the image of the Holy Grail to the Nart epic with its magic cup Uatsamonga.

Legacy controversy

The family connection with the Ossetians and Alans is not in doubt, however, in recent years, the voices of those who believe that the same connection exists with, or more broadly, have been increasingly heard.

One can have different attitudes to the arguments that the authors of such studies give, but one cannot deny their usefulness: after all, attempts to understand genealogy allow one to read little-known or forgotten pages of the history of one’s native land in a new way. Perhaps further archaeological and genetic research will provide a clear answer to the question of whose ancestors the Alans are.

I would like to end this essay somewhat unexpectedly. Did you know that today there are about 200 thousand Alans (more precisely, their partially assimilated descendants) living in the world? In modern times they are known as Yases; they have lived in Hungary since the 13th century. and remember their roots. Although they have long lost their language, they maintain contact with their Caucasian relatives, which they rediscovered after more than seven centuries. This means it’s too early to put an end to this people.

Alans (Old Greek Ἀλανοί, lat. Alani, Halani) - nomadic tribes skitho-Sarmatian origin, are mentioned in written sources from 1st century n. e. - time of their appearance in Azov region And Ciscaucasia .

Part of the Alans from the end 4th century took part in Great Migration, while others remained in areas adjacent to the foothills Caucasus. The Alan tribal union became the basis for the unification of Alans and local Caucasian tribes, known as Alanya, and the formation in the central Ciscaucasia of an early feudal state that existed until the Mongol campaign.

The Mongols, who defeated Alania and captured the fertile lowland regions of the Ciscaucasia by the end of the 1230s, forced the surviving Alans to take refuge in the mountains of the Central Caucasus and Transcaucasia. There, one of the Alan groups, with the participation of local tribes, gave rise to modern Ossetians . The Alans played a certain role in the ethnogenesis and formation of the culture of other peoples North Caucasus .

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Ethnonym"Alans" first appears in 25 year n. e. in Chinese sources as the name of the Sarmatian tribe that replaced aorsov(Yantsai): “the possession of Yantsai was renamed Alanliao; consists depending on Kangyu... The customs and attire of the people are similar to those of Kangyu" .

Later, in 1st century n. e., evidence of the Alans is found in Roman authors. We find their earliest mention in Lucia Annaea Seneca, in the play "Thyestes", written in the middle of the 1st century AD. e.

The name "Alans" was used by the Romans, and, after them, by the Byzantines, right up to 16th century(the last mention of the Alan diocese in the Byzantine chronicles) .

The Arabs also called the Alans by the name Al-lan, derived from the Byzantine "alana". Ibn Rusta (about 290 g.x./903) reported that the Alans are divided into four tribes. It is known that the westernmost of them was called “aces”. IN XIII century Western scientists ( Guillaume de Rubruck) testified that “Alans and Aces" - one and the same people.

Etymology

Currently, science recognizes a version substantiated V. I. Abaev - the term “Alan” is derived from the common name of the ancients Aryans and Iranians "arya" . By T. V. Gamkrelidze And Vyach. Sun. Ivanov , the original meaning of this word “master”, “guest”, “comrade” develops in certain historical traditions into “tribal comrade”, then into the self-name of the tribe ( arya) and countries.

Various opinions have been expressed about the origin of the word "Alans". So, G. F. Miller believed that “the name Alans was born among the Greeks, and it comes from the Greek verb meaning to wander or wander” . K. V. Mullengoff the name Alans was derived from the name of a mountain range in Altai , G. V. Vernadsky- from the ancient Iranian “elen” - deer , L. A. Matsulevich believed that the issue of the term “Alan” had not been resolved at all .

Names of Alans among neighboring peoples

In Russian chronicles, the Alans were called by the word “Yasy”. IN Nikon Chronicle under 1029 reported on the victorious campaign against the prince's Yasov Yaroslav.

In Armenian chronicles Alans more often called by their own name. In Chinese chronicles, Alans are known as the Alan people . In the Armenian medieval geographical atlas Ashkharatsuyts several Alan tribes are described, including the “people of Alans ash-Tigor” or simply “the people of Dikor”, which is seen as the self-name of modern Digorians. The Alans from the eastern region of Alania described by him - “Alans in the country of Ardoz” - ancestors Ironians.

In Georgian sources, Alans are mentioned as ovsi, osi. This exononym is still used by Georgians in relation to modern Ossetian.

Modern form

The natural development of ancient Iranian * āruana in Ossetian, according to V.I. Abaev, is allon(from * āryana) And ællon(from * ăryana) Ethnonym in the form ællon preserved in Ossetian folklore, but is not used as a self-name .

She hid the young sledges in a secret room. And then Uaig just returned and immediately asked his wife: “Do I hear the smell of allon-billon?” - Oh my husband! - his wife answered him. “Two young men visited our village, one played the pipe, and the other danced on his fingertips. People were amazed; we had never seen such a miracle. It was their smell that remained in this room.

Main article:History of the Alans

Alan migration map. Yellow indicates the places where the Alans settled in the 4th century, before Great Migration and after it; red arrows - migrations, orange - military campaigns

IN I-III centuries n. e. Alans occupied a dominant position among the Sarmatians Azov region And Ciscaucasia , from where they raided Crimea, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor,mussel .

“Almost all Alans,” writes the 4th century Roman historian Ammianus and Marcellinus, “are tall and beautiful... They are scary with the restrained menacing look of their eyes, they are very mobile due to the lightness of their weapons... Among them, the one who gives up the ghost in battle is considered lucky.” .

In the 4th century, the Alans were already ethnically heterogeneous. Large tribal associations of Alans were defeated in the 4th century by the Huns, in the 6th century - Avars. Some of the Alans took part in the Great Migration of Peoples and ended up in Western Europe (in Gaul) and even in North Africa, where, together with vandals formed a state that lasted until the middle of the 6th century. All these events were accompanied everywhere by the partial ethnocultural assimilation of the Alans. Alan culture of the 4th-5th centuries. represent the settlements and burial grounds of the foothill zone of the Northern and Western Caucasus and the richest Kerch crypts of the Crimea. From the 7th to the 10th centuries. a significant part of medieval Alanya, stretching from Dagestan to the Kuban region, was part of Khazar Khaganate. For a long time, the North Caucasian Alans waged a stubborn struggle against Arab Caliphate, Byzantium and the Khazar Khaganate. An idea of the rich Alanian culture of the 8th-11th centuries. give the famous catacomb burial grounds and settlements on the Seversky Donets ( Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture) and especially settlements and burial grounds in the North Caucasus (fortifications: Arkhyzskoye, Verkh. and Nizh. Dzhulat, etc., burial grounds: Arkhon, Balta, Chmi, Rutha, Galiat, Zmeisky, Gizhgid, Bylym, etc.). They testify to the wide international relations of the Alans with the peoples of Transcaucasia, Byzantium, Kievan Rus and even Syria.

Materials Zmeysky burial ground indicate a high level of development of the culture of the North Caucasian Alans in the 11th-12th centuries. and about the presence of trade ties of the local population with Iran, Transcaucasia, Russia and the countries of the Arab East, as well as genetic ties between the Sarmatians and Alans, Alans and modern Ossetians. Finds of weapons confirm information from written sources that the main force of the Alan army was cavalry. The decline of the late Alan culture was caused by the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the 13th century As a result of the campaign of 1238-1239. a significant part of plain Alania was captured by the Tatar-Mongols, Alania itself as a political entity ceased to exist. Another factor that contributed to the fall of the Alan state was the intensification of avalanche activity in the 13th-14th centuries. G.K. Tushinsky, the founder of Russian avalanche science as a science, believed that as a result of the increasingly frequent severe and snowy winters in the Caucasus, many high-mountain Alan villages and roads were destroyed by avalanches. Since then, villages have been located much lower on the slopes .

IN XIV century Alans in the army Tokhtamysh participate in battles with Tamerlane. The general battle began on April 15, 1395. Tokhtamysh’s army suffered a complete defeat. This was one of the largest battles of that time, which decided the fate of not only Tokhtamysh, but also the Golden Horde, at least its great-power position.

“The Alans are a people who lived in Alania, a region of European Sarmatia, near the Tanais River ( Don) and next to it. Their country is a plain without mountains, with small elevations and hills. There are no settlers or inhabitants in it, since they were expelled and scattered to foreign regions during the invasion of enemies, and there they died or were exterminated. The fields of Alanya lie wide open. This is a desert in which there are no owners - neither Alans nor strangers."

Mekhovsky talks about Alania in the lower reaches of the Don - that Alania that was formed in the Don region back in the first centuries AD. e. with its center on the Kobyakov settlement.

DNA archeology data

Analysis of the remains of the population of the Saltovo-Mayak archaeological culture revealed its haplogroup G2, subclade - unknown. From the point of view of the authors of this study, the catacomb nature of the burial, a number of craniological indicators and other data that coincide with previously studied samples in the Caucasus allow us to identify those buried as Alans. For example, according to anthropological indicators, individuals from pit burials were identified as carriers of an admixture of the eastern odontological type, while the samples studied by haplogroup were of Caucasoid origin .

A number of researchers compare the population of the Saltovo-Mayak archaeological culture with the Alans, Bulgars And Khazars .

Culture

Wedding rituals

Johann Schiltberger describes in detail the wedding customs of the Caucasian Alans, whom he calls Yas. He reports that

“Yas have a custom according to which, before giving a girl in marriage, the groom’s parents agree with the bride’s mother that the latter must be a pure virgin, so that otherwise the marriage is considered invalid. So, on the day appointed for the wedding, the bride is led to the bed with songs and laid on it. Then the groom approaches with the young men, holding a naked sword in his hands, with which he strikes the bed. Then he and his comrades sit down in front of the bed and feast, sing and dance. At the end of the feast, they strip the groom to his shirt and leave, leaving the newlyweds alone in the room, and a brother or one of the groom’s closest relatives appears outside the door to guard with a drawn sword. If it turns out that the bride was no longer a maiden, the groom notifies his mother, who approaches the bed with several friends to inspect the sheets. If they do not find the signs they are looking for on the sheets, they become sad. And when the bride’s relatives appear in the morning for the celebration, the groom’s mother is already holding in her hand a vessel full of wine, but with a hole in the bottom, which she plugged with her finger. She brings the vessel to the bride's mother and removes her finger when the latter wants to drink and the wine pours out. “That’s exactly what your daughter was like!” - she says. For the bride’s parents, this is a great shame and they must take their daughter back, since they agreed to give away a pure virgin, but their daughter did not turn out to be one. Then the priests and other honorable persons intercede and convince the groom's parents to ask their son whether he wants her to remain his wife. If he agrees, then the priests and other persons bring her to him again. Otherwise, they are divorced, and he returns the dowry to his wife, just as she must return dresses and other things given to her, after which the parties can enter into a new marriage.” .

Main article:Alan language

Alans spoke in a later version Scytho-Sarmatian language.

Ossetian language is a direct descendant of Alan . Some toponyms are etymologized as Eastern Iranian based on modern Ossetian vocabulary ( Don, Dniester, Dnieper, Danube), the few surviving written fragments in Alan are deciphered using Ossetian material. The most famous - Zelenchuk inscription . Other known evidence of the Alanian language is Alan phrases in Theogony Byzantine author John Tzetzes ( 12th century).

On the other hand, having Caucasian past, Ossetian language did not fully understand the language Alans. An Ossetian professor, Doctor of Philology, wrote about this indirectly V. I. Abaev: “among all the non-Indo-European elements that we found in the Ossetian language, the Caucasian element occupies a special place, not so much in quantity... but by the intimacy and depth of the connections revealed“, therefore, in the Ossetian language, the Caucasian element is “an independent structural factor, as a kind of its second nature,” because “the common elements of Ossetian with the surrounding Caucasian languages are in no way covered by the term “borrowing”. They touch on the deepest and most intimate aspects of the language and indicate that Ossetian in many significant respects continues the tradition of local Caucasian languages, just as in other respects he continues the Iranian tradition... A bizarre combination and interweaving of these two linguistic traditions and created that peculiar whole that we call the Ossetian language" .

Christianity and Alans

Back in the 5th century. n. e. The Alans were not perceived as a Christian people, which can be seen from the statement of the Marseille presbyter Salvian:

In the future, the Alans are mentioned as a people of Christian faith. However, the religion did not become widespread among the Alans.

Impressions of the Franciscans after traveling through Comania in the 13th century. n. e.:

Guillaume de Rubruk - mid-13th century:

“asked us if we wanted to drink kumis (cosmos), that is, mare’s milk. For the Christians among them - Russians, Greeks and Alans, who want to keep their law firmly, do not drink it and do not even consider themselves Christians when they drink, and their priests reconcile them then [with Christ], as if they had renounced it , from the Christian faith."

Alan heritage

Caucasian Alans

The Alan origin of the Ossetian language was proven back in 19th century Sun. F. Miller and has been confirmed by numerous later works.

The language in which the known written evidence of the Alan language is written ( Zelenchuk inscription, Alan phrases in the Theogony of John Tsets ) is an archaic variant of the Ossetian language.

There is also indirect evidence of Alan-Ossetian linguistic continuity.

IN Hungary in the city area Jasbereni people live Yasov, related to Ossetians . Towards the middle 19th century jars have completely switched to Hungarian, so oral Yassi language has not survived to this day. Surviving list of Yas words allows us to conclude that the vocabulary of the Yassi language almost completely coincided with Ossetian. Thus, in English-language scientific literature, the Yassi language is usually called a dialect of Ossetian.

Cultural and ethnographic influence of Alans in the West

The Alans lived on the territory of what is now Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania and other countries. Through the Sarmatian-Alan influence, the heritage of the Scythian civilization entered the culture of many peoples.

Neither great cultural and political influence, nor participation in the most important events of the Great Migration of Peoples saved Western Europeans. Alans from rapid disappearance. Their extraordinary military achievements were put at the service of foreign emperors and kings. Having fragmented their forces and failed to build a lasting state, most of the Alans in the West lost their native language and became part of other nations.

Alans and Eastern Slavs

V.I. Abaev believed that, for example , change plosive g, characteristic Proto-Slavic language, in the posterior palatal fricative g(h), which is recorded in the series Slavic languages, due to Scythian-Sarmatian influence. Since phonetics, as a rule, is not borrowed from neighbors, the researcher argued that in the formation of the south-eastern Slavs (in particular, future Ukrainian and South Russian dialects) the Scythian-Sarmatian should have participated substrate . Fricative area comparison g in Slavic languages with regions inhabited antami and their direct descendants, certainly speaks in favor of this position. V.I. Abaev also admitted that the result of the Scythian-Sarmatian influence was the appearance of the genitive-accusative in the East Slavic language and the proximity East Slavic With Ossetian language in the perfective function of preverbs .

Alan heritage controversy

The Alan heritage is the subject of controversy and numerous publications in the genre folk history(not recognized by the academic scientific community).

Was abandoned Alans, a people who created their own statehood. They were first recorded at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. and then throughout their history they appear in the reports of Armenian, Georgian, Byzantine, Arab and other authors under different names - roksolans, alanros, asii, aces, yas, oats, wasps.

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Scientists are convinced that the Alans were Iranian-speaking and were one of the branches of the Sarmatians. By the 1st century AD Having arrived from the steppes of Central Asia, they occupied vast spaces in the Southern Urals, Lower Volga, and Azov regions, forming a powerful tribal union. At the same time, hordes of Alans spread over a large part of the North Caucasus, subjugating them to their influence; only the mountainous regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and the western Caucasus retained their originality.

Initially, the economic basis of the Alans was nomadic pastoralism. The social structure was based on the principles military democracy. From the 1st to the 4th centuries, various sources constantly talk about the military campaigns of the Alans against neighboring countries and peoples. Carrying out raids in Transcaucasia, they intervened in the struggle between the great powers of that time ( Parthia, ), participate on the side and against the owners Iberia, Armenia,.

Unlike the earlier Iranian newcomers, the Alans were able to settle down and farm, which helped them gain a foothold in the Central Caucasus. In the 3rd century, Alanya was a formidable force that neighboring states, for example, had to reckon with.

Over the several hundred years of their domination in the North Caucasus, the Alans had such a powerful impact on that the culture of all local peoples was subjected to leveling and acquired common characteristics, including the Alanian one, which is found in various parts of the Caucasus. The presence of Alans is recorded in the folk epic of Adyghe and Nakh legends, for example, the epic legend of the Vainakhs “Elijah”.

Alans during the era of the Great Migration

At the end of the 3rd century AD. The power of the Alans was significantly undermined by the invasion of new nomadic hordes from Central Asia. Initially, in the 70s of the 3rd century, a horde Huns defeated and pushed the Alans into the foothills, and carried away the rest of them on their long European campaigns.

One of the Hun factions Akatsir, remained in the North Caucasian steppes throughout the 4th century. Then at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th centuries AD. Almost at the same time as the Huns, another whole group rushed to the North Caucasus a number of tribes of Mongolian and Turkic origin. The most notable of these is the tribal association Bulgarians.

The onslaught of nomads forced the Alans to leave the entire steppe part of the North Caucasus and retire to the foothills and mountainous regions. Alan settlements at that time were based on modern lands Pyatigorye, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ossetia, Ingushetia. The main type of dwellings became fortified settlements, which were built in hard-to-reach places. This was justified, because nomadic expansion in the North Caucasus did not subside for several centuries.

In the 6th century, the Alans experienced the pressure of a nomadic alliance Turks who created their own enormous formation Turkic Khaganate. In the 7th century, the subjugation of the nomadic and aboriginal peoples of the Caucasus by another steppe ethnic group began to take place.

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The Alanian alliances of the central Caucasus became dependent on the Khazars and, on the side of the latter, took part in a whole series of Khazar-Arab wars of the 7th and 8th centuries. Khazar and Arab authors during this period point to the Central Caucasus as the permanent place of residence of the Alans, also the Daryal Pass ( Daryal Gorge), connecting the North Caucasus with Transcaucasia, from Arabic Bab al Alan(Alan gate).

By this time, two large and independent communities were being formed among the Alans. Stand out:

Western Alans (Ashtigor), Karachay-Cherkess Republic, eastern regions of the Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory;
Eastern Alans (Ardosians), KBR, Ossetia, Ingushetia.

At the end of the 10th century, Khazar pressure on the Alans weakened and the prerequisites were created for the formation of an independent Alan state. Over the almost thousand-year period of their stay in the North Caucasus, the Alans were able to achieve significant success in various industries. Along with traditional cattle breeding, plow farming and crafts—pottery, weapons, blacksmithing, and jewelry—developed. Since the 7th century, crafts have been separated from agriculture and turned into an independent industry.

Excavations of Alan settlements provided material about social differentiation in their environment. The formation of classes was facilitated by processes Christianization, which became especially active in the 10th century. Christianity penetrated into Alania through Georgia and. As a result, the construction of churches following the Byzantine model is taking place throughout Alanya.

The rise and fall of the Alan state

In the 10th century, the western and eastern Alan tribes were united into a single Alan state. Socially, Alanya has a privileged class feudal lords, exploited community peasants And patriarchal slaves.

In the mid-10th century, the rulers of Alanya are mentioned, having the titles of “spiritual son” and “Divine ruler of the Universe”. By this time we can talk about the emergence of cities among the Alans, for example, the city Magas.

Not only neighbors, primarily Georgia, but also distant powers - Kievan Rus - are striving to develop relations with the Alans. During this period, dynastic marriages took place between the rulers of Alanya and other countries.

Like other early feudal states of that era, after its heyday in the second half of the 12th century, it plunged into the abyss of feudal civil strife. By the beginning of the 13th century, the once unified state was breaking up into a number of small possessions at war with each other.

Alanya finds itself in a state of feudal fragmentation. Since 1222, the Mongols made their first attempts to subjugate Alanya, but the systematic conquest of the entire country began in 1238. Despite the heroic resistance, part of the Alans are destroyed by the Tatar-Mongols, another part of them joins the troops of the Tatar-Mongol khans, and the third part of the Alans is scattered across the mountainous, inaccessible places of the Central Caucasus, where the process of mixing Alans with locals begins. Modern peoples: Ossetians, Balkars, Karachais have a certain share of the Alan component in their ethnogenesis.

Ancient Alans history. Who are the Alans, and what does the Ossetians have to do with it?

Ethnonym

Etymology

Names of Alans among neighboring peoples

Modern form

Story

DNA archeology data

Culture

Wedding rituals

Language

Religion

Christianity and Alans

Alan heritage

Caucasian Alans

Cultural and ethnographic influence of Alans in the West

Alans and Eastern Slavs

Alan heritage controversy

see also

Notes

Literature

Links

Alan Information About

Thousand-year history and geography of settlement

Legacy controversy

Alans during the era of the Great Migration

The rise and fall of the Alan state