Alania

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kingdom of Alania
Late 9th century
Mongol conquests
1240
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Khazar Khaganate
Mongol Empire

Alania was a medieval kingdom of the

Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania. With its capital at Maghas, the location of which is still disputed, it became independent from the Khazars in the late 9th century. It was Christianized by a Byzantine
missionary soon after, in the early 10th century.

According to 10th century historian

Mongols invaded
, stormed and destroyed the capital Maghas in the process.

Name

The name Alania derives from the

Old Iranian stem *Aryāna-, a derivative form of the Indo-Iranian stem *arya- ('Aryan'). It is cognate with the name of Iran (Ērān), which stems from the Old Persian *Aryānām ('of the Aryans').[9][10]

In other sources, they're mentioned as “Ās”. in Russian chronicles and Hungarian sources they're called “Yas”.[11]

History

The Alans (Alani) originated as an

Kuban River in the west to the Darial Gorge in the east.[12]

As vassal of Khazaria

Alania was an important buffer state during the

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.[13] 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.[14]

Tamara's
castle") separating Alania from Georgia.

After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies was invaded by

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.[citation needed
]

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

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.[15]

Independence and Christianization (late 9th–10th centuries)

Surviving architectural monuments of the Alanian kingdom include three churches in Arkhyz, the Shoana Church, and the Senty Church.

In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars.[1] 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 north Caucasus. He sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, converted the Alans to Christianity.[16] 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.[16] Richard Foltz has suggested that only certain elite Alan families were Christianized, the bulk of the population continuing to follow their original pagan traditions.[17]

According to Islamic sources, it describes Alania as a vast country with 1,000 settlements. And the population consisted of both Christians and Pagans, mountaineers and nomads. in the north, the Alans bordered on the Hungarians and the Bulgars. In the east they gave their name to the Daryal gorge, called “Gate of the Alans”.[7]

When

Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was by then Christian. The Persian traveller came to Alania from Sarir, a Christian kingdom immediately to the east:[18]

You go to the left from the kingdom of Sarir and, after three days of journey through mountains and meadows, arrive in the kingdom of Al-Lan. Their king is Christian at heart, but all his people are idolaters. Then you travel for ten days among rivers and woods before arriving at a fortress called the "

Gate of the Alans". It stands on the top of a mountain at the foot of which there is a road; high mountains surround it and a thousand men from among its inhabitants guard its walls day and night.[19]

Later history (11th–13th centuries)

Political map of the Caucasus region in 1060

After the downfall of Khazaria, the Alan kings frequently allied with the

Yegorlyk River in present-day Stavropol Krai, immediately north of Alania.[21] Two Russian crosses, datable to ca. 1200, were discovered by archaeologists in Arkhyz, the heartland of medieval Alania.[22]

Greek seal of Gabriel, exousiokrator and king of Alania, c. 1030–1045
Possible depiction of an 11th-century Alan king, perhaps Durgulel, in the Senty church[23]

The Alans and Georgians probably collaborated in the

Rurikid rulers more than once. For instance, Maria the Ossetian, who founded the Convent of Princesses in Vladimir, was the wife of Vsevolod the Big Nest and grandmother of Alexander Nevsky.[citation needed
]

Mongol conquest and aftermath (13th–14th centuries)

By the early 13th century the kingdom of Alania had factually disintegrated into a large number of autonomous clans and villages ruled by infighting chiefs leading several dozen to several hundred retainers.[24][25] This state of anarchy was described by the Hungarian monk Julian, who in 1236 observed that "there are as many princes as villages, none of whom owes allegiance to another. The war there is incessant, leader against leader, village against village."[26] 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.[27]

Political map of the Caucasus region in 1245

The second Mongol invasion of Alania began in 1239 under

Jassic people (jászsok) who preserved their language until the 16th century.[30]

After the invasion the Mongols installed two local vassal princes, called, according to 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[a] in Mongolian politics until a failed rebellion in 1510, although remaining, while now completely Mongolized, distinct clans to this day.[38]

The Nuzal chapel, which was probably built in the second half of the 13th century and still contains various Christian frescoes.[39]

Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of

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").[40]

Tamerlane's invasion.[41]

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.[42] The retreat into the mountains resulted in the ethnogesis of a new people: the Ossetes,[43] represented by the Digor in the west and the Iron in the east.[44]
The Ossetes 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.[45]

Known rulers

The nomenclature used by the rulers of Alania is unknown. Where they are mentioned by historical records, they are variously called "lord", "prince", "king", "tsar", and by the Byzantines, exousiokrator. Notably, the Byzantines never referred to other foreign rulers by this title, using arkhon or exousiastes instead.

Non-dynastic/dynasty unknown

  • Bazuk - c. late 1st/early 2nd century; allied with the Arsacid kings of Iberia
  • Anbazuk/Ambazuk - co-ruled with previous
  • Ashkhadar - c. early 4th century; father of Ashkhen, wife of Trdat III of Armenia
  • Itaz - waged war against Abkhazia in the early 8th century

Tsarazon/Tsærasantæ dynasty

  • Urdur/Urdura/Urdure - c. early 11th century; first known ruler of Alania after independence from the Khazars. He invaded Kakheti around 1029 and died in battle against Kvirike III. According to Vakhushti of Kartli, Kvirike was assassinated by an Alan slave in revenge.
  • Durgulel the Great - c. 11th century;[46] son of previous, father or brother of Alda of Alania and Borena of Alania. Byzantine seals refer to him as Gabriel, which may represent a baptismal name. Sometimes considered to be identical with his predecessor.
  • Rosmik - c. early 12th century; fought with the Byzantines against the Normans invading Epirus c. 1107/8
  • Khuddan - c. 12th century; father of Burdukhan of Alania, wife of George III of Georgia[47]

Bagrationi dynasty

  • David - c. 12th century; grandson of Alda of Alania; forced to flee Georgia after his father Demetrius unsuccessfully tried to claim the throne. He and his descendants married into the Tsarazon dynasty and became the rulers of Alania
  • Aton - son of previous
  • Jadaron - son of previous
  • David Soslan - d. 1207; son of previous, married Tamar of Georgia[47]

Non-dynastic/dynasty unknown

  • Kachir-Ukule/Kachiruk Ulu (Kachiruk the Senior? Compare with
    David Ulu
    ) - c. 1237 - last known ruler of the united Alan kingdom. Captured and killed by the Mongols.
  • Indiabu - c. 13th century
  • Peredjan - c. 1290

Legacy

In the last years of the

Republic of North Ossetia–Alania).[48]

Gallery

  • Alanic inscription on a (lost) Christian funeral stele Zelenchuk Inscription [ru]
    Alanic inscription on a (lost) Christian funeral stele Zelenchuk Inscription [ru]
  • Stone cross from the North Zelenchusky Church with Greek inscription dated to the year 1012/1013
    Stone cross from the
    North Zelenchusky Church
    with Greek inscription dated to the year 1012/1013
  • Late 19th century copy of a mural from the Central Zelenchuksky Church
    Late 19th century copy of a mural from the Central Zelenchuksky Church
  • Late 19th century copy of a mural from the Central Zelenchuksky Church
    Late 19th century copy of a mural from the Central Zelenchuksky Church

Notes

  1. ^ A prominent asud figure was Arughtai, who from 1400 to 1434 acted as a kingmaker in the Northern Yuan dynasty.[37]

References

  1. ^ a b Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, p. 260.
  2. ^ "ALANS". Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  3. ^ Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 12–14, 572–573
  4. ^ West 2009, pp. 619–621
  5. Encyclopædia Britannica
    . Retrieved 16 May 2015. The Alani who remained under the rule of the Huns are said to be ancestors of the modern Ossetes of the Caucasus. .
  6. ^ "OSSETIC LANGUAGE i. History and description". Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  7. ^ a b "ALANS". Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 16 May 2015
  8. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, pp. 186, 260.
  9. ^ Benveniste 1973, p. 300.
  10. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 213.
  11. ^ "ALANS". Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 16 May 2015
  12. ^ a b Bailey, Harold Walter. Alans. Archived 2012-01-21 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition. Accessed on August 20, 2007.
  13. ^ Alemany 2000, pp. 200–204.
  14. .
  15. .
  16. ^ .
  17. ^ Richard Foltz The Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus, London: Bloomsbury, 2021, pp. 44-50.
  18. ^ Al-Mas'udi notes that the Alanian king married a sister of the king of Sarir.
  19. ^ Quoted in Alemany, p. 260.
  20. ^ Alemany 2000, p. 7.
  21. ^ Kuznetsov, X-II.
  22. ^ Kuznetsov, X-I.
  23. ^ Beletsky & Vinogradov 2011, pp. 51–52.
  24. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022a, p. 214.
  25. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022b, p. 58, 59.
  26. ^ a b Latham-Sparkle 2022a, p. 220.
  27. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022a, p. 216.
  28. ^ a b Latham-Sparkle 2022b, pp. 58–59.
  29. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022a, p. 221.
  30. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, pp. 198–200.
  31. ^ Alemany 2000, pp. 408–410.
  32. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022a, pp. 221–222.
  33. ^ a b Foltz 2022, p. 51.
  34. ^ Latham-Sparkle 2022a, p. 222.
  35. ^ Baumer 2016, p. 223.
  36. ^ Toepel 2012, p. 311.
  37. ^ Tsai 2017, p. 27.
  38. ^ Foltz 2022, pp. 51–52.
  39. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, p. 196.
  40. ^ W. W. Rockhill: The journey of William of Rubruck to the eastern parts of the world, 1253-55, as narrated by himself, with two accounts of the earlier journey of John of Pian de Carpine. tr. from the Latin and ed., with an introductory notice, by William Woodville Rockhill (London: Hakluyt Society, 1900). Acc. to: http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/rubruck.html. Chaps. IX and XXII.
  41. ^ Foltz 2022, p. 163.
  42. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, pp. 237–240.
  43. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, p. 237.
  44. ^ Kouznetsov & Lebedynsky 2005, p. 243.
  45. ^ Foltz 2022, p. 83.
  46. ^ Кузнецов В.А.: Алания в X-XIII вв., page 30
  47. ^ a b Кузнецов В.А.: Алания в X-XIII вв., page 33
  48. ^ Shnirelman, Victor (2006). The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the Northern Caucasus. Acta Slavica Iaponica 23, pp. 37-49.

Sources

Further reading

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