{{Short description|Ancient Iranic people of the North Caucasus}} {{Distinguish |Alan (disambiguation)|Alanis (disambiguation)}} {{Redirect|Alani}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Alans | native_name = Alani | native_name_lang = | image = 250px | image_caption = Map showing the migrations of the Alans | total = <!-- total population worldwide --> | total_year = <!-- year of total population --> | total_source = <!-- source of total population; may be ''census'' or ''estimate'' --> | total_ref = <!-- references supporting total population --> | genealogy = | regions = | languages = Scythian, Alanic | philosophies = | religions = Ancient Iranic paganism, then Arianism ({{circa|5th century}}), and Nicene Christianity | related_groups = Ossetians, Jasz people | footnotes = }} {{Indo-European topics}} The '''Alans''' ({{langx|la|Alani}}) were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus;{{sfn|Golden|2009}}{{sfn|Abaev|Bailey|1985|pages= 801–803}}<ref name="WM Alans">{{harvnb|Waldman|Mason|2006|pp= 12–14}}</ref><ref name="Osprey10">{{harvnb|Brzezinski|Mielczarek|2002|pp= 10–11}}</ref><ref name="Zadneprovskiy467">{{harvnb|Zadneprovskiy|1994|pp= 467–468}}</ref> some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p= 1}} Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources.<ref name="Zadneprovskiy465">{{harvnb| Zadneprovskiy|1994|pp= 465–467}}</ref> Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the {{CE|1st century|link=y}}.{{sfn|Golden|2009}}{{sfn|Abaev|Bailey|1985|pages= 801–803}} At that time they had settled in the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire.<ref name="EB Alani">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/12171/Alani |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Alani |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=2015 |access-date=1 January 2015 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104160114/http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/12171/Alani |url-status=dead }}</ref> Between {{CE|215 and 250|link=y}} the Goths broke their hold on the Pontic Steppe,<ref name="Osprey10" /> thereby assimilating a significant population of associated Alans.

After the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around {{CE|375}}, many of the Alans along with various Germanic tribes migrated westwards. They crossed the Rhine in 406 CE along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 CE they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis.<ref name="EB Spain">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557573/Spain/70357/Visigothic-Spain-to-c-500#ref587098 |title=Spain: Visigothic Spain to c. 500 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= 2015 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date= 1 January 2015 }}</ref> The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418 CE, subsequently surrendered their autonomy to the Hasdingi Vandals.<ref name="EB Vandals">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622890/Vandal |title=Vandal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2015 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date= 1 January 2015}}</ref> In 428{{nbsp}}CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 534 CE.<ref name="EB Vandals" />

Eventually in the 9th century, those Alans who remained under Hunnic rule established the kingdom of Alania, a regional power in the Northern Caucasus. It survived until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Various scholars consider these Alans to be the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.<ref name="EB Alani" /><ref name="Shnirelman">{{cite journal |last1=Shnirelman |first1=Victor |year=2006 |title=The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the Northern Caucasus |url=http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/acta/23/02_shnirelman.pdf |journal=Acta Slavica Iaponica |volume=23 |pages=37–49 }}</ref>

The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian; in turn, the language evolved into the modern Ossetian language.{{sfn| Abaev |Bailey|1985|pages= 801–803}}{{sfn|Alemany|2000|pp= 5–7}}<ref> For ethnogenesis, see Walter Pohl, [http://www.kroraina.com/bulgar/pohl_etnicity.html "Conceptions of Ethnicity in Early Medieval Studies"] in ''Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings'', ed. Lester K. Little and Barbara H. Rosenwein, Blackwell, 1998, pp. 13–24.</ref> The name ''Alan'' represents an Eastern Iranian dialectal form of the Old Iranian term ''Aryan'',{{sfn| Golden|2009}}{{sfn|Abaev|Bailey|1985|pages= 801–803}}{{sfn|Alemany|2000|pp=1–5}} and so is cognate with the name of the country ''Īrān'' (from the gen. plur. ''*aryānām'').<ref>{{Citation |last1=Abaev |first1=V. I. |title=Alans |date=26 August 2020 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/alans-COM_5117 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=16 November 2023 |publisher=Brill |language=en |last2=Bailey |first2=H. W.}}</ref>

==Name== The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century onward under similar names: {{Langx|la|Alānī}}; {{langx|el|Ἀλανοί}} ''{{transliteration|el|Alanoi}}''; {{lang-zh|阿蘭聊}} ''{{transliteration|zh|ISO|Alanliao}}'' (Pinyin; ''Alan'' + ''Liu'') in the 2nd century,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html| title = The ''Hou Hanshu''}}</ref> {{lang|zh|阿蘭}} ''{{transliteration|zh|ISO|Alan}}'' in the 3rd century,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html| title = The ''Weilüe''}}</ref> later ''Alanguo'' ({{lang|zh|阿蘭國}});<ref>Kozin, S.A., Sokrovennoe skazanie, M.-L., 1941. pp. 83–84</ref> Parthian and Middle Persian ''Alānān'' (plural); Arabic ''Alān'' (singular); Syriac ''Alānayē''; Classical Armenian ''Alank'''; Georgian ''Alaneti'' ('country of the Alans'); Hebrew ''Alan'' (pl. ''Alanim'').{{sfn|Alemany|2000|pp=1–2}}{{sfn|Golden|2009}} Rarer Latin spellings include ''Alauni'' or ''Halani''.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|pp=33, 99}} The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as ''Allon''.<ref>Abaev V. I. Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Ossetian Language. V. 1. М.–Л., 1958. pp. 47–48.</ref>{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=4}}

The ethnonym ''Alān'' is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian *''Aryāna'', itself derived from the root ''arya''-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples.<ref name="Mallory">{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213|ps=: "Iran ''Alani'' (< *''aryana'') (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is the ''Iron'' [< *''aryana''-)), *''aryranam'' (gen. pi.) ‘of the Aryans’ (> MPers ''Iran'')."}}</ref><ref name="Alemany">{{harvnb|Alemany|2000|pp=3–4|ps=: "Nowadays, however, only two possibilities are admitted as regards [the etymology of ''Alān''], both closely related: (a) the adjective *''aryāna''- and (b) the gen. pl. *''aryānām''; in both cases the underlying OIran. ajective *''arya''- 'Aryan' is found. It is worth mentioning that although it is not possible to give an unequivocal option because both forms produce the same phonetic result, most researchers tend to favour the derivative *''aryāna''-, because it has a more appropriate semantic value ... The ethnic name *''arya''- underlying in the name of the Alans has been linked to the Av. ''Airiianəm Vaēǰō'' 'the Aryan plain'."}}</ref>{{sfn|Golden|2009}} It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=4}} Like the name of Iran (*''Aryānām''), the adjective *''aryāna'' is related to ''Airyanəm Waēǰō'' ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the ''Avesta''.<ref name="Alemany" />{{sfn|Golden|2009}}

Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the ''Rhoxolāni'' ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the ''Alanorsoi'' ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=8}} The personal names ''Alan'' and ''Alain'' (from Latin ''Alanus'') may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=5}}

The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations ''Asi'', ''As'', and ''Os'' (Romanian ''{{lang|ro|Iasi or Olani}}'', Bulgarian ''{{transliteration|bg|Uzi}}'', Hungarian ''{{lang|hu|Jász}}'', Russian ''{{transliteration|ru|Jasy}}'', Georgian ''{{transliteration|ka|Osi}}'').{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|pp=5–7}}<ref>Sergiu Bacalov, ''Medieval Alans in Moldova'' / ''Consideraţii privind olanii (alanii) sau iaşii din Moldova medievală. Cu accent asupra acelor din regiunea Nistrului de Jos'' https://bacalovsergiu.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/download-sergiu-bacalov-considerac5a3ii-privind-olanii-alanii-sau-iac59fii-din-moldova-medievalc483.pdf)</ref> It is this name at the root of the modern ''Ossetian''.{{sfn|Alemany|2000|pp=5–7}}

== The Alans and warfare == The Alans were famed for their elite and highly mobile cavalry, a fighting style they inherited from their Sarmatian relatives. The Alans' influence on mounted warfare was widespread, with their tactics and equipment impacting the Roman and Germanic armies, among others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ALANS |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alans-an-ancient-iranian-tribe-of-the-northern-scythian-saka-sarmatian-massagete-group-known-to-classical-writers-from/ |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica |language=en-US}}</ref>

Alani boys learned to ride at a young age, and Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus remarked that walking was considered offensive for an Alanic man. A hallmark Alanic tactic, the feigned retreat was designed to draw enemy infantry into a vulnerable position. Alani horsemen would pretend to flee before suddenly wheeling around to attack the enemy's exposed flank.

As mercenaries for the Romans and other powers, the Alans demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of combined-arms tactics. Their missile-equipped cavalry would harry the enemy, pinning them in place before the shock cavalry delivered a devastating charge.

Alani cavalry was highly mobile and was used for rapid skirmishing and opportunistic attacks against enemy flanks. The mobility of their cavalry and the psychological terror they inspired in less disciplined infantry were major advantages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holmes |first=Robert |date=2023-07-17 |title=Cataphracts: The Ancient World's Armored Cavalrymen |url=https://www.thecollector.com/cataphracts-persian-cavalrymen/ |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=TheCollector |language=en}}</ref>

The Alans were recruited into the Mongol forces and known as the Asud, with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" that was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers.<ref name=":11322">{{cite book|author=Очир А. |date=2016 |editor=д.и.н. Э. П. Бакаева, д.и.н. К. В. Орлова |isbn=978-5-903833-93-1 |location=Элиста |pages=286 |publisher=КИГИ РАН |title=Монгольские этнонимы: вопросы происхождения и этнического состава монгольских народов}}<!-- auto-translated from Russian by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==History==

===Timeline=== <timeline> ImageSize = width:780 height:200 PlotArea = left:72 right:8 bottom:20 top:2 AlignBars = justify Define $wide = width:35

Colors = id:sovereign value:rgb(1,0,0) legend:Sovereign id:subject value:rgb(1,0.5,0.5) legend:Subject id:semi value:rgb(1,0.25,0.25) legend:Semi-independent id:grid value:rgb(0.8,0.8,0.8) id:smallgrid value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9)

DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:20 till:2020 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:100 gridcolor:grid ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:20 start:20 gridcolor:smallgrid

Bardata = bar:Africa text:"Africa" bar:Gaul text:Gaul bar:Danube text:Danube bar:Ciscaucasus text:Ciscaucasus bar:Caucasus text:Caucasus

Plotdata = bar:Ciscaucasus from:start till:375 color:sovereign $wide bar:Ciscaucasus at:20 text:"Ancient Alan kingdoms"

bar:Ciscaucasus at:375 text:Huns bar:Ciscaucasus from:375 till:455 color:subject $wide bar:Danube from:start till:175 color:sovereign $wide bar:Danube at:30 text:"Roxolani & Iazyges" bar:Danube from:380 till:480 color:subject $wide bar:Danube at:385 text:"Alans settled in Pannonia" bar:Gaul from:406 till:499 color:semi $wide bar:Gaul at:406 text:"Alan kingdoms at~Orléans and Valence" bar:Africa from:429 till:534 color:sovereign $wide bar:Africa at:430 text:"Kingdom of the~Vandals and Alans" bar:Ciscaucasus from:455 till:1239 color:sovereign $wide bar:Ciscaucasus from:721 till:965 color:semi $wide bar:Ciscaucasus at:750 text:"Khazars" Bar:Ciscaucasus at:1000 text:"Medieval Alania"

bar:Ciscaucasus from:1239 till:1440 color:subject $wide bar:Ciscaucasus at:1245 text:Mongols bar:Ciscaucasus from:1440 till:1774 color:semi $wide bar:Ciscaucasus from:1774 till:end color:subject $wide bar:Ciscaucasus at: 1810 text:"North Ossetia~/Alania" bar:Danube from:1318 till:end color:subject $wide bar:Danube at:1500 text:"Jassic (Jazones) in Hungary" bar:Caucasus from:1239 till:1440 color:subject $wide bar:Caucasus from:1440 till:1804 color:semi $wide bar:Caucasus at:1500 text: bar:Ciscaucasus at:1500 text:"Iron~Digor" bar:Caucasus from:1804 till:1991 color:subject $wide bar:Caucasus at:1922 text:"South Ossetia" bar:Caucasus from:1991 till:end color:subject $wide

</timeline>

===Origin=== The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae, a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who previously invaded Bactria in the 2nd century BC, the Alans were pushed west by the Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the {{lang|grc|Ἰαξάρται}} {{transliteration|grc|Iaxártai}} in Greek, and the {{lang|la|Iaxartae}} in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Olbrycht |first=Marek Jan |date=2000 |title=Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia |chapter=Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11934986 |location=Kraków |publisher=Księgarnia Akademicka |pages=101–104 |isbn=978-8-371-88337-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Melyukova |first=A. I. |author-link=Anna Melyukova |editor-last=Sinor |translator-last=Crookenden |translator-first=Julia |editor-first=Denis |editor-link=Denis Sinor |date=1990 |title=The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia |volume=1 |url= |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York City, United States |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=97–117 |isbn=978-0-521-24304-9 }}</ref>

===Early Alans=== thumb|Scythians and related Northeastern Iranic peoples in the Iron Age highlighted in green. [[File:Roman Empire 125.png|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Europe, 117–138, when the Alani were concentrated north of the Caucasus Mountains (centre right).]]

The first mentions of names that historians link with the ''Alani'' appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.{{sfn|Alemany|2000|p=?}}

In the 1st century, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia, achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea.<ref name="Osprey10" /><ref name="Zadneprovskiy467" /> The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads that Vologases I, the Parthian king between around{{nbsp}}45 and 78, in the 11th year of his reign (62), battled Kuluk, king of the Alani.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.lostlanguages.com/parthian.htm| title = Vologeses inscription.}} </ref> The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the ''Jewish Wars'' (book{{nbsp}}7, ch.{{nbsp}}7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72{{nbsp}}CE) and defeated the armies of Pacorus, king of Media, and Tiridates, King of Armenia, two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom the above-mentioned inscription was made):

{{blockquote|text=Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and living around Tanais and Lake Maeotis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody dared make any resistance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up everything he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving a hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying waste all before them. Now, Tiridates was king of that country, who met them and fought them but was lucky not to have been taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a noose over him and would soon have drawn him in, had he not immediately cut the cord with his sword and escaped. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other booty from both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back to their own country.}}

The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea.<ref name="Osprey10" /> By the early 2nd century the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban.<ref name="Osprey10" /> These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces, whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts.<ref name="Osprey10" /> It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of the Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture.<ref name="Osprey10" />

In {{CE|135}}, the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia.<ref name="Osprey10" /> They were eventually driven back by Arrian, the governor of Cappadocia, who wrote a detailed report (''Ektaxis kata Alanoon'' or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics.

From 215 to 250, the Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe.<ref name="Osprey10" /> The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on the culture of the Goths, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art.<ref name="Osprey10" /> (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before the Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus, Claudius II and Aurelian.)

After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns.<ref name="Osprey10" /> Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage."<ref name="Osprey10" /> Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance".<ref name="Osprey10" /> In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise{{snds}} ''Hunnorum Alannorumque natio'', the "nation of Huns and Alans"{{snds}}and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, ''exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque''.<ref>Vegetius 3.26, noted in passing by T.D. Barnes, "The Date of Vegetius" ''Phoenix'' '''33'''.3 (Autumn 1979, pp. 254–257) p. 256. "The collocation of these three barbarian races does not recur a generation later", Barnes notes, in presenting a case for a late 4th-century origin for Vegetius' treatise.</ref>

The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that the Alans were "formerly called Massagetae,"<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus. Roman History. Book XXXI. II. 12</ref> while Dio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae."<ref name="Osprey10" /> It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples, including Sarmatians, Massagetae and Sakas.<ref name="Osprey10" /> Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources.<ref name="Zadneprovskiy465" /> The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BC diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of ''Shiji'' (whose author, Sima Qian, died c. 90 BC).<ref name="Zadneprovskiy465" /><ref>Watson, Burton trans. 1993. ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Han Dynasty II.'' (Revised Edition), p. 234. Columbia University Press. New York. {{ISBN|0-231-08166-9|0-231-08167-7}} (pbk.)</ref> The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with the Aorsi, a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea, mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo.<ref name="Zadneprovskiy465" />

===Link to Chinese chronicles === The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the ''Hou Hanshu'', 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the ''Yancai'' nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" < LHC *''ʔɨam<sup>B</sup>''-''sɑ<sup>C</sup>''; a.k.a. ''Hesu'' (闔蘇), compare Latin ''Abzoae'',<ref>{{cite journal|last= Yu|first= Taishan|title= A Study of Saka History|journal= Sino-Platonic Papers|issue= 80|date= July 1998|url= http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp080_saka_sai.pdf|quote= Yan Shigu's 顏師古 commentary says: "Hu Guang 胡廣 adds: "Some 1,000 li to the north of Kangju was a state named Yancai, which also was named Hesu. Hence Hesu was identical with Yancai." This shows that the Yancai were also called the Hesu in the Han times.}}</ref><ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' IV [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL352.365.xml p. 365]</ref> identified with the Aorsi (Ancient Greek ''Αορσιοι'')<ref>Schuessler, Axel. (2009) ''Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. p. 348</ref><ref>Yu Huan, ''Weilüe''. draft translation by John E. Hill (2004). ''Translator's Notes'' [https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_2 11.2] quote: "Yăncài, already mentioned in the text as a country northwest of Kāngjū (at that time in the region of Tashkend), has long been identified with the Aorsoi of western sources, a nomadic people out of whom the well-known Alans later emerged (Pulleyblank [1962: 99, 220; 1968:252])".</ref>) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as ''Alan'' (< LHC: *''ʔɑ-lɑn'' 阿蘭)<ref>Schuessler (2009). pp. 211, 246</ref><ref>Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu''." Revised Edition.</ref>{{efn|According to Chavannes (1907), Weilüe correctly states that Yancai's alternative name is simply 阿蘭 ''Ālán'' instead of 阿蘭聊 ''Ālánliáo'' as recorded in Book of Later Han; as 聊 ''Liáo'' looks similar to 柳 ''Liǔ'', the name of a separate country already mentioned before 岩 ''Yán'' & 阿蘭 ''Ālán''.<ref>[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%9C%8B%E5%BF%97/%E5%8D%B730#%E8%A5%BF%E6%88%8E ''Weilüe'': "Western Regions"], quoted in Sanguozhi vol. 30</ref><ref>''Houhanshu'', Vol. 88: Xiyu zhuan [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E6%BC%A2%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B788#%E5%A5%84%E8%94%A1%E5%9C%8B Yancai]" quote: "奄蔡國，改名阿兰聊國，居地城，屬康居。土气温和，多桢松、白草。民俗衣服與康居同。"</ref><ref>Hill, John E. (translator). ''The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu: The Xiyu juan'' "Chapter on the Western Regions" from Hou Hanshu 88 2nd Ed [https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/notes19.html "Section 19 – The Kingdom of Alanliao 阿蘭聊 (the Alans)"]</ref>}}

Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BC, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period.<ref name="Zadneprovskiy465" /><ref name="Zadneprovskiy463">{{harvnb|Zadneprovskiy|1994|pp=463–464}}</ref> The 3rd century Weilüe also notes that Yancai was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html| title = For an earlier version of this translation}}</ref>

Dutch Sinologist A. F. P. Hulsewé noted that:<ref>Hulsewé. A. F .P. (1979) ''China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty.'' p. 129, n. 316. cited in John E. Hill. Translator's Notes [https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#25_3 25.3 & 25.4] to draft translation of Yu Huan's Weilüe</ref>

{{blockquote|Chavannes (1905), p. 558, note 5, approves of the identification of Yen-ts’ai with the ‘Αορσοι mentioned by Strabo, as proposed by Hirth (1885), p. 139, note 1 ; he believes this identification to be strengthened by the later name Alan, which explains Ptolemy's "Alanorsi". Marquart (1905), pp. 240–241, did not accept this identification, but Pulleyblank (1963), pp. 99 and 220, does, referring for additional support to HSPC 70.6b where the name Ho-su 闔蘇, reconstructed in ‘Old Chinese’ as ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ, can be compared with Abzoae found in Pliny VI, 38 (see also Pulleyblank (1968), p. 252). Also Humbach (1969), pp. 39–40, accepts the identification, though with some reserve.}}

===Migration to Gaul=== [[File:Butler Migrations of the Barbarians.jpg|thumb|The migrations of the Alans during the 4th–5th centuries, from their homeland in the North Caucasus]] Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with the survivors.<ref name="Osprey10" /><ref>Giovanni de Marignolli, "John De' Marignolli and His Recollections of Eastern Travel", in [https://archive.org/details/cathayandwaythi00marigoog ''Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China''], Volume 2, ed. Henry Yule (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1866), 316–317.</ref> These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns.<ref name="Osprey10" /> They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion.<ref name="Osprey10" />

Following the Hunnic invasion in 370, other Alans, along with other Sarmatians, migrated westward.<ref name="Osprey10" /> One of these Alan groups fought together with the Goths in the decisive Battle of Adrianople in 378{{nbsp}}CE, in which emperor Valens was killed.<ref name="Osprey10" /> As the Roman Empire continued to decline, the Alans split into various groups; some fought for the Romans while others joined the Huns, Visigoths or Ostrogoths.<ref name="Osprey10" /> A portion of the western Alans joined the Vandals and the Suebi in their invasion of Roman Gaul. Gregory of Tours mentions in his ''Liber historiae Francorum'' ("Book of Frankish History") that the Alan king Respendial saved the day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine on 31 December 406. According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led by Goar, crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul.

Under Beorgor ({{lang|la|Beorgor rex Alanorum}}), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus, when they crossed the Alps in the winter of 464, into Liguria, but were there defeated, and Beorgor slain, by Ricimer, commander of the Emperor's forces.<ref>Isaac Newton, ''Observations on Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John'' (1733).</ref><ref>Paul the Deacon, ''Historia Romana'', XV, 1.</ref>

In 442, after it became clear to Aetius that he could no longer rely upon the Huns for support, he turned to Goar and persuaded him to move some of his people to settlements in the Orleanais in order to control the bacaudae of Armorica and to keep the Visigoths from expanding their territories northward across the Loire. Goar settled a substantial number of his followers in the Orleanais and the area to the north and personally moved his own capital to the city of Orleans.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaGCbuuajFAC|title=A History of the Alans in the West|last=Bachrach|first=Bernard S.|date=1973|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0816656998|pages=63|language=en}}</ref>

Under Goar, they allied with the Burgundians led by Gundaharius, with whom they installed the Emperor Jovinus as usurper. Under Goar's successor Sangiban, the Alans of Orléans played a critical role in repelling the invasion of Attila the Hun at the Battle of Châlons. In 463 the Alans defeated the Goths at the battle of Orléans, and they later defeated the Franks led by Childeric in 466.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaGCbuuajFAC|title=A History of the Alans in the West|last=Bachrach|first=Bernard S.|date=1973|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0816656998|pages=77|language=en}}</ref> Around 502–503 Clovis attacked Armorica but was defeated by the Alans. However, the Alans, who were Chalcedonian Christians like Clovis, desired cordial relations with him to counterbalance the hostile Arian Visigoths who coveted the land north of the Loire. Therefore, an accord was arranged by which Clovis came to rule the various peoples of Armorica and the military strength of the area was integrated into the Merovingian military.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbz9IyOvfPoC|title=Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751|last=Bachrach|first=Bernard S.|date=1972|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0816657001|pages=10|language=en}}</ref>

===Hispania and Africa=== thumb|upright=1.25|Kingdom of the Alans in Hispania (409–426). Following the fortunes of the Vandals and Suebi into the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) in 409,<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical Atlas of the Classical World, 500 BC–AD 600|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOzKGAAACAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books|isbn=978-0-7607-1973-2|page=2.16}}</ref> the Alans led by Respendial settled in the provinces of Lusitania and Carthaginensis.<ref>''"Alani Lusitaniam et Carthaginiensem provincias, et Wandali cognomine Silingi Baeticam sortiuntur"'' (Hydatius)</ref> The Kingdom of the Alans was among the first Barbarian kingdoms to be founded. The Siling Vandals settled in Baetica, the Suebi in coastal Gallaecia, and the Asding Vandals in the rest of Gallaecia. Although the newcomers controlled Hispania they were still a tiny minority among a larger Hispano-Roman population, approximately 200,000 out of 6,000,000.<ref name="EB Spain" />

In 418 (or 426 according to some authors<ref>Castritius, 2007</ref>), the Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Asding Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. The separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved.<ref>For another rapid disintegration of an ''ethne'' in the Early Middle Ages, see Avars. (Pohl 1998:17f).</ref> Although some of these Alans are thought to have remained in Iberia, most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later the rulers of the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa styled themselves ''Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum'' ("King of the Vandals and Alans").<ref name="Latham">{{cite book|last=Latham|first=Robert Gordon|author-link1=Robert Gordon Latham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6CspAAAAYAAJ|title=Russian and Turk From a Geographical, Ethnological, and Historical Point of View|page=170|publisher=W. H. Allen|year=1878|isbn=}}</ref><ref name="Chrysos">{{cite book|author=Evangelos Chrysos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bj5pAAAAMAAJ|title=Das Reich und die Barbaren|page=58|publisher=Böhlau|year=1989|isbn=978-3205051121}}</ref>

thumb|upright=1.25|Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa (526). There are some vestiges of the Alans in Portugal,<ref>Milhazes, José. [http://www.rtp.pt/index.php?article=264957&visual=16&rss=0 Os antepassados caucasianos dos portugueses] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071104032200/http://www.rtp.pt/index.php?article=264957&visual=16&rss=0|date=4 November 2007}}&nbsp;– Rádio e Televisão de Portugal in Portuguese.</ref> namely in Alenquer (whose name may be Germanic for the ''Temple of the Alans'', from "Alan Kerk",<ref>Ivo Xavier Fernándes. Topónimos e gentílicos, Volume 1, 1941, p. 144.</ref> and whose castle may have been established by them; the Alaunt is still represented in that city's coat of arms), in the construction of the castles of Torres Vedras and Almourol, and in the city walls of Lisbon, where vestiges of their presence may be found under the foundations of the Church of ''Santa Luzia''.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled in Lusitania (Alentejo) and the Cartaginense provinces. They became known in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting running mastiff-type dogs, the Alaunt, which they apparently introduced to Europe. The breed is extinct, but its name is carried by a Spanish breed of dog still called ''Alano'', traditionally used in boar hunting and cattle herding. The Alano name, however, has historically been used for a number of dog breeds in a few European countries thought to descend from the original dog of the Alans, such as the German mastiff (Great Dane) and the French Dogue de Bordeaux, among others.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Y-DNA consistent with the Alans can still be found in these regions, mainly around the District of Portalegre.

===Medieval Alania=== {{Main|Alania}}

thumb|left|Map of Alania in IV Century. The Alans who remained in their original area of settlement north of the Caucasus (and for a time east of the Caspian Sea as well), came into contact and conflict with the Bulgars, the Gökturks, and the Khazars, who drove most of them from the plains and into the mountains.<ref name="EI2">{{cite encyclopedia | title = Alān | first1 = W. | last1 = Barthold | first2 = V. | last2 = Minorsky| encyclopedia = The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A–B | publisher = Brill| location = Leiden and New York | year = 1986 | isbn = 978-90-04-08114-7 | page = 354 | url = http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/alan-SIM_0502}}</ref>

The Alans converted to Byzantine Orthodoxy in the first quarter of the 10th century, during the patriarchate of Nicholas I Mystikos. Al-Mas‘udi reports that they apostasized in 932, but this seems to have been short-lived. The Alans are collectively mentioned as Byzantine-rite Christians in the 13th century.<ref name="EI2"/> The Caucasian Alans were the ancestors of the modern Ossetians, whose ethnonym derives from the name ''Ās'' (very probably the ancient ''Aorsi''; al-Ma'sudi mentions ''al-Arsiyya'' as guards among the Khazars, and the Rus' called the Alans ''Yasi''), a sister tribe of the Alans. The ''Armenian Geography'' uses the name ''Ashtigor'' for the most westerly located Alans, a name which survives as ''Digor'' and still refers to the western division of the Ossetians. Furthermore, in Ossetian, ''Asi'' refers to the region around Mount Elbrus, where they probably formerly lived.<ref name="EI2"/> In the territory from Urukh to Mount Elbrus, a sufficient number of Ossetian toponyms have been preserved up until the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=НЭБ - Национальная электронная библиотека |url=https://rusneb.ru/ |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=rusneb.ru - Национальная электронная библиотека |language=ru}}</ref>

[[Image:Pontic_steppe_region_around_650_AD.png|thumb|right|250px|The Pontic steppe in c. 650]] Some of the other Alans remained under the rule of the Huns. Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by the Mongols into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetians. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, they formed a network of tribal alliances that gradually evolved into the Christian kingdom of Alania. Most Alans submitted to the Mongol Empire in 1239–1277. They participated in Mongol invasions of Europe and the Song dynasty in Southern China, and the Battle of Kulikovo under Mamai of the Golden Horde.<ref>Handbuch Der Orientalistik By Agustí Alemany, Denis Sinor, Bertold Spuler, Hartwig Altenmüller, pp. 400–410</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=citation is not referenced properly & work advocates Altaic theory, which is discredited|date=April 2015}}

In 1253, the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. It is also known that 30,000 Alans formed the royal guard (Asud) of the Yuan court in Dadu (Beijing). Marco Polo later reported their role in the Yuan dynasty in his book ''Il Milione''. It is said that those Alans contributed to a modern Mongol clan, Asud. John of Montecorvino, archbishop of Dadu (Khanbaliq), reportedly converted many Alans to Roman Catholic Christianity in addition to Armenians in China.<ref>Roux, p. 465</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.luc.edu/publications/medieval/vol2/guzman.html| title = Christian Europe and Mongol Asia: First Medieval Intercultural Contact Between East and West }}</ref> In Poland and Lithuania, Alans were also part of the powerful Clan of Ostoja.

According to the missionary Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, a part of the Alans had successfully resisted a Mongol siege on a mountain for 12 years:<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Tesaev |first=Amin |date=13 November 2020 |title=К личности и борьбе чеченского героя идига (1238–1250 гг.) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347758240 |url-access=subscription |language=ru |conference=МАТЕРИАЛЫ ВСЕРОССИЙСКОЙ НАУЧНО-ПРАКТИЧЕСКОЙ КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ МОЛОДЫХ УЧЕНЫХ «НАУКА И МОЛОДЕЖЬ», ПОСВЯЩЕННОЙ ФИЗИКЕ БУДУЩЕГО] |location=Grozny |pages=451–455 |doi=10.36684/30-2020-1-451-454 }} [https://storage.ucomplex.org/files/users/-1/e3044585c4844770.pdf Conference papers online].</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=When they (the Mongols) begin to besiege a fortress, they besiege it for many years, as it happens today with one mountain in the land of the Alans. We believe they have been besieging it for twelve years and they (the Alans) put up courageous resistance and killed many Tatars, including many noble ones.|author=Giovanni da Pian del Carpine|title=|source=report from 1250}}

This twelve-year-long siege is not found in any other report, however the Russian historian A. I. Krasnov connected this battle with two Chechen folktales he recorded in 1967 that spoke of an old hunter named Idig who with his companions defended the Dakuoh mountain for 12 years against Tatar-Mongols. He also reported to have found several arrowheads and spears from the 13th century near the very mountain the battle took place at:<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Krasnov|first=A.I|title=Копье Тебулос-Мта|journal=Вокруг Света|volume=9|pages=29}}</ref>

Against the Alans and the Cumans (Kipchaks), the Mongols used divide-and-conquer tactics by first telling the Cumans to stop allying with the Alans and, after the Cumans followed their suggestion, the Mongols then attacked the Cumans<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sinor |first1=Denis |title=The Mongols in the West |journal=Journal of Asian History |date=1999 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=1–44 |jstor=41933117 }}</ref> after defeating the Alans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halperin |first1=Charles J. |title=The Kipchak Connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |date=2000 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=229–245 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00007205 |jstor=1559539 |s2cid=162439703 }}</ref> Alans were recruited into the Mongol forces with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" which was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers, Mongols, and Chinese soldiers stationed in the area of the former Kingdom of Qocho and in Besh Balikh the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih).<ref name="Rossabi1983">{{cite book|first=Morris|last=Rossabi|title=China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNpD5UKmkswC&q=alan+guard+mongols&pg=PA255|year=1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04562-0|pages=255–}}</ref> Alan and Kipchak guards were used by Kublai Khan.<ref name="Nicolle2004">{{cite book|first=David|last=Nicolle|title=The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hulegu, Tamerlane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgQXAQAAIAAJ&q=alan+guard+mongols|date=2004|publisher=Brockhampton Press|isbn=978-1-86019-407-8|page=85}}</ref> In 1368 at the end of the Yuan dynasty in China Toghan Temür was accompanied by his faithful Alan guards.<ref name="Hatto1991">{{cite book|author=Arthur Thomas Hatto|author-link=Arthur Thomas Hatto|title=Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxRpAAAAMAAJ&q=alan+guard+mongols|year=1991|publisher=Peter de Ridder Press|page=36}}</ref> Mangu enlisted in his bodyguard half the troops of the Alan prince, Arslan, whose younger son Nicholas took a part in the expedition of the Mongols against Karajang (Yunnan). This Alan imperial guard was still in existence in 1272, 1286 and 1309, and it was divided into two corps with headquarters in the Ling pei province (Karakorúm).<ref name="Yule1915">{{cite book|author=Sir Henry Yule|title=Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMIWlq6JeccC&q=alan+guard+mongols&pg=PA187|year=1915|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1966-1|pages=187–}}</ref> The French-Flemish friar and traveler William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey through Eurasia to the Great Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in Crimea, Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capital Karakorum, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars").<ref>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.</ref> The reason why the earlier Persian word tersa was gradually abandoned by the Mongols in favour of the Syro-Greek word arkon, when speaking of Christians, manifestly is that no specifically Greek Church was ever heard of in China until the Russians had been conquered; besides, there were large bodies of Russian and Alan guards at Peking throughout the last half of the thirteenth and first half of the 14th century, and the Catholics there would not be likely to encourage the use of a Persian word which was most probably applicable in the first instance to the Nestorians they found so degenerated.<ref name="Parker1905">{{cite book|author=Edward Harper Parker|title=China and religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oP4xuxY0B2QC&q=alan+guard+mongols&pg=PA232|year=1905|publisher=E. P. Dutton|pages=232–|isbn=978-0524009512}}</ref> The Alan guards converted to Catholicism as reported by Odorico.<ref name="Arnold1999">{{cite book|first=Lauren|last=Arnold|title=Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and Its Influence on the Art of the West, 1250–1350|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRunTSqY7msC&q=alan+guard+mongols&pg=PA79|year=1999|publisher=Desiderata Press|isbn=978-0-9670628-0-8|pages=79–}}</ref> They were a "Russian guard".<ref name="Makeham2008">{{cite book|first=John|last=Makeham|title=China: The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQ4NAQAAMAAJ&q=russian+guard|year=2008|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-25142-3|page=269}}</ref> [[File:Cumania-Jazygia-1700s.png|thumb|Jazygia, inhabited by the Jassic people, in the 18th century within the Kingdom of Hungary.]] In 1277 Mengu-Timur sent an expedition against the rebellious Alans in the city of Dedyakov. As a result of the campaign, the city was burned.<ref>{{Cite web |title=НЭБ - Национальная электронная библиотека |url=https://rusneb.ru/ |access-date=2025-07-22 |website=rusneb.ru - Национальная электронная библиотека |language=ru}}</ref> According to many researchers, Dedyakov was located on the territory of the capital of North Ossetia - Vladikavkaz.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ДОКЛАД КЛАПРОТА ОБ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ ОСЕТИН И СРЕДНЕВЕКОВЫХ АЛАН |url=https://www.iriston.com/nogbon/print.php?newsid=323 |access-date=2025-07-22 |website=www.iriston.com}}</ref>

It is believed that some Alans resettled to the North (Barsils), merging with Volga Bulgars and Burtas, eventually transforming to Volga Tatars.<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://kitap.net.ru/bayar.php Тайная история татар] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927151902/http://kitap.net.ru/bayar.php |date=27 September 2007 }}</ref>{{unverifiable|date=June 2013}} It is supposed that the Iasians, a group of Alans founded a market in the northeast of Romania (about 1200–1300), near the Prut river, later called Iași town. The latter became the capital of Moldavia in the Middle Ages.<ref>A. Boldur, ''Istoria Basarabiei'', p. 20</ref> Classical Alania finally ceased to exist at the end of the 14th century, when Tamerlane invaded. After defeating the Golden Horde in the Battle of the Terek River in 1395, he subsequently attacked several Alanians leaders,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Историческое топографическое статистическое этнографическое и военное описание Кавказа |url=https://runivers.ru/bookreader/book10422/#page/224/mode/1up |access-date=2025-06-28 |website=runivers.ru}}</ref> leading to months of slaughter and enslavement, which are still remembered in a popular Ossetian folk song called "mother of Zadaleska". Tamerlane's invasion led to the Alans fleeing into the depths of the Caucasus Mountains and the end of the Alans' presence in the steppes north of the Caucasus, which is preserved in the Digorian legends.{{sfn|Kouznetsov|Lebedynsky|2005|pp=237–240}} Alan mercenaries were involved in the affair with the Catalan Company.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jessee |first1=Scott |last2=Isaenko |first2=Anatoly |chapter=The Military Effectiveness of Alan Mercenaries in Byzantium, 1301–1306 |pages=107–132 |jstor=10.7722/j.ctt31njvf.9 |editor1-first=Clifford J |editor1-last=Rogers |editor2-first=Kelly |editor2-last=DeVries |editor3-first=John |editor3-last=France |title=Journal of Medieval Military History: Volume XI |date=2013 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84383-860-9 }}</ref>

==Genetics== thumb|Ossetians

In a study conducted in 2014 by V. V.{{nbsp}}Ilyinskyon on bone fragments from 10 Alanic burials on the Don River, DNA could be abstracted from a total of seven. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them had mtDNA{{nbsp}}I. The fact that many of the samples share the same y- and mtDNA raises the possibility that the tested individuals belonged to the same tribe or even were close relatives. Nevertheless this supports the argument for a direct Alan ancestry of Ossetians, competing with the hypothesis that Ossetians are alanized Caucasic-speakers, as the main haplogroup among Ossetians is also G2.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/7061155 |title = Афанасьев Г.Е., Добровольская М.В., Коробов Д.С., Решетова И.К. О культурной, антропологической и генетической специфике донских алан // Е.И. Крупнов и развитие археологии Северного Кавказа. М. 2014. С. 312–315|last1 = Reshetova|first1 = Irina|last2 = Afanasiev|first2 = Gennady}}</ref>

In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In this analysis, the two Alan samples from the 4th to 6th century had yDNAs G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while from the three Sarmatian samples from 2nd to 3rd century two had yDNA J1-M267 and one possessed R1a.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=z6AHBTuUfQao.kwOSocRsvcoo |title = ДДНК Сарматы, Аланы}}</ref> Also, the three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from 8th to 9th century turned out to have yDNAs G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94 respectively.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/15713987 | title=Афанасьев Г.Е., Вень Ш., Тун С., Ван Л., Вэй Л., Добровольская М.В., Коробов Д.С., Решетова И.К., Ли Х.. Хазарские конфедераты в бассейне Дона // Естественнонаучные методы исследования и парадигма современной археологии. М. 2015. С. 146–153| last1=Reshetova| first1=Irina| last2=Afanasiev| first2=Gennady| date=20 March 2026}}</ref>

A genetic study published in ''Nature'' in May 2018 examined the remains of six Alans buried in the Caucasus from c. 100 to 1400. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1 and haplogroup Q-M242. One of the Q-M242 samples found in Beslan, North Ossetia from 200 found 4 relatives among Chechens from the Shoanoy Teip.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yfull.com/tree/Q-YP4000/|title=Q-YP4000 YTree}}</ref> The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to HV2a1, U4d3, X2f, H13a2c, H5, and W1.{{sfn|Damgaard et al.|2018}}

==Archaeology== {{Unreferenced section|date=June 2015}} Archaeological finds support the written sources. P. D. Rau (1927) first identified late Sarmatian sites with the historical Alans. Based on the archaeological material, they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes that began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd centuries.

==Language== {{main|Alanic language}}

==Religion== [[File:Assumpt monastery church.JPG|thumb|Orthodox church in North Ossetia-Alania]] Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian polytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understood Scythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form of Zoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.<ref>Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths" in: Fisher, W. B. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-20091-1}}. pp. 158–159.</ref>

In the 4th{{nsndns}}5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine Arian missionaries of the church. The Alans converted to Byzantine Orthodoxy in the first quarter of the 10th century, during the patriarchate of Nicholas I Mystikos. Al-Mas‘udi reports that they apostasized in 932, but this seems to have been short-lived. By the 13th century, most of the urban population of Ossetia gradually became Eastern Orthodox Christian as a result of Georgian missionary work. In the 13th century, invading Mongol hordes pushed the eastern Alans further south into the Caucasus, where they mixed with native Caucasian groups and successively formed three territorial entities each with different developments. Around 1395, Timur's army invaded the Northern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population.

As time went by, Digor in the west came under Kabard and Islamic influence. It was through the Kabardians (an East Circassian tribe) that Islam was introduced into the region in the 17th century. After 1767, all of Alania came under Russian rule, which strengthened Orthodox Christianity in that region considerably. A substantial minority of today's Ossetians are followers of the traditional Ossetian religion, revived in the 1980s as Assianism (Ossetian: ''Uatsdin'' – 'True Faith').<ref>{{cite journal |last=Foltz |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Foltz |title=Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion' |journal=Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture |volume=13 |year=2019 |pages=314–332 |issue=3 |doi=10.1558/jsrnc.39114 |s2cid=213692638 }}</ref>

==See also== * List of ancient Iranian peoples * Roxolani, possibly a subset of the Alans * Ossetians * Jasz people

== Explanatory notes == {{Notelist}}

==References== === Citations === {{Reflist}}

=== General and cited sources === * {{Encyclopaedia Iranica | title = Alans | last = Abaev | first = V.I. | last2 = Bailey | first2 = H.W. | author-link1 = Vasily Abaev | author-link2 = Harold Walter Bailey | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alans-an-ancient-iranian-tribe-of-the-northern-scythian-saka-sarmatian-massagete-group-known-to-classical-writers-from | volume = 1 | fascicle = 8 | pages = 801–803 }} * {{cite book|last=Alemany|first=Agustí|year=2000|title=Sources on the Alans: A Critical Compilation |publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-11442-5}} * {{cite journal |last1=Bachrach |first1=Bernard S. |title=The Origin of Armorican Chivalry |journal=Technology and Culture |date=1969 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=166–171 |doi=10.2307/3101476 |jstor=3101476 }} * Bachrach, Bernard S. (1973). ''A History of the Alans in the West, from their first appearance in the sources of classical antiquity through the early Middle Ages''. University of Minnesota Press. {{ISBN|0-8166-0678-1}} * {{cite book |last1=Brzezinski |first1=Richard |last2=Mielczarek |first2=Mariusz |date=2002 |title=The Sarmatians, 600 BC–AD 450 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84176-485-6 }} * Castritius, H. 2007. Die Vandalen. Kohlhammer Verlag. * {{cite journal |last1=Damgaard |first1=Peter de Barros |last2=Marchi |first2=Nina |last3=Rasmussen |first3=Simon |last4=Peyrot |first4=Michaël |last5=Renaud |first5=Gabriel |last6=Korneliussen |first6=Thorfinn |last7=Moreno-Mayar |first7=J. 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Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. {{ISBN?}} * {{EI3 | last = Golden | first = Peter B. | authorlink = Peter Benjamin Golden | title = Alāns | year = 2009 | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/alans-COM_22193?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-3&s.q=Al%C4%81ns }} * Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu''." 2nd Draft Edition. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html] * Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 AD.'' Draft English translation. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html] * {{cite book |last1=Kouznetsov |first1=Vladimir |last2=Lebedynsky |first2=Iaroslav |title=Les Alains. Cavaliers des steppes, seigneurs du Caucase. I-XV siecles apr. J.-C. |year=2005 |publisher=Errance |isbn=2877722953}} * {{Cite book|last1=Mallory|first1=J. P.|title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|last2=Adams|first2=Douglas Q.|date=1997|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|isbn=978-1-884964-98-5|author-link=J. P. Mallory|author-link2=Douglas Q. Adams}} * {{cite book |last1=Waldman |first1=Carl |last2=Mason |first2=Catherine |title=Encyclopedia of European Peoples|year=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-2918-1 }} * Yu, Taishan. 2004. ''A History of the Relationships between the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions''. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 131 March 2004. Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. * {{cite book |last=Zadneprovskiy |first=Y. A. |chapter=The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After The Invasion of Alexander |editor1-last=Harmatta |editor1-first=János |editor1-link=János Harmatta |date=1 January 1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B.C. to A.D. 250 |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000105703 |publisher=UNESCO |pages=457–472 |isbn=978-92-3-102846-5 }}

==External links== * [http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/hhshu/notes19.html Strabo and ''Hou Han Shu'' references discussed] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212031807/http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/hhshu/notes19.html |date=12 February 2006 }}) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105035936/http://www.kafkas.org.tr/english/bgkafkas/Ethnicgeography_Ossets.htm Caucasus Foundation: Caucasus Today: Ossets]

{{Barbarian kingdoms}} {{Scythia}} {{Authority control}}

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