The
Alans or
Alani (occasionally
termed
Alauni or
Halani) were a
group of
Sarmatian tribes,
nomadic pastoralists of the
1st millennium AD who spoke an
Eastern Iranian language which derived from
Scytho-Sarmatian and which
in turn evolved into modern
Ossetian.
Name
The various forms of
Alan —
Greek:
Αλανοί,
Αλαννοί;
Chinese: 阿蘭聊
Alanliao
(
Pinyin) in the 2nd century , 阿蘭
Alan (
Pinyin) in the 3rd century —
and
Iron (a self-designation of the Alans' modern
Ossetian descendants, indicating early tribal
self-designation) are
Iranian
dialectical forms of
Aryan. These and
other variants of
Aryan (such as
Iran), were
common self-designations of the
Indo-Iranians, the common ancestors of the
Indo-Aryans and
Iranian peoples to whom the Alans
belonged.
The Alans were also known over the course of their history by
another group of related names including the variations
Asi,
As, and
Os (
Hungarian Jász, Russian
Jasy, Georgian
Osi). It is this name that is the
root of the modern
Ossetian.
Timeline
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Bardata =
bar:Africa text:"Africa"
bar:Gaul text:Gaul
bar:Danube text:Danube
bar:Forecaucasus text:Forecaucasus
bar:Caucasus text:Caucasus
Plotdata =
bar:Forecaucasus from:start till:375 color:sovereign $wide
bar:Forecaucasus at:20 text:"Ancient Alan kingdoms"
bar:Forecaucasus at:375 text:Huns
bar:Forecaucasus 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:464 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:Forecaucasus from:455 till:1239 color:sovereign $wide
bar:Forecaucasus from:721 till:965 color:semi $wide
bar:Forecaucasus at:750 text:"Khazars"
Bar:Forecaucasus at:1000 text:"Medieval Alania"
bar:Forecaucasus from:1239 till:1440 color:subject $wide
bar:Forecaucasus at:1245 text:Mongols
bar:Forecaucasus from:1440 till:1774 color:semi $wide
bar:Forecaucasus from:1774 till:end color:subject $wide
bar:Forecaucasus 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:"Tuallag"
bar:Forecaucasus at:1500 text:"Iron~Digor"
bar:Caucasus from:1804 till:1991 color:subject $wide
bar:Caucasus at:1810 text:"South Ossetia"
bar:Caucasus from:1991 till:end color:semi $wide
Early Alans
The first mentions of names that historians link with the "Alani"
appear at almost the same time in Greco-Roman geography and in the
Chinese dynastic chronicles.
The
Geography (XXIII, 11) of Strabo
(63/64 BC - ca. 24 AD), who was born in Pontus on the Black Sea, but was also working with Persian sources, to
judge from the forms he gives to tribal names, mentions
Aorsi that he links with Siraces and claims that a Spadines, king of the
Aorsi, could assemble two hundred thousand mounted archers in the
mid-1st century BC. But the "upper Aorsi" from whom they had
split as fugitives, could send many more, for they dominated the
coastal region of the Caspian
Sea: "and consequently they could import on camels the
Indian and Babylonian
merchandise, receiving it in their turn from the Armenians and the Medes, and also, owing
to their wealth, could wear golden ornaments. Now the Aorsi live
along the Tanaïs, but the Siraces
live along the Achardeüs, which flows
from the Caucasus and empties into Lake Maeotis."
Chapter 123 of the
Shiji (whose
author,
Sima Qian, died circa 90 BC)
reports:
The mouth
of the Syr
Darya or Jaxartes River, which emptied into the Aral Sea was approximately 850 km northwest of the
oasis of Tashkent which was an important centre of the Kangju
confederacy. This provides remarkable confirmation of the
account in the
Shiji.
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 steppe land
Yancai was now
known as
Alanliao (阿蘭聊):
The 3rd century
Weilüe states:
By the
beginning of the 1st century, the Alans had occupied lands in the
northeast Azov
Sea area, along the Don and by the 2nd century had amalgamated
or joined with the Yancai of the early Chinese records to extend
their control all the way along the trade routes from the Black Sea to the north of the Caspian and Aral seas.
The written sources suggest that from the end of the 1st century to
the second half of the 4th century the Alans had supremacy over the
tribal union and created a powerful confederation of Sarmatian
tribes.
From a Western point-of-view the Alans presented a serious problem
for the
Roman Empire, with incursions
into both the Danubian and the Caucasian provinces in the 2nd and
3rd centuries.
Ammianus Marcellinus considered
the Alans to be the former
Massagetae:
"
the Alani, who were
formerly called the Massagetae" and stated "
Nearly all the Alani are men
of great stature and beauty; their hair is somewhat yellow, their
eyes are terribly fierce"..
Archaeology
Archaeological finds support the written sources. Late Sarmatian
sites were first identified with the historical Alans by P.D. Rau
(1927). 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 century.
The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st
century and were described later as a warlike people that
specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the
Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces
of the Roman Empire. In the Vologeses inscription one can read that
Vologeses I, the Parthian king, in the
11th year of his reign, battled
Kuluk, king of
the Alani.
This inscription is supplemented by the contemporary Jewish
historian,
Josephus (37–100), who reports
in the
Jewish Wars (book 7, ch.
8.4) how Alans (whom
he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the
Sea of
Azov, crossed the Iron Gates for plunder 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):
Flavius Arrianus marched against the Alani in
the 1st century and left a detailed report (
Ektaxis kata
Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for
studying Roman
military tactics,
but doesn't reveal much about his enemy. In the late 4th century,
Vegetius conflates
Alans and Huns in his military treatise —
Hunnorum Alannorumque
natio, the "nation of Huns and Alans" — and collocates Goths,
Huns and Alans,
exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum
Hunnorumque.
In
Cathay and the Way Thither, 1866,
Henry Yule writes:
The Alans were known to the Chinese by that name, in
the ages immediately preceding and following the Christian era, as
dwelling near the Aral, in which original position they are
believed to have been closely akin to, if not identical with, the
famous Massagetæ.
Hereabouts also Ptolemy (vi, 14) appears to place the
Alani-Scythæ, and Alanæan Mountains.
From about 40 B.C. the emigrations of the Alans seem to
have been directed westward to the Lower Don; here they are placed
in the first century by Josephus and by the Armenian writers; and
hence they are found issuing in the third century to ravage the
rich provinces of Asia Minor.
In 376 the deluge of the Huns on its westward course
came upon the Alans and overwhelmed them.
Great numbers of Alans are found to have joined the
conquerors on their further progress, and large bodies of Alans
afterwards swelled the waves of Goths, Vandals, and Sueves, that
rolled across the Western Empire.
A portion of the Alans, however, after the Hun invasion
retired into the plains adjoining Caucasus, and into the lower
valleys of that region, where they maintained the name and
nationality which the others speedily lost.
Little is heard of these Caucasian Alans for many
centuries, except occasionally as mercenary soldiers of the
Byzantine emperors or the [p.
316] Persian kings.
In the thirteenth century they made a stout resistance
to the Mongol conquerors, and though driven into the mountains they
long continued their forays on the tracts subjected to the Tartar
dynasty that settled on the Wolga, so that the Mongols had to
maintain posts with strong garrisons to keep them in
check.
They were long redoutable both as warriors and as
armourers, but by the end of the fourteenth century they seem to
have come thoroughly under the Tartar rule; for they fought on the
side of Toctamish Khan of Sarai against the great
Timur.
Migration to Gaul
Alan migrations in the 4th–5th
centuries.
Red: migrations; Orange: military expeditions; Yellow:
settlement areas.
Around 370, the Alans were overwhelmed by the
Huns. They were divided into several groups, some of
whom fled westward. A portion of these western Alans joined the
Vandals and the
Sueves
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 December 31,
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.
In Gaul,
the Alans originally led by Goar were settled by Aetius in several
areas, notably around Orléans and Valentia. Under Goar, they allied with the
Burgundians led by
Gundaharius, with whom they installed the
usurping Emperor
Jovinus. 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 Chalons. After the 5th century,
however, the Alans of Gaul were subsumed in the territorial
struggles between the Franks and the Visigoths, and ceased to have
an independent existence.
Flavius
Aëtius settled large numbers of Alans in and around
Armorica in order to quell unrest.
The Breton language name Alan (rather than the French
Alain) and several towns with names related to 'Alan',
such as Allainville, Yvelines, Alainville-en
Beauce, Loiret, Allaines and Allainville, Eure-et-Loir, and Les Allains,
Eure, are taken as evidence that a contingent settled in
Armorica, Brittany,
which retained a reputation for outstanding horsemanship with
Gregory of Tours and into the
Middle Ages, preferring to remain mounted to fight in contrast with
all their neighbors, who dismounted in battle.
Hispania and Africa
Following
the fortunes of the Vandals and Suevi into the Iberian peninsula (Hispania, comprising
modern Portugal and Spain) in 409, the
Alans led by Respendial settled in the provinces of Lusitania and Carthaginiensis: "Alani Lusitaniam et
Carthaginiensem provincias, et Wandali cognomine Silingi Baeticam
sortiuntur" (Hydatius). The
Siling Vandals settled in
Baetica, the Suevi
in coastal
Gallaecia, and the Asding
Vandals in the rest of Gallaecia.
In 418 (or 426 according to some authors, cf. e.g. Castritius,
2007), 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.
Although
some of these Alans are thought to have remained in Iberia, most went to North
Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later Vandal kings in
North Africa styled themselves
Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum
("King of the Vandals and Alans").
There are
some vestiges of the Alans in Portugal, namely in Alenquer (whose name may be Germanic for the Temple of
the Alans, from "Alen Ker", 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
vestigies of their presence may be found under the foundations of
the Church of Santa Luzia.
In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled in
Lusitania (cf.
Alentejo)
and the Cartaginense provinces. They became known in retrospect for
their massive hunting and fighting
dog of
Molosser type, the
Alaunt, which they apparently introduced to Europe.
The breed
is extinct, but its name is carried by a giant breed of dog still
called Alano that
survives in the Basque Country. The dogs are traditionally used in
boar hunting and
cattle
herding.
Alans and Slavs
At the
time of Attila the Hun a portion of
Alans living in the "Sarmatia of the Cimmerian Bosporus" moved northwest into the land of Venedes (according to M.A. Sabellico,
J.A. de Thou and some others
historians), possibly merging with
Western Balts there to become the
precursors of historic
Slav nations.
Third-century inscriptions from the Greek colony of
Tanais at the mouth of the
Don River mention a nearby Alan tribe
called the
Choroatos or
Chorouatos. The historian
Ptolemy identifies the
Serboi
as a
Sarmatian tribe who lived north of the
Caucasus, and other sources identify the
Serboi as an Alan tribe in the
Volga-Don steppe in the 3rd century. In the 7th
century the Serboi and Choroatos migrated into the western
Balkans, supposedly at the invitation of the
Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius, and settled there among earlier Slavic
migrants to become ancestors of the modern
Serbs and
Croats. Some Serboi
settled on the
Elbe, and their descendants are
the modern
Sorbs. Tenth-century
Byzantine and
Arab
accounts describe a people called the
Belochrobati (
White
Croats) living on the upper
Vistula, an
area later called
Chrobatia.
It's believed, that some Alans resettled to the North (
Barsils), merging with
Volga Bulgars and
Burtas, eventually transforming to
Volga Tatars
Medieval Alania
Map showing the location of Alans,
c.
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.
In 1253, the Franciscan monk
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's 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.
Religion, language, and later history
In the 4th–5th centuries the Alans were at least partially
Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the
Arian church. In the 13th century, fresh 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
Northern Caucasus and massacred much of
the Alanian population.
As the 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. Most of today's Ossetians are
Eastern Orthodox Christians.
The linguistic descendants of the Alans, who live in the autonomous
republics of Russia and Georgia, speak the
Ossetic language which belongs to the
Northeastern Iranian language
group and is the only remnant of the
Scytho-Sarmatian dialect continuum and which once stretched
over much of the
Pontic steppe and
Central Asia. Modern Ossetic has two
major dialects:
Digor, spoken in the western part of North
Ossetia; and
Iron, spoken in the rest of Ossetia.
A third
branch of Ossetic, Jassic
(Jász), was formerly spoken in Hungary. The literary language, based on the
Iron dialect, was fixed by the
national poet,
Kosta Xetagurov (1859–1906).
Notes
See also
References
- Agustí Alemany, Sources on the Alans: A Critical
Compilation. Brill
Academic Publishers, 2000 ISBN 90-04-11442-4
- Bernard S. Bachrach, 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, 1973 ISBN 0-8166-0678-1
- Bachrach, Bernard S. "The Origin of Armorican Chivalry."
Technology and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Apr., 1969),
pp. 166–171.
- Castritius, H. 2007. Die Vandalen. Kohlhammer Urban.
- Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew
Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press,
1982.
- Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on
the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd
Draft Edition. [7364]
- 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 CE. Draft annotated
English translation. [7365]
- 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.
External links