Alania

Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (Proto-Ossetians)[3][4][5][6] that flourished between the 9th–13th centuries in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of the latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania.

Reaching its peak in the 11th century, under the rule of King Durgulel,[7] it profited from controlling a vital trade route through the Darial Pass.

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.

A Khazar chieftain, Barjik, hastened to their succour and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general Tabit al-Nahrani.

[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 Khazar Khaganate.

[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 the North Caucasus.

[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.

[19]After the downfall of Khazaria, the Alan kings frequently allied with the Byzantines and various Georgian rulers for protection against encroachments by northern steppe peoples such as the Pechenegs and Kipchaks.

[23] Alania is not mentioned in East Slavic chronicles, but archaeology indicates that the Alans maintained trade contacts with the Rus' principality of Tmutarakan.

There is a stone grave cross, with a Cyrillic inscription from 1041, standing on the bank of the Bolshoi Yegorlyk River in present-day Stavropol Krai, immediately north of Alania.

In the 1120s King David the Builder of Georgia visited the Darial to reconcile the Alans with the Kipchaks, who thereupon were allowed to pass through Alania to the Georgian soil.

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.

[35] Appreciating their skill as horsemen,[36] the Mongols deported thousands of Alans to Mongolia in their need of fresh warriors for the conquest of the Southern Song and Dali.

[37] They became known as asud in Mongolian or asu in Mandarin[36] and were part of the privileged semu class, foreigners from western and central Asia who were employed in the administration and the higher echelons of the military.

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.

[41] Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of Patriarch Germanus II (1222–40).

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".

[49] In the last years of the Soviet Union, as nationalist movements swept throughout the Caucasus, many intellectuals in the North Ossetian ASSR called for the revival of the name "Alania".

The term "Alania" quickly became popular in Ossetian daily life through the names of various enterprises, a TV channel, political and civic organizations, a publishing house, a soccer team, an airline company, etc.

The Darial Gorge on a 19th-century photo by Alexander Roinashvili . On the hill behind the modern Russian fortress are the remains of the medieval border castle (sometimes called " Tamara's castle") separating Alania from Georgia.
Surviving architectural monuments of the Alanian kingdom include three churches in Arkhyz , the Shoana Church , and the Senty Church .
Political map of the Caucasus region in 1060
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 [ 26 ]
Political map of the Caucasus region in 1245
The Nuzal chapel, which was probably built in the second half of the 13th century and still contains various Christian frescoes. [ 42 ]
Figurine of folk heroine "Zadaleski Nana" ("the mother of Zadalesk"), also known as "mother of the Ossetes", who is said to have hid orphaned children in a cave during Tamerlane 's invasion. [ 44 ]