Sources on the Alans: A Critical Compilation.

• Author: Borjian, Habib
• Position: Book review

Sources on the Alans: A Critical Compilation. By Agusti Alemany. Handbook of Oriental Studies, section 8, vol. 5. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Pp. xxi + 463.

The history of the Iranian-speaking Scytho-Sarmatian nomads who ruled over the Eurasian steppes for over a millennium concludes with the Alans, who appeared in Western history in the first century of our era. By that time they had spread over the steppes from north of the Black Sea to the Aral Sea in Central Asia. The invasion of the Huns in the fourth century drove the Alans westward, where, together with the Germanic tribes of Visigoths and Vandals, they passed into Gaul and Spain, some even reaching North Africa. Those Alans who had escaped this great migration withdrew to the plains of the northern Caucasus and rose to preeminence in the tenth century as a mighty but transitory military empire that was eventually devastated by the Mongols. This broke up the Alans into three groups. One group migrated with the Qipchaqs into Europe, settling in Hungary. The second took service under the Mongol khans of the Golden Horde and China. The third group remained in their homeland but retreated further into the foothills and gorges of the central Caucasus. To the present day they live there as the Ossetes, who have recently renamed their republic (within the framework of the Russian Federation) from North Ossetia to Alania.

Thus, the twenty-century long history of the Alans is by no means as straightforward as that of sedentary nations for which developments over time predominate over those of space. Alanic history is rather a permutation of expansions and contractions, movements and settlements, embracing three continents. From its initial broad territory in the northern steppes Alanic territory funnels down into the Caucasian plains and then stretches out again in both lateral directions in conjunction with the great Inner Asian invasions of the Huns and Mongols. This long history and broad geography is partly documented in sources of scattered nature, in many languages and traditions, and over a long period of time. The collection and study of these sources has been too challenging a task to allow anyone to compile a comprehensive account of the various aspects of the culture and history of the Alans. Hence, only certain periods of their history have been studied in detail. The best known of such studies is Bernard S. Bachrach's A History of the Alans in the West (Minneapolis, 1973), a short but...