Eventually in the 9th century those Alans who remained under Hunnic rule established the regionally powerful kingdom ofAlania in the Northern Caucasus. It survived until theMongolinvasions of the 13th century. Various scholars regard these Alans as the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.[8][11]
TheethnonymAlān is a dialectal variant of theOld Iranian *Aryāna, itself derived from the rootarya-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation ofIndo-Iranian peoples.[23][24][1] 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.[22] Like thename of Iran (*Aryānām), the adjective *aryāna is related toAiryanəm Waēǰō ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in theAvesta.[24][1]
Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: theRhoxolāni ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and theAlanorsoi ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans andAorsi.[25] The personal namesAlan andAlain (from LatinAlanus) may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium.[26]
The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variationsAsi,As, andOs (RomanianIasi or Olani,BulgarianUzi,HungarianJász,RussianJasy,GeorgianOsi).[12][27] It is this name at the root of the modernOssetian.[12]
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.[28]
Alani boys learned to ride at a young age, and Roman writerAmmianus 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.[29]
The Alans were recruited into theMongol forces and known as theAsud, with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" that was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers.[30]
The Alans were formed out of the merger of theMassagetae, a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to theAsii who previously invadedBactria in the 2nd century BC, the Alans were pushed west by theKangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as theἸαξάρταιIaxártai in Greek, and theIaxartae in Latin), the latter of whom were living in theSyr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region.[31][32]
Scythians and related Northeastern Iranic peoples in the Iron Age highlighted in green.Europe, 117–138, when the Alani were concentrated north of theCaucasus Mountains (centre right).
The first mentions of names that historians link with theAlani appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.[33]
In the 1st century, the Alans migrated westwards fromCentral Asia, achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between theDon River and theCaspian Sea.[4][5] The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads thatVologases I, the Parthian king between around45 and 78, in the 11th year of his reign (62), battledKuluk, king of the Alani.[34] The 1st century Jewish historianJosephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in theJewish Wars (book7, ch.7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near theSea of Azov crossed theIron Gates for plunder (72CE) and defeated the armies ofPacorus, king ofMedia, andTiridates, King ofArmenia, two brothers ofVologeses I (for whom the above-mentioned inscription was made):
Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and living aroundTanais andLake Maeotis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling uponMedia, and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king ofHyrcania; for he was master of thatpassage which kingAlexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon theMedes 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 invadedParthia throughHyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea.[4] By the early 2nd century the Alans were in firm control of theLower Volga andKuban.[4] These lands had earlier been occupied by theAorsi and theSiraces, whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts.[4] It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of the Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture.[4]
In 135 CE, the Alans made a huge raid intoAsia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia.[4] They were eventually driven back byArrian, thegovernor ofCappadocia, who wrote a detailed report (Ektaxis kata Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Romanmilitary tactics.
From 215 to 250, theGermanicGoths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on thePontic Steppe.[4] 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.[4] (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before theIllyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths underGallienus,Claudius II andAurelian.)
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 theHuns.[4] Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage."[4]Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance".[4] 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.[35]
The 4th century Roman historianAmmianus Marcellinus noted that the Alans were "formerly calledMassagetae,"[36] whileDio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae."[4] It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of variousIranian peoples, includingSarmatians, Massagetae andSakas.[4] Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state ofYancai mentioned inChinese sources.[7] The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BC diplomatZhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 ofShiji (whose author,Sima Qian, died c. 90 BC).[7][37] The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with theAorsi, a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between theDon River and theAral Sea, mentioned inRoman records, in particularStrabo.[7]
The LaterHan dynasty Chinese chronicle, theHou Hanshu, 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that theYancai nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" <LHC *ʔɨamB-sɑC; a.k.a.Hesu (闔蘇), compareLatinAbzoae,[38][39] identified with theAorsi (Ancient GreekΑορσιοι)[40][41]) had become a vassal state of theKangju and was now known asAlan (< LHC: *ʔɑ-lɑn 阿蘭)[42][43][a]
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 theMigration Period.[7][47] The 3rd centuryWeilüe also notes that Yancai was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju.[48]
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.
The migrations of the Alans during the 4th–5th centuries, from their homeland in theNorth 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.[4][50] These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns.[4] They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion.[4]
Following the Hunnic invasion in 370, other Alans, along with otherSarmatians, migrated westward.[4] One of these Alan groups fought together with the Goths in the decisiveBattle of Adrianople in 378CE, in whichemperorValens was killed.[4] As the Roman Empirecontinued to decline, the Alans split into various groups; some fought for the Romans while others joined the Huns,Visigoths orOstrogoths.[4] A portion of the western Alans joined theVandals and theSuebi in their invasion of RomanGaul.Gregory of Tours mentions in hisLiber historiae Francorum ("Book ofFrankish History") that the Alan kingRespendial saved the day for theVandals in an armed encounter with theFranks at thecrossing of the Rhine on 31 December 406). According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led byGoar, crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul.
Under Beorgor (Beorgor rex Alanorum), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign ofPetronius Maximus, when they crossed theAlps in the winter of 464, intoLiguria, but were theredefeated, and Beorgor slain, byRicimer, commander of the Emperor's forces.[51][52]
In 442, after it became clear toAetius that he could no longer rely upon theHuns for support, he turned toGoar and persuaded him to move some of his people to settlements in theOrleanais in order to control thebacaudae ofArmorica and to keep theVisigoths from expanding their territories northward across theLoire.Goar settled a substantial number of his followers in theOrleanais and the area to the north and personally moved his own capital to the city ofOrleans.[53]
Under Goar, they allied with theBurgundians led byGundaharius, with whom they installed the EmperorJovinus as usurper. Under Goar's successorSangiban, the Alans ofOrléans played a critical role in repelling the invasion ofAttila the Hun at theBattle of Châlons. In 463 the Alans defeated theGoths at thebattle of Orléans, and they later defeated theFranks led byChilderic in 466.[54] Around 502–503Clovis attackedArmorica but was defeated by the Alans. However, the Alans, who wereChalcedonian Christians like Clovis, desired cordial relations with him to counterbalance the hostileArianVisigoths who coveted the land north of theLoire. 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.[55]
Following the fortunes of theVandals andSuebi into theIberian Peninsula (Hispania, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) in 409,[56] the Alans led by Respendial settled in the provinces ofLusitania andCarthaginensis.[57] The Kingdom of the Alans was among the firstBarbarian kingdoms to be founded. TheSiling Vandals settled inBaetica, the Suebi in coastalGallaecia, and theAsding 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.[9]
In 418 (or 426 according to some authors[58]), the Alan king,Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Asding Vandal kingGunderic to accept the Alan crown. The separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved.[59] Although some of these Alans are thought to have remained inIberia, most went to North Africa with theVandals in 429. Later the rulers of theVandal Kingdom in North Africa styled themselvesRex Wandalorum et Alanorum ("King of the Vandals and Alans").[60][61]
Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa (526).
There are some vestiges of the Alans in Portugal,[62] namely inAlenquer (whose name may be Germanic for theTemple of the Alans, from "Alan Kerk",[63] and whose castle may have been established by them; theAlaunt is still represented in that city's coat of arms), in the construction of the castles ofTorres Vedras andAlmourol, and in the city walls ofLisbon, where vestiges of their presence may be found under the foundations of theChurch ofSanta Luzia.[citation needed]
In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled inLusitania (Alentejo) and the Cartaginense provinces. They became known in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting runningmastiff-type dogs, theAlaunt, which they apparently introduced to Europe. The breed is extinct, but its name is carried by a Spanish breed of dog still calledAlano, traditionally used inboar hunting andcattle 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 FrenchDogue de Bordeaux, among others.[citation needed]
Y-DNA consistent with the Alans can still be found in these regions, mainly around theDistrict of Portalegre.
The Alans who remained in their original area of settlement north of the Caucasus (and for a time east of theCaspian Sea as well), came into contact and conflict with theBulgars, theGökturks, and theKhazars, who drove most of them from the plains and into the mountains.[64]
The Alans converted toByzantineOrthodoxy in the first quarter of the 10th century, during the patriarchate ofNicholas 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.[64] The Caucasian Alans were the ancestors of the modernOssetians, whose ethnonym derives from the nameĀs (very probably the ancientAorsi; al-Ma'sudi mentionsal-Arsiyya as guards among the Khazars, and the Rus' called the AlansYasi), a sister tribe of the Alans. TheArmenian Geography uses the nameAshtigor for the most westerly located Alans, a name which survives asDigor and still refers to the western division of the Ossetians. Furthermore, in Ossetian,Asi refers to the region aroundMount Elbrus, where they probably formerly lived.[64] In the territory fromUrukh to Mount Elbrus, a sufficient number of Ossetian toponyms have been preserved up until the 20th century.[65]
According to the missionaryGiovanni da Pian del Carpine, a part of the Alans had successfully resisted a Mongol siege on a mountain for 12 years:[69]
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.
— Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, 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 twoChechen folktales he recorded in 1967 that spoke of an old hunter named Idig who with his companions defended theDakuoh 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:[70]
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[71] after defeating the Alans.[72] 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 formerKingdom of Qocho and in Besh Balikh the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih).[73] Alan and Kipchak guards were used by Kublai Khan.[74] In 1368 at the end of the Yuan dynasty in China Toghan Temür was accompanied by his faithful Alan guards.[75] 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).[76] The French-Flemish friar and traveler William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey throughEurasia to theGreat Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects inCrimea,Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capitalKarakorum, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars").[77] 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.[78] The Alan guards converted to Catholicism as reported by Odorico.[79] They were a "Russian guard".[80]
In 1277Mengu-Timur sent an expedition against the rebellious Alans in the city of Dedyakov. As a result of the campaign, the city was burned.[81]According to many researchers, Dedyakov was located on the territory of the capital of North Ossetia -Vladikavkaz.[82]
It is believed that some Alans resettled to the North (Barsils), merging withVolga Bulgars andBurtas, eventually transforming toVolga Tatars.[83][not specific enough to verify] 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 calledIași town. The latter became the capital ofMoldavia in the Middle Ages.[84]Classical Alania finally ceased to exist at the end of the 14th century, when Tamerlane invaded. After defeating the Golden Horde in theBattle of the Terek River in 1395, he subsequently attacked several Alanians leaders,[85] 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.[86]Alan mercenaries were involved in the affair with theCatalan Company.[87]
In a study conducted in 2014 by V. V.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 yDNAHaplogroup G2 and six of them had mtDNAI. 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 ofOssetians, competing with the hypothesis that Ossetians are alanized Caucasic-speakers, as the main haplogroup among Ossetians is also G2.[88]
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.[89] Also, the three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from 8th to 9th century turned out to have yDNAs G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94 respectively.[90]
A genetic study published inNature in May 2018 examined the remains of six Alans buried in theCaucasus from c. 100 to 1400. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged tohaplogroup R1 andhaplogroup Q-M242. One of theQ-M242 samples found in Beslan, North Ossetia from 200 found 4 relatives amongChechens from the Shoanoy Teip.[91] The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged toHV2a1,U4d3,X2f,H13a2c,H5, andW1.[92]
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.
Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranianpolytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understoodScythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form ofZoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.[93]
In the 4th–5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by ByzantineArian missionaries. of the church. The Alans converted toByzantineOrthodoxy in the first quarter of the 10th century, during the patriarchate ofNicholas 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 becameEastern OrthodoxChristian as a result ofGeorgian missionary work. In the 13th century, invadingMongol 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 theNorthern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population.
As time went by,Digor in the west came underKabard andIslamic influence. It was through theKabardians (an EastCircassian tribe) thatIslam was introduced into the region in the 17th century. After 1767, all of Alania came under Russian rule, which strengthenedOrthodox Christianity in that region considerably. A substantial minority of today's Ossetians are followers of the traditional Ossetian religion, revived in the 1980s asAssianism (Ossetian:Uatsdin – 'True Faith').[94]
^According toChavannes (1907),Weilüe correctly states that Yancai's alternative name is simply 阿蘭Ālán instead of 阿蘭聊Ālánliáo as recorded inBook 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.[44][45][46]
^Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 213: "IranAlani (< *aryana) (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is theIron [< *aryana-)), *aryranam (gen. pi.) ‘of the Aryans’ (> MPersIran)."
^abAlemany 2000, pp. 3–4: "Nowadays, however, only two possibilities are admitted as regards [the etymology ofAlān], 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'."
^Очир А. (2016). д.и.н. Э. П. Бакаева, д.и.н. К. В. Орлова (ed.).Монгольские этнонимы: вопросы происхождения и этнического состава монгольских народов. Элиста: КИГИ РАН. p. 286.ISBN978-5-903833-93-1.
^Vegetius 3.26, noted in passing by T.D. Barnes, "The Date of Vegetius"Phoenix33.3 (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.
^Yu, Taishan (July 1998)."A Study of Saka History"(PDF).Sino-Platonic Papers (80).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.
^Schuessler, Axel. (2009)Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. p. 348
^Yu Huan,Weilüe. draft translation by John E. Hill (2004).Translator's Notes11.2 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])".
^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 Notes25.3 & 25.4 to draft translation ofYu Huan'sWeilüe
^Ivo Xavier Fernándes. Topónimos e gentílicos, Volume 1, 1941, p. 144.
^abcBarthold, W.; Minorsky, V. (1986)."Alān".The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A–B. Leiden and New York: Brill. p. 354.ISBN978-90-04-08114-7.
^Sinor, Denis (1999). "The Mongols in the West".Journal of Asian History.33 (1):1–44.JSTOR41933117.
^Halperin, Charles J. (2000). "The Kipchak Connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.63 (2):229–245.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00007205.JSTOR1559539.S2CID162439703.
^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.
^Jessee, Scott; Isaenko, Anatoly (2013). "The Military Effectiveness of Alan Mercenaries in Byzantium, 1301–1306". In Rogers, Clifford J; DeVries, Kelly; France, John (eds.).Journal of Medieval Military History: Volume XI. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 107–132.ISBN978-1-84383-860-9.JSTOR10.7722/j.ctt31njvf.9.
^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.ISBN0-521-20091-1. pp. 158–159.
^Foltz, Richard (2019). "Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion'".Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture.13 (3):314–332.doi:10.1558/jsrnc.39114.S2CID213692638.
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