Chibirov, Alexey L. THE ALANS-OSSETIANS IN RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY HISTORIOGRAPHY Print

Keywords: Alans, Ossetians, Yassi, Miller, Potocki, Klaproth, Haxthausen, Sjögren, Šafařík, Pfaf, Lavrov, Kovalevsky, Kulakovsky.

The Alans, one of the most powerful political tribal confederations of the ancient times, have always stirred researchers’ imagination. They left a significant mark in history, military arts, and culture not only within their habitat, in the south Russian steppes, but throughout Europe as well, in history and culture of the emerging civilization of the early Middle Ages where, being under pressure of the Huns, the majority of them was forced to migrate. The remaining part established an early-feudal state Alania in the Northern Caucasus and Ciscaucasian steppes. Among other things medieval Alanian tribes played a vital role in All-Caucasian and European history. Myths and legends on the origin of the Europeans vividly testify to this. This article is a short historiographic review of almost all the existing sources on Alanian-Ossetian succession. The researchers, whose views conform with the opinion of such continuity, ground their approach on several essential points: the Ossetian language that is deeply rooted in the Indo-Iranian world, Narts’ epics and other prominent elements of the Ossetian spiritual culture.

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