ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

The opinion about royal descent of Urdur, the Alanian military leader of the X century, has been dominating in literature since the XIX century. Despite the fact that all information about him can be found only in not quite reliable Georgian sources, the high regal title of Urdur is not usually disputed by the researchers and is accepted a priori, without proper scientific analysis. Meanwhile, a careful review of available information and correlating it with known historical events, unfolding in the Caucasus during the reviewed period, reveals significant distortion caused by pronounced ideological orientation of the sources, which these repeatedly revised historical chronicles, having a character of state-ideological bias of the ruling Kartli’s dynasty, represent. Initially incorrect information on the royal attribution of Urdur has led to a number of erroneous interpretations, including attempts to determine his place while reconstructing the ruling house of the medieval Alanian state. The analysis of the information contained in the sources, leads to the conclusion that Urdur was the leader of quite an ordinary military campaign, and as one of the borderline rulers undertook an unsuccessful campaign-balts to neighboring Kakheti. Most likely, his social position in the feudal hierarchy of the Alanian state was not higher than the position of Bagatar, another Alanian ruler of the IX century, who in the Georgian sources has the princely title of Mtavar.

Keywords: Alan kingdom, political status, state ideology, Georgian sources, titles, social attribution.

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