Beyond Iran: Ossetia's ancient roots in Alanian / Scythian history, linked w/ Sunnis in western Iraq

Curiouser and curiouser...

"The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of varied backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and to a large extent shared a common culture.

The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί , Αλαννο ί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊 Alanliao (Pinyin) in the 2nd century CE, Alan (Pinyin) in the 3rd century CE — and Iron (a self-designation of the Alan's modern Ossetian descendants, etymologically unrelated to the metal iron) are Iranian dialectical forms of Aryan. These and other variants of Aryan (such as Iran), were common self-designations of the Indo-Iranians, the common ancestors of the Indo-Aryans and Iranian peoples to whom the Alans belonged.

The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations Asi, As, and Os (Hungarian Jász, Russian Jasy, Georgian Osi). It is this name which is the root of the modern Ossetian.

By the beginning of the 1st century, the Alans had occupied lands in the northeast Azov Sea area, along the Don and by the 2nd century had amalgamated or joined with the Yancai of the early Chinese records to extend their control all the way along the trade routes from the Black Sea to the north of the Caspian and Aral seas. The written sources suggest that from the second half of the 1st to 4th century the Alans had supremacy over the tribal union and created a powerful confederation of Sarmatian tribes. The Alans presented a serious problem for the Roman Empire, with incursions into both the Danubian and the Caucasian provinces in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Ammianus Marcellinus stated that: Almost all of the Alans are tall and good looking; their hair is generally blond, and their eyes are frighteningly fierce....

Some of the other Alans remained under the rule of the Huns. These 'eastern' Alans are said to be ancestors of the modern Ossetians of the Caucasus.

Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by the Mongols into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetians. Their most famous leader was Aspar, the magister militum of the Byzantine Empire during the 460s. They formed a network of tribal alliances between the ninth and twelfth centuries....

In the 8th century a consolidated Alan kingdom, referred to in sources of the period as Alania, emerged in the northern Caucasus Mountains, roughly in the location of modern Circassia and North Ossetia-Alania. Its capital was Maghas, and it controlled the vital trade route through the Darial Pass. At times it had an outlet to the sea via the ancient port city of Phasis in Colchis (western Georgia).

In the 800s, the Alan kingdom in the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the Khazar Khaganate. They were staunch allies of the Khazars, supporting them against a Byzantine-led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king Benjamin. According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter, many Alans were during this period adherents of Judaism. However, in the early 900s, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, possibly due to the conversion of their ruler to Christianity. The Byzantines, who had adopted an anti-Khazar foreign policy, involved the Alans in a war against the Khaganate during the reign of the Khazar ruler Aaron II, probably the early 920s. In this war the Alans were defeated and their king captured. According to Muslim sources such as al-Mas'udi, the Alans abandoned Christianity and expelled the Byzantine missionaries and clergy roughly contemporaneously with these events. Aaron's son married the daughter of the Alan king and Alania was re-aligned with the Khazars, remaining so until the collapse of the Khaganate in the 960s.

Thereafter, the Alan kings frequently allied with the Byzantines and various Georgian rulers for protection against encroachments by steppe people such as the Pechenegs and Kipchaks. Their alliance with Georgia culminated in 1187, when the Alanian prince David Soslan married Queen Thamar. The medieval Alanian princesses also married Russian Rurikid rulers more than once. For instance, St Maria the Ossetian, who founded the Convent of Princesses in Vladimir, was the wife of Vsevolod the Big Nest and grandmother of Alexander Nevsky.

In the 4th–5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the Arian church. In the thirteenth century, fresh invading Mongol 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 [Tamerlane] army invaded Northern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population.

As the time went by, Digor in the west came under Kabard and Islamic influence. It was through the Kabardians (an East Circassian tribe) that Islam was introduced into the region in the 17th century. Tuallag in the southernmost region, Georgian Samachablo, became once again part of what is now Georgia, and Iron, the northernmost group, came under Russian rule after 1767, which strengthened Orthodox Christianity considerably. Most of the Ossetes today are Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The linguistic descendants Alans, living in the autonomous republics of Russia and Georgia, speak the Ossetic language, which belongs to the Northeastern Iranian language group, being the only remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect continuum which once stretched over much of the Pontic steppe and Central Asia. Modern Ossetic has two major dialects: Digor, spoken in the western part of North Ossetia; and Iron, spoken in the rest of Ossetia. A third branch of Ossetic, Jassic (Jász), was formerly spoken in Hungary. The literary language, based on the Iron dialect, was fixed by the national poet, Kosta Xetagurov (1859–1906).

There is a small community in Western Iraq calling itself Alani. They seem to have Turkish or Iranian ancestry, and are Sunni Muslims. The name Alani was probably adopted by these people to claim ancestry from the legendary Alan Iranian tribe; however, they are largely arabized. They do present many racial similarities with the Caucasians. They use the name Alani as a surname. Its not uncommon to find red or blond hair among them, however as intermarriage with the Arabs became common, now they have a variety of phenotypes, some show to have Mongolian features; this is in fact support that they do have Altaic ancestry rather than Iranian, since Turkish tribes have large amounts of Mongolian blood. They have been linked to the ten lost tribes of Israel, the Huns, Khazars, and of course the Tatar army of Hulagu khan when the Mongols entered Iraq. The later theory was introduced by Shiites who despise Alanis as they are Sunni. Extremist Shiites use derogatory terms such as "pigs" and "unclean dogs that must be exterminated" to address them. The historical connection to the Alans is based on legends and assumptions. Racially they are different from the Semitic Arabs, seeming to be of the Altaic branch, and probably came from Siberia and Central Asia in the year 487 AD according to their legend that states they came from the north of the Caucasus, and eastern Tabristan which is probably Turkestan. Some have linked them to the Persians who also used the name."

from [link to ossetians.com]
under Ossetian-Alanian history