Chapter LVI

An unpretending sketch of this interesting people, twice alluded to by the author (in chapter 61 he speaks of them as the Jassen and Affs), is here submitted.

The earliest mention of the Alans is made by Josephus (Wars, VII, vii, 4), and again by Procopius (De Bell. Goth., iv, 3, 4), from whom we learn that they dwelt on the shores of the Lake Mæotis and to the North of the Caucasus, whence they overran the country of the Medes and of Armenia, until defeated by Artaces who forced them to withdraw beyond the Cyrus; similar predatory incursions into Tauric-Scythia and the West, being arrested by the Goths, who in their turn were overpowered by the Huns. The invasion of Asia Minor by the Alans gave cause of uneasiness to the Roman Empire, but it was successfully resisted by Arrian, prefect of Cappadocia (Forbiger, Handbuch der Alt. Geogr., i, 424), and they were also defeated by Vakhtang “Gourgasal”—Wolf Lion—the sovereign of Georgia, 466–499, upon their venturing to invade that kingdom (Brosset, Hist. de la Géorgie, I, 153). In 966, the Yasses were subdued by the Russians under Sviatoslaff, after his conquest of Tmoutorakan (Taman); and in 1276 they lost Dediakoff, their capital, to the Mongols, whose progress, having the Kiptchaks for their allies, they attempted to oppose (Karamsin, Hist. de Russie, i, 214; ii, 191). After this we find the Yasses in the West, for when Tchaga, the son of Nogaï, led an expedition sent by the Khan Toula Boga, 1287–1291, to the Danube, he halted for a while in the country of the Ass, now Moldavia, the capital of which bears their name to this day—Yassy (D’Ohsson, Hist. des Mongols, iv, note p. 750). After the death of Nogaï, 1299, at Kaganlik (now Kouïalnyk near Odessa), some 16,000 Ass or Alains, more than one half of which number were fighting men, crossed the river, 1301, and offered their services to the Byzantine Emperor by whom they were accepted (Pachymeres, Migne edition, tom. 144, p. 337).

Alains were met in Khozary (Crimea) by the ambassadors of Bibars I., sultan of Egypt, 1260–1270 (Makrizi by Quatremère, I, i, 213, 218); a statement confirmed by Aboulfeda who says they occupied Kyrkyer, now Tchyfout Kaleh—Jew’s Fortress (see note 8, p. 176, for this name), close to which is Baghtchasaraï the modern Tatar capital in the peninsula; also by Marino Sanudo the Venetian traveller, who wrote, 1333, that there still were in the country “Gothi et aliqui Alani” (Kunstmann, Stud. über M. S., 105).

The Alains should be included amongst those populations in the East that were converted to Christianity through the exertions of Justinian; but they relapsed to paganism until a priesthood was settled in their country by Thamar, the great queen of Georgia, 1174–1201, who caused numerous churches to be constructed for their use; and that they belonged to the Greek Church, as stated by Schiltberger, is shewn by Rubruquis the Gray Friar, for he met at Scacatay some Alans or Aas, “as they were called by the Tartars”, who professed the Greek faith, and with whom he offered up prayers for the dead (Recueil de Voy. et de Mém., iv, 243, 246, et seq.)—Ed.