Kingdom of Alania

Origins

The Alans who stayed in the North Caucasus after the Hunnic invasions came under the Khazar Khaganate. As Khazar power declined in the 10th century, Alanian rulers formed a kingdom along the upper Kuban and Terek rivers, and around 916 they accepted Christianity from a Byzantine mission sent by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos.

Rule and society

Kings ruled a land of fortified towns and hill forts, controlling the Darial Pass and trade with the Black Sea and the steppe. The Alanian church had its own metropolitan, and stone churches survive in the Zelenchuk valley. Royal marriages linked the Alans to the Kingdom of Georgia and Byzantium; Queen Tamar's husband David Soslan was an Alanian prince.

Decline and legacy

The Mongols defeated the Alans in 1222, and in 1239 they stormed the capital Maghas. Survivors withdrew into the mountains, where their descendants became the Ossetians. Others fled to Hungary, the Crimea and Mongol service in China, and the name of Alania survives in the official title of North Ossetia.