Alans

The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled in the region north of

The Ossetians also known as Ossetes, Ossets and Alans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains. They natively speak Ossetian, an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family, with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language.

Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Alans that flourished between the 9th and 13th centuries in the Northern Caucasus area, inhabited by the Iranian-speaking Alans and various native north Caucasian ethnic groups. With its capital known as Maghas, the location of which is still disputed, it became independent from the Khazars and in the late 9th century. The state was Christianized by a Byzantine missionary sent by Constantinople soon after, in the early 10th century.

thumb|upright=1.5|The Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117–138), showing the location of the Roxolani Sarmatians in the [[Wallachian plain (Romania)]] The Roxolani or Rhoxolāni ( , ; ) were a Sarmatian people documented between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD, first east of the Borysthenes (Dnieper) on the coast of Lake Maeotis (Sea of Azov), and later near the borders of Roman Dacia and Moesia. They are believed to be an offshoot of the Alans.

thumb|right|Georgian nobleman Constantine Gelovani wearing a chokha with military [[shoulder marks]] A chokha, also known as a cherkeska in Russian, is a woolen coat with a high neck that is part of the traditional male dress of the peoples of the Caucasus, as well as Terek and Kuban Cossacks of the former Russian Empire, who subsequently adopted it from the Native peoples of the Caucasus.

thumb|right|400px|The Eastern Hemisphere in 100 BC. The Alans/Aorsi are located immediately north of the [[Caspian Sea.]]

extinct language

The Asud (Mongolian Cyrillic: , IPA: //) were a military group of Alani origin. The Mongol clan Asud is the plural of As, the Arabic name for the Alans.

thumb|upright=1.3|250px|Political map of the Caucasus region in 1060 Maghas or Maas, more properly, Mags or Maks, was the capital city of Alania, a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus. It is known from Islamic and Chinese sources, but its location is uncertain, with some authors favouring North Ossetia and others pointing to Arkhyz in modern-day Karachay–Cherkessia, where three 10th-century churches still stand.

thumb|350px|Countries described in Zhang Qian's report. Visited countries are highlighted in blue. Yancai ( A-sɑC < OC (125 BCE) *ʔɨam-sɑs, a.k.a. 闔蘇 Hésū < *ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ; compare also Latin Abzoae) was the Chinese name of an ancient nomadic state centered near the Aral Sea during the Han dynasty period (206 BC—220 AD). They are generally considered to have been an Iranian people of the Sarmatian group. After becoming vassals of the Kangju in the 1st century BC, Yancai became known as Alan (). Yancai 奄蔡 is often connected to the Aorsi of Roman records, while 阿蘭 Alan has been connected to the late

thumb|"Serbi" located near the mouth of the Volga in a map depicting Sarmatia Asiatica, 1770 The Serboi or Serbi () and Sirbi () was a tribe mentioned in Greco-Roman geography as living in the North Caucasus, believed by scholars to have been Sarmatian.