Ossetians

Irættæ
Total population
± 700,000
Regions with significant populations
Russia	558,515[1]
(in North Ossetia-Alania)	480,310[2]
South Ossetia	51,000[3][4]
Georgia (excluding South Ossetia)	14,385[5]
Turkey	50,000[6][7][8]
Tajikistan	7,861[9]
Uzbekistan	5,823[10]
Ukraine	4,830[11]
Kazakhstan	4,308[12]
Turkmenistan	2,066[13]
Azerbaijan	1,170[14]
Kyrgyzstan	758[15]
Syria	700[16]
Belarus	554[17]
Moldova	403[18]
Armenia	331[19]
Latvia	285[20]
Lithuania	119[21]
Estonia	116[22]
Languages
Ossetian, Russian, Georgian
Religion
Predominantly + Eastern Orthodox Christianity with a sizeable minority professing Uatsdin and Islam
Related ethnic groups
North Caucasian peoples, the Jassic people of Hungary and other Iranian peoples
a. ^ The total figure is merely an estimation; sum of all the referenced populations.

The Ossetians or Ossetes (; Ossetian: , ææ, ir, irættæ, , ?, digoræ, digorænttæ), are an Iranic ethnic group of the Caucasus Mountains, indigenous to the ethnolinguistic region known as Ossetia.^[23][24][25] They speak Ossetic, an Eastern Iranian (Alanic) language of the Indo-European language family, with most also fluent in Russian as a second language. The Ossetian language is neither closely related to nor mutually intelligible with any other language of the family today.^[26] Ossetic, a remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect group which was once spoken across the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, is one of the few Iranian languages inside Europe.^[27]

The Ossetians mostly populate Ossetia, which is politically divided between North Ossetia-Alania in Russia and South Ossetia, a de facto independent state with partial recognition, closely integrated in Russia and claimed by Georgia. Their closest relatives, the Jász, live in the Jászság region within the north-western part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County in Hungary.

Ossetians are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christian, with sizable minorities professing Uatsdin or Islam.

Etymology

The Ossetians and Ossetia received their name from the Russians, who had adopted the Georgian designations Osi (, pl. Osebi, ) and Oseti ('the land of Osi', ), used since the Middle Ages for the single Iranian-speaking population of the Central Caucasus and probably based on an old Alan self-designation As. Since Ossetian speakers lacked any single inclusive name for themselves in their native language beyond the traditional Iron-Digoron subdivision, these terms came to be accepted by the Ossetians as an endonym already before their integration into the Russian Empire.^[28]

This practice was put into question by the new Ossetian nationalism in the early 1990s, when the dispute between the Ossetian subgroups of Digoron and Iron over the status of the Digor dialect made Ossetian intellectuals search for a new inclusive ethnic name. This, combined with the effects of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, led to the popularization of Alania, the name of the medieval Sarmatian confederation, to which the Ossetians traced their origin and to the inclusion of this name into the official republican title of North Ossetia in 1994.^[28]

The root os/as- probably stems from an earlier *ows/aws-, whose meaning is unknown. This is suggested by the archaic Georgian root ovs- (cf. Ovsi, Ovseti), documented in the Georgian Chronicles; the long length of the initial vowel or the gemination of the consonant s in some forms (cf. Arab. NPers. ?s, ; Lat. Aas, Assi); and the Armenian ethnic name *Awsowrk' (?sur-), referring to an Alan tribe dwelling near modern Georgia by the time of Anania Shirakatsi.^[29]

Subgroups

Ossetian tribes (according to B. A. Kaloev).^[30][31]

• Iron in the east and south form a larger group of Ossetians. They speak Iron dialect. Irons are divided into several subgroups: Alagirs, Kurtats, Tagaurs, Kudar, Tual, Urstual and Chsan.
  • Kudar are the southern group of Ossetians.
  • Tual are in the central part of Ossetia (see also Dvals).
  • Chsan are in the east of South Ossetia.
• Digoron in the west. Digors live in Digora district, Iraf district and some settlements in Kabardino-Balkaria and Mozdok district. They speak Digor dialect.
• Iasi, who settled in the Jászság region in Hungary during the 13th century. They spoke the extinct Jassic dialect.

Culture

Mythology

The folk beliefs of the Ossetian people are rooted in their Sarmatian origin and Christian religion, with the pagan gods having been converted into Christian saints. The Nart saga serves as the basic pagan mythology of the region.^[32]

Music

History

Charnel vaults at a necropolis near the village of Dargavs, North Ossetia

Pre-history (Early Alans)

The Ossetians descend from the Alans,^[33] a Sarmatian tribe (Scythian subgroup of the Iranian ethnolinguistic group).^[34] The Alans were the only branch of the Sarmatians to keep their culture in the face of a Gothic invasion (c. 200 CE) and those who remained built a great kingdom between the Don and Volga Rivers, according to Coon, The Races of Europe. Between 350 and 374 CE, the Huns destroyed the Alan kingdom and the Alan people were split in half. One half fled to the west, where they participated in the Barbarian Invasions of Rome, established short-lived kingdoms in Spain and North Africa and settled in many other places such as Orléans, France. The other half fled to the south and settled on the plains of the North Caucasus, where they established their medieval kingdom of Alania.^[]

Middle Ages

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 the latter-day Circassia and the modern North Ossetia-Alania. At its height, Alania was a centralized monarchy with a strong military force and had a strong economy that benefited from the Silk Road.

After the Mongol invasions of the 1200s, the Alans were forced out of their medieval homeland south of the River Don in present-day Russia. Due to this, the Alans migrated toward the Caucasus Mountains, where they would form three ethnographical groups; the Iron, the Digoron and the Kudar. The Jassic people were a fourth group that migrated in the 13th century to Hungary.

Modern history

Kosta Khetagurov

In more-recent history, the Ossetians participated in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1991-1992) and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts (1918-1920, early 1990s) and in the 2008 South Ossetia war between Georgia and Russia.

Key events:

• 1774 -- Ossetia becomes part of the Russian Empire.^[35]
• 1801 -- Following the Treaty of Georgievsk, the modern-day territory of South Ossetia becomes part of the Russian Empire, along with Georgia.^[36]
• 1922 -- Ossetia is divided^[37][38] into two parts: North Ossetia remains a part of the Russian SFSR, while South Ossetia remains a part of the Georgian SSR.
• 20 September 1990 - The independent Republic of South Ossetia is formed. Though it remained unrecognized, it detached itself from Georgia de facto. In the last years of the Soviet Union, ethnic tensions between Ossetians and Georgians in Georgia's former Autonomous Oblast of South Ossetia (abolished in 1990) and between Ossetians and Ingush in North Ossetia evolved into violent clashes that left several hundred dead and wounded and created a large tide of refugees on both sides of the border.^[39][40]

Language

The Ossetian language belongs to the Eastern Iranian (Alanic) branch of the Indo-European language family.^[33]

Ossetian is divided into two main dialect groups: Ironian^[33] (os. - ?) in North and South Ossetia and Digorian^[33] (os. - ?) in Western North Ossetia. In these two groups are some subdialects, such as Tualian, Alagirian and Ksanian. The Ironian dialect is the most widely spoken.

Ossetian is among the remnants of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect group, which was once spoken across the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. The Ossetian language is not mutually intelligible with any other Iranian language.^[26]

Religion

Prior to the 10th century, Ossetians were strictly pagan. They were partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries in the beginning of the 10th century.^[43] By the 13th, most Ossetians were Eastern Orthodox Christians^[33] as a result of Georgian influence and missionary work.^[44][45]

Islam was introduced during the 16th and 17th century by the converted members of the Circassian Kabarday tribe^[46] (who had been introduced to that religion by Tatars during the 15th century), who had taken over territory in Western Ossetia occupied by the Digor. However, Islam did not successfully spread to rest of the Ossetian people.^[47]

In 1774, Ossetia became part of the Russian Empire, which strengthened Orthodox Christianity considerably by sending Russian Orthodox missionaries there. However, most of the missionaries chosen were churchmen from Eastern Orthodox communities living in Georgia, including Armenians and Greeks, as well as ethnic Georgians. Russian missionaries were not sent, as this would have been regarded by the Ossetians as too intrusive.

Today, the majority of Ossetians from both North and South Ossetia follow Eastern Orthodoxy.^[33]Assianism (Uatsdin or Assdin in Ossetian), the Ossetian ethnic religion, is also widespread among Ossetians, with ritual traditions like animal sacrifices, holy shrines, non-Christian saints, etc. There are temples, known as kuvandon, in most villages.^[48] According to the research service Sreda, North Ossetia is the primary center of Ossetian Paganism and 29% of the population reported practicing pagan faiths in the 2012 Russian census.^[49] Assianism has been rising in popularity since the 1980s.^[50]

According to a 2013 estimate, up to 15% of North Ossetia's population practice Islam.^[51]

Economy

The Northern Ossetians export lumber and cultivate various crops, mainly corn. The Southern Ossetians are chiefly pastoral, herding sheep, goats and cattle. Traditional manufactured products include leather goods, fur caps, daggers and metalware.^[33]

Demographics

Outside of South Ossetia, there are also a significant number of Ossetians living in Trialeti, in North-Central Georgia. A large Ossetian diaspora lives in Turkey and Ossetians have also settled in Belgium, France, Sweden, Syria, the United States (primarily New York City, Florida and California), Canada (Toronto), Australia (Sydney) and other countries all around the world.

Russian Census of 2002

The vast majority of Ossetians live in Russia (according to the Russian Census (2002)):

• North Ossetia-Alania -- 445,300
• Moscow -- 10,500
• Kabardino-Balkaria -- 9,800
• Stavropol Krai -- 7,700
• Krasnodar Krai -- 4,100
• Karachay-Cherkessia -- 3,200
• Saint Petersburg -- 2,800
• Rostov Oblast -- 2,600
• Moscow Oblast -- 2,400

Genetics

The Ossetians are a unique ethnic group of the Caucasus, speaking an Indo-European language surrounded mostly by Caucasian ethnolinguistic groups, the other non-Caucasian tribes include the Karachays and Balkars. The Y-haplogroup data indicate that North Ossetians are more similar to other North Caucasian groups, and South Ossetians to other South Caucasian groups, than the two are to each other. With respect to mtDNA, Ossetians are significantly more similar to some Iranian groups than to Caucasian groups. It is thus suggested that there is a common origin of Ossetians from the Proto-Iranian Urheimat, followed by subsequent male-mediated migrations from their Caucasian neighbours.^[52]

Gallery

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  Ossetian woman in traditional clothes, early years of the 20th century

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  Ossetian women working (19th century)

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  Ossetian Northern Caucasia dress of the 18th century, Ramonov Vano (19th century)

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  Three Ossetian teachers (19th century)

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  Ossetian girl in 1883

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  Sergei Guriev, economist

• 

  Nikolay Bagrayev, politician

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  South Ossetian performers

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  Ossetian man in 1881

• 

  Soslan Ramonov, wrestler

• 

  Shota Bibilov, professional footballer

• 

  Ruslan Karaev, professional kickboxer

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  Vladimir Gabulov, Ossetian goalkeeper

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  Valery Gergiev, conductor

See also

• Alans
• Digor (people)
• Iazyges
• Iron (people)
• Jassic people
• Alexander Kubalov
• Ossetians in Trialeti
• Ossetians in Turkey
• Peoples of the Caucasus
• Sarmatians
• Scythians
• Terek Cossacks

References

Bibliography

• Nasidze; et al. (May 2004). "Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus". Annals of Human Genetics. 68 (3): 205-21. doi:10.1046/j.1529-8817.2004.00092.x. PMID 15180701. S2CID 27204150.
• Nasidze; et al. (2004). "Genetic Evidence Concerning the Origins of South and North Ossetians" (PDF). Annals of Human Genetics. 68 (Pt 6): 588-99. doi:10.1046/j.1529-8817.2004.00131.x. PMID 15598217. S2CID 1717933. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-12. Retrieved .

External links

• Ossetians.com - a site about famous Ossetians