---
liberty@... wrote:
> It may be known what the Polovetsians of the 12th
> century
> called themselves,/etc. cut for economy/
*****GK: All of this helps a lot David. Thanks.*****
(D) I also have personal doubts as to whether the
Alans
> called
> themselves "Alan" in their own language. This may
> just be
> the usage of the classical authors possibly based on
> no more
> than a one-time explanation by a native informant
> that most
> of the tribes in the Alanic confederation were
> Iranian, "Alan"
> < *arya:na-. Did the Germans call themselves
> "Germani"? Did
> all of the N.E. Iranian tribes call themselves
> "Sauromatoi"
> or just the first group to come in contact with the
> Greeks?
*****GK: Your point about the "Germani" and the
"Sauromatoi" is good and reflects my own conviction.
It may not apply to the case of the Alani however.
Ammianus Marcellinus has this to say about the issue
(History, XXXI,13):
"hoc transito [the Don GK] in inmensum extentas
Scythiae solitudines Halani inhabitant, ex montium
appellatione cognominati, paulatimque nationes
conterminas crebritate victoriarum adtritas ad
gentilitatem sui vocabuli traxerunt, ut Persae."
A similar conclusion was drawn by historians in
connection with the use of the term "Alan" in Chinese
chronicles, and by epigraphic inscriptions of the
Bosporus Kingdom. Ammianus adds in nother context that
the "Halani" are divided into many "gentes" (which he
does not name) and clearly differentiates them from
the "Sauromatae". It cannot be categorically ruled out
that "Alan" was a self-designation for many cognate
tribes at a particular moment in time. Nor can it be
ruled out that this might have changed (some sort of
return to the status quo ante?) once the tribes whose
"victoriae" had led to the spread of their name to
include others moved out of the area. And then "Return
of the As"? Perhaps. In the 6th century the main
Iranic tribal group of the Don to Volga steppe was
called the "Dirmar". Perhaps they also had once been
"Alans".*****
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