[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 88, note): "The Alans or Aas appear to
be identical with the An-ts'ai or A-lan-na of the Hou Han shu (bk. 88,
9), of whom we read that 'they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana
(K'ang-chu) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their
wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.' (Ma Twan-lin,
bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 97, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-te
and Wen-na-sha (see also Bretschneider, Med. Geog., 258, et seq.).
Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but
contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom
later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (De Morgan,
Mission, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the 'Scythian Alans'
([Greek: Alanoi Skythai]); but the first definite mention of them in
classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius
Periergetes (305), who speaks of the [Greek: alkaeentes Alanoi]. (See also
De Morgan, i. 202, and Deguignes, ii. 279 et seq.)
"Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of
tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia.
'Distributed over two continents, all these nations, whose various names I
refrain from mentioning, though separated by immense tracts of country in
which they pass their vagabond existence, have with time been confounded
under the generic appellation of Alans.' Ibn Alathir, at a later date,
also refers to the Alans as 'formed of numerous nations.' (Dulaurier,
xiv.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 349 of 1350
Words from 93337 to 93628
of 370046
