Editing Alans (section)

==Religion==
[[File:Assumpt monastery church.JPG|thumb|Orthodox church in [[North Ossetia-Alania]]]]
Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian [[polytheism|polytheists]], subscribing either to the poorly understood [[Scythian religion|Scythian pantheon]] or to a polytheistic form of [[Zoroastrianism]]. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.<ref>Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths" in: Fisher, W. B. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-20091-1}}. pp. 158–159.</ref>

In the 4th{{nsndns}}5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the [[Arianism|Arian]] church. In the 13th century, invading [[Mongol]] hordes pushed the eastern Alans further south into the Caucasus, where they mixed with native Caucasian groups and successively formed three territorial entities each with different developments. Around 1395, [[Timur]]'s army invaded the [[Northern Caucasus]] and massacred much of the Alanian population.

As time went by, [[Digor (people)|Digor]] in the west came under [[Kabard]] and [[Islamic]] influence. It was through the [[Kabard]]ians (an East [[Circassia]]n tribe) that [[Islam]] was introduced into the region in the 17th century. After 1767, all of Alania came under Russian rule, which strengthened [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] in that region considerably. A substantial minority of today's Ossetians are followers of the traditional Ossetian religion, revived in the 1980s as [[Assianism]] (Ossetian: ''Uatsdin'' = 'true faith').<ref>{{cite journal |last=Foltz |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Foltz |title=Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion' |journal=Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture |volume=13 |year=2019 |pages=314–332 |issue=3 |doi=10.1558/jsrnc.39114 |s2cid=213692638 }}</ref>