(1.) “the Winden tongue, which they call Arnaw.”—Schiltberger was not
wrong in saying that the Venede tongue was known to the Turks as the
Arnaut; at least it appears in Pianzola (_Grammatica_, _Dizionario_,
etc.) that the country called by the Italians, Illirice, was identical
with the Slavonia of the Greeks and the Arnaut of the Turks. This is no
place for solving the question, why the Turks should have designated
two people of different origin by the same name; but the circumstance
serves to support the opinion of several authors (Köppen, _Krymsky
Sbornyk_, 1837, 226) that the Turks were not in the habit of calling
people of any distinct nationality by the name of Arnaut, but rather
all those who, being the subjects or brothers-in-arms of the Arianite
family, had distinguished themselves in their struggles with them;
such, for instance, as the Slaves and Albanians or Skipetars, among
whom was George Castriota of Slave descent (Jirecek, _Gesch. d.
Bulgaren_, 268). His biographer (Barletius, _Vita Scanderbegi_, etc.,
apud Zinkeisen, _Gesch. d. O. R._, i, 776) thus expresses himself in
allusion to Topia, the compatriot of the Scanderbeg of the Turks. “Hic
est ille Arianites qui apud Macedones (Slaves) et Epirotas (Albanians)
cognomento Magnus et dictus et habitus est”, ... etc.—BRUUN.
(2.) “the Yassen tongue, which the Infidels call Afs.”—The As,
Yasses—the Alains, Alans of antiquity, are the Ossets of to-day, a
people inhabiting a strip of territory in the middle of the great
mountain range of the Caucasus, and who are believed to be the only
connecting link between the Indo-Persian branch and the European branch
of the great Indo-Germanic race. The population in 1873 was estimated
at 65,000, of which number, it was supposed, 50,000 were Christians;
the remainder being Mahomedans and Pagans, or a mingling of the three
(_The Crimea and Transc._, i, 296, ii, 2).
An unpretending sketch of this interesting people, twice alluded to by
the author (in chapter 61 he speaks of them as the Jassen and Affs), is
here submitted.
The earliest mention of the Alans is made by Josephus (_Wars_, VII,
vii, 4), and again by Procopius (_De Bell. Goth._, iv, 3, 4), from
whom we learn that they dwelt on the shores of the Lake Mæotis and
to the North of the Caucasus, whence they overran the country of
the Medes and of Armenia, until defeated by Artaces who forced them
to withdraw beyond the Cyrus; similar predatory incursions into
Tauric-Scythia and the West, being arrested by the Goths, who in
their turn were overpowered by the Huns. The invasion of Asia Minor
by the Alans gave cause of uneasiness to the Roman Empire, but it was
successfully resisted by Arrian, prefect of Cappadocia (Forbiger,
_Handbuch der Alt. Geogr._, i, 424), and they were also defeated by
Vakhtang “Gourgasal”—Wolf Lion—the sovereign of Georgia, 466–499,
upon their venturing to invade that kingdom (Brosset, _Hist. de la
Géorgie_, I, 153). In 966, the Yasses were subdued by the Russians
under Sviatoslaff, after his conquest of Tmoutorakan (Taman); and
in 1276 they lost Dediakoff, their capital, to the Mongols, whose
progress, having the Kiptchaks for their allies, they attempted to
oppose (Karamsin, _Hist. de Russie_, i, 214; ii, 191). After this we
find the Yasses in the West, for when Tchaga, the son of Nogaï, led an
expedition sent by the Khan Toula Boga, 1287–1291, to the Danube, he
halted for a while in the country of the Ass, now Moldavia, the capital
of which bears their name to this day—Yassy (D’Ohsson, _Hist. des
Mongols_, iv, note p. 750). After the death of Nogaï, 1299, at Kaganlik
(now Kouïalnyk near Odessa), some 16,000 Ass or Alains, more than one
half of which number were fighting men, crossed the river, 1301, and
offered their services to the Byzantine Emperor by whom they were
accepted (Pachymeres, _Migne edition_, tom. 144, p. 337).
Alains were met in Khozary (Crimea) by the ambassadors of Bibars I.,
sultan of Egypt, 1260–1270 (Makrizi by Quatremère, I, i, 213, 218); a
statement confirmed by Aboulfeda who says they occupied Kyrkyer, now
Tchyfout Kaleh—Jew’s Fortress (see note 8, p. 176, for this name),
close to which is Baghtchasaraï the modern Tatar capital in the
peninsula; also by Marino Sanudo the Venetian traveller, who wrote,
1333, that there still were in the country “Gothi et aliqui Alani”
(Kunstmann, _Stud. über M. S._, 105).
The Alains should be included amongst those populations in the East
that were converted to Christianity through the exertions of Justinian;
but they relapsed to paganism until a priesthood was settled in their
country by Thamar, the great queen of Georgia, 1174–1201, who caused
numerous churches to be constructed for their use; and that they
belonged to the Greek Church, as stated by Schiltberger, is shewn by
Rubruquis the Gray Friar, for he met at Scacatay some Alans or Aas, “as
they were called by the Tartars”, who professed the Greek faith, and
with whom he offered up prayers for the dead (_Recueil de Voy. et de
Mém._, iv, 243, 246, _et seq._)—ED.
(3.) “it is the Schurian and not the Greek tongue”.—This Jacob, surnamed
Baradæus, or Zanzalus, died as bishop of Edessa in 588, leaving his
sect in the most flourishing condition; it forms the Syrian church in
Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other parts.
His followers, known as Jacobites, believe that in the Saviour of the
World, both natures are united in one, and herein lies the principal
difference from the Greek Church. Although their vernacular is the
Arabic, the Syrian Christians employ the Syrian language in public
worship (Mosheim, _Ecclesiastical History_, etc., i, 154; Gardner, _The
Faiths of the World_, etc., ii, 194).—ED.