Alp Ilutuer was the Ilutuer (vassal ruler) of the North Caucasian Huns during the 680s CE. He is mentioned in the account of Bishop Israel of

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

, who travelled to Alp Ilutuer's court. During his stay in the land of Huns in 681—682, Israel condemned their pagan beliefs and practices and preached

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. His converts offered him to establish and lead a patriarchate there through a special request sent by Alp Iluetuer himself to Eliezer, the Catholicos of Caucasian Albania. However, the request was turned down due to Israel already having been assigned a congregation in Mets Kolmanķ. ''Alp'' is an

Old Turkic Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...

word meaning "hero", though it also sometimes was used as a personal name. ''Ilutuer'' or

Elteber An elteber ( or ''(h)elitbär''; Chinese language, Chinese 頡利發 ''xié-lì-fā'' < Middle Chinese, EMCh: *''γεt-li^H-puat'') was a client king of an autonomous but tributary (political), tributary tribe or polity in the hierarchy ...

is believed to be a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

of the ancient Turkic title for a vassal ruler (in this case, vassal to the

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

). Therefore, it is unclear whether Alp Ilutuer is a proper name, a title, or a combination of the two. In the 670s, he provoked raids against the

and died in war. Alp Iluetuer is still remembered in Bulgar and Chuvash legend. His name is reconstructable in

as *''Alp (H)elitbär''.

Further reading