The Irons ( East Ossetian: Ирон ''Iron'', pl.: Ир ''Ir'', Ирӕттӕ ''Irættæ''; West Ossetian: Ирон ''Iron'', pl.: Ирӕ ''Irӕ'', Ирӕнттӕ ''Irænttæ'') are a subgroup of the

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

. They speak the Iron dialect of the Eastern Iranian

Ossetian language Ossetian ( , , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete, is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Russian-Georgian border in the Greater Caucasus region. ...

. The majority of Irons profess Russian Orthodoxy and a small minority profess

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

mainly in the lowland villages of North Ossetia, while the Uatsdin faith has also been preserved by a minority of Irons.

History

The ethnonym Iron has the same root, '' arya'', as Iran and many Iranian-speaking peoples, including the precursors of the Iron, the Alana (Alans). Following the Mongol invasions of the 1200s and incursions by

Tamerlane Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timuri ...

in the late 1300s, the Alans fled from their homeland to seek refuge in the remote Caucasian valleys while others were incorporated into the conquering society. The Alans who retreated into the Caucasus were unable to reform the Kingdom of Alania and eventually split into different petty subgroups. These petty groups came under the partial influence of their Kabardian neighbors and later became two distinct ethnic groups, the Iron and the Digor. By the Russian conquest in the late 1700s, Orthodox Christianity had become the dominant religions among the Irons after going through a revival. This is different from the Digors who became majority

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. In the late Soviet period and later in the 1990s, Ossetian intellectuals began to reclaim their Alanian heritage in an attempt to fuse together the Ossetian subgroups who have remained divided on dialect and religion. This led to

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

being renamed North Ossetia-Alania in 1994.

References

Ethnic groups in Russia Ossetian people {{Caucasus-ethno-group-stub

History

See also

References