Alanian Military Units in Military-Administrative Structure of the Mongol Empir

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to study the question of the rank of the Alanian military units in the Mongolian imperial military-administrative order. The relevance of the study is determined by the absence in the scientific tradition of researches on this issue, while it contains studies of questions about the place of the Alans in the military-administrative system of the Yuan Empire and about their service to the Mongol ulus rulers. The result of the study was the conclusion that after the Western campaign, some representatives of the Alanian power elite became vassals of the “Golden Lineage” of Genghis Khan, that ruled the Mongol Empire, the actual unity of which remained until 1271. Some of the retinues of the Alanian rulers were left in Alanya, while the other part of them, together with some of the rulers, was taken to serve in the guards of Genghiskhanid Mongke and went with him to Central Mongolia. After the elevation of Möngke on the Mongol throne in 1251, these Alans, like the Alans that went to Mongolia by recruitment in 1254, served in the retinue of the Mongol emperor and, probably, guarded the Mongol capital Karakorum. The study used methods of comparative historical analysis, inductive and deductive methods, system-chronological and retrospective-analytical methods, as well as methods of scientific translation of texts of medieval Chinese chronicles.