ALANI. - A nomadic people of Scythian stock. At the time when they appear in history, they inhabited the region between the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral. Around 350, under pressure from the Huns, they advanced westward, settling in the sub-Caucasian regions toward the Sea of Azov. A large group joined the Vandals, following them through Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula as far as Africa (409–16). They received the Gospel from them but, like their missionaries, were Arians. Part of this group, established in the region of Orléans, fought alongside the Romans against Attila in the battle of the Catalaunian Fields (451), but disappeared under Visigothic domination. The A. who remained in the Caucasian regions had many relations with the Byzantine Empire and, from the 9th century onward, were slowly and with varying success converted by the Greek Church. The traveller Guglielmo da Rubruck, in 1253, found them organized into an ecclesiastical province, with two suffragans.
For many centuries we find A. serving as mercenaries in the Byzantine army. The Alan Aspar enthroned Marciano (450–57) and Leone I (457–74) and, with his party, directed policy until he was killed (471). Under Andronico II (1228–41), the A. offered to fight the Turks, asking cultivable land in return. Shortly thereafter, absorbed by the many peoples who passed through the regions they inhabited, they disappeared.