ALANI. - A nomadic people of Scythian race. At the time 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-Azov regions near the Sea of Azov. A strong group joined the Vandals, following them through Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula to Africa (409-16). They received the Gospel from the Vandals but, like their missionaries, were Arians. A portion of this group, settled in the region of Orléans, fought in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields (451) alongside the Romans against Attila, but perished under Visigothic rule. The Alans who remained in the Azov regions had many dealings with the Byzantine Empire, and from the 9th century onward were gradually and variably converted by the Greek Church. The traveler William of Rubruck found them in 1253 organized into an ecclesiastical province with two suffragan sees.
For many centuries the Alans served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army. Alan action helped place Marcian (450-57) and Leo I (457-74) on the throne, and with their party they directed politics until they were killed (471). Under Andronicus II (1228-41), the Alans offered to fight the Turks in exchange for arable land. Soon after, absorbed by the many peoples who passed through the regions they inhabited, they disappeared.