Ancestors of the Ossets The Alans, the Asii and the Osii on the Path of Continuing and Change; based on Iranian Historical Sources

The Ossets live in the center of the Greater Caucasus Mountains on either side of the Darial Gorge. Some are Muslims and some are Christians. Results of scientific research and self-awareness of the Ossets indicate their kinship with Iranians and their lineage traces them to a chain of Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, and the Asii, and eventually to the Osii and the Ossets.The Alans and the Asii, whose ancestry dates back to the last centuries BC, are the most recent ancestors of the Ossets, peoples whose their presence on the northern frontiers of Iran made them important to Iranians.The present article looks at a part of the ancestors' chains of the Ossets, Alans and the Assi, and the Osii and the change of these names in the inscriptions and published Iranian works, including works of historians, Prose writers, travelogues, and poets until the Qajar era.The findings of this study indicate that the turning points of the life of the ancestors of Ossets and the change of their names in Iranian sources show compliance with the results of historical research based on other languages, and archaeological and linguistic achievements.