I'm curious about how you found a new location for Magas. How does a capital city go missing and how do you find it again? How does your location change what we know about Alania?

Hello! Thanks for coming on.

The Caucasus sits in an interesting place between the steppe to the north, and Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Iran to its south. Where on the nomadic-sedentary spectrum did the peoples of the Caucasus fall, and how did this affect exchange and relations between the Caucasus, the nomadic zone to the north and the sedentary zone to the south?

What to you is the most surprising facet of your research? What fact made you stop and go “wow, really?”

How did the Mongol invasion of the most 1200 impact the Medieval Caucuses region?

Hi! Thanks for answering our questions. If you don't mind a bit of a broad survey question, what was religion like in the Khazar Khaganate? Was it primarily one religion, or very competitive?

Thanks so much for hosting this AMA!

How useful a category is "medieval" for your understanding of the North Caucasus (versus just a familiar convenience)? What "era system" would make the most sense, if you were starting from scratch?

Also, in another answer you mentioned:

We rely on the description of an Arabic geographer, al-Mas'udi, who wrote in the 10th century, and several 13th-14th century sources which describe the capture of Magas

Setting aside the minor details in medieval sources like "ripping off this description from how a different text describes Mali in order to stress 'exotic and far away'", do you see any interesting changes between the two eras that might be significant in some way?

How important were the Alans in the context of the Arab-Byzantine relations, were they ever used as a tool by the Byzantines and if they were, how effective was this?

What is an important event or fact that happened there during that time that is important but relatively less known or commonly misunderstood?

I remember reading somewhere about how the medieval Circassians conversion from Orthodox Christianity to Islam. What was the reason for this turnaround? How many people rejected the new faith? How did this impact their relations with their neighbors?

Also, I’ve always been interested in the Khazarians conversion to Judaism, is that real history or is it just overhyped by historians based on few actual findings? Thanks.

Thank you for doing this AMA!

What was the political structure of Alania like? Were there lots of powerful lords besides the king, or was it more centralized?

Could you comment a bit on the usage of the Caspian Sea as a means of trade between the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia during the middle ages?

Hello! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Alania seems to have been stuck between many different empires - did they become a crossroads of trade? What kind of products would Alania have been famous for in, say, the 9th century?

What was the Caucasus relationship in general with the Byzantine Empire? And later on, the ottoman empire?

Thanks so much for doing this AMA! Can you tell us anything about women's lives in this time period?

Do you consider the kingdom of abkhazia to be a georgian kingdom since they followed the georgian church and their capital was Kutaisi ?

Since my comment got removed, I'm going to rephrase. I am asking this question very seriously. On another thread, people were arguing that people from the Middle East can all be clumped together under one ethnicity, and they were saying it was wrong for a TV show character to be white while his actor's ancestry is Iranian. I strongly disagree with this, because I believe that people from certain countries like Sudan are not descendants from the same populations as let's say Syria. What are the different ethnicities that populated the Middle East in which current region (Lebanon, Syria, Iran, etc.). Were there caucasians?

I’m not a historian, but I have a few questions!

I’m curious about intelligence/spy tactics and strategies from early medieval nations. What are some interesting examples of political success credited to old spy networks? Are there any intelligence strategies from medieval times that are still used today?

How were the Caucasians affected by the wars between the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde?

Thank you so much for doing this AMA!

What are some of the beautiful things that you have learned about while studying the North Caucasus? And what did people eat in the region that you studied?

Is there an interest from displaced Caucasian peoples to migrate back to their homeland? I’m thinking specifically of Circassians that are now dispersed throughout the near East.

Do you know much about migration from the caucasus to the sub continent region?

Just wanted to thank you for your work and interest in this part of Russia. As I spent 4 years in Dagestan, I hope you may be interested to visit this region and specifically Derbent.

Hello

Let's say the Mongols had not invaded. Would Georgia taking part on the crusades have made any real difference in the outcome of the crusades?

Do you read about that place https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1%8B%D0%B7%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%89%D0%B5

Hello and thank you for this AMA! I would like to ask: how does the medieaval Alania relate to the Alani we hear about in the Roman period? Would they have spoken a recognisably similar language and such?

i am curious about presence of georgia in north caucasus.since georgia influenced north Caucasus during golden age did you find anything georgian like georgian monuments, inscriptions, places or something georgian?

second question: have you been in dvaleti? dvaleti was historical georgian district which was geographically north caucasus. today it is part of north ossetia.
third question: do you think that modern day "south ossetia" was part of historical alanian kingdom?

As a Circassian I'm happy this is being looked into