The first Christian rulers of Alania

The article is devoted to the analysis of information from written sources, covering the history of the rulers of Alania, during whose reign Christianity became the state religion. The relevance of the problem posed is dictated by the lack of analysis of information about specific Alan rulers in the context of the corresponding event history of that period. The purpose of the study is to determine the general range of sources and analyze, on their basis, information about the rulers of Alania and their activities in the process of establishing Christianity as the official religion of the state. The study is based on narrative and epigraphic sources, as well as their publications by specialists, containing the corresponding corpus of scientific commentary. The methods of textual critical analysis of written sources were used in the research process. The data from the «Cambridge Document» do not allow us to clearly assume whether the Alanian king of this source was a specific ruler of Alania or whether we are dealing with a generalized image, through which the events of 912 and 931/932 are united. At the same time, there is every reason to believe that the Alanian ruler associated with the consequences of the events of 931/932 was the closest ancestor of the exusiocrator of Alania David, who appears in the Senta inscription. David could have been his son, i. e. the brother of the Alanian princess married to the Khazar prince, or his grandson, as well as the ruler who was openly hostile to Khazaria, pursued a policy of returning the descendants of the Alans from the north to the homeland of their ancestors and married the sister of the ruler of Serir. Then it is possible that Maria of the Senta inscription was the sister of the ruler of Sarir – a representative of the early medieval Avar royal family.