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Iranians and Slavs in South Russia

1925; American Oriental Society; Volume: 45; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/593464

2169-2289

Alexandra Kalmykow,

Linguistics and language evolution

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE and least remarked achievements of oriental science during the present generation was the discovery that the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes, who are the first historically identified inhabitants of South Russia, belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and form the Western part of the Iranians. The full consequence of this discovery and the light it throws on the history of South Russia and Russia as a whole are yet to be investigated. We limit ourselves to a few remarks. First, the supposition that in the Fourth Century A. D. the Scyths and Sarmatians were fully destroyed and dislodged from South Russia by the inroads of the Goths and the Runs is not confirmed by the facts. The chief authority on this period, Jordanes (misspelt Tornandes), was an Iranian himself from the Alan tribe,1 one of the chief divisions of the Sarmatae. He lived in the Sixth Century A. D. and he testifies that in his time the Alans occupied the shores of the Black Sea north of the Danube, the present Bessarabia, and partly south of the Danube (Dobrudja). Then comes the testimony of the Russian chronicle of Nestor (Eleventh Century) mentioning for the Ninth Century three nations from the Danube to the Dniester, which seem to be Iranian. One of them, the Douliebs, is Iranian by name. The word T)oulieb is akin to the Indian Dhouleep, the Persian Sohreb, (d: s, as Dahaka: Zohak; r: 1, as Parthian: Pehlevi), the Caucasian Galoub; the Slav version gives four spellings: Douleb, Oulieb, Oleb, and Glieb, which shows that the name is not Slavonic. Then the Oulichi, or Ouglichi, on the Bug, which reminds of Olvia, or Olbia, chi being the suffix. Finally the Tivertsi on the Tyras, the present river Dniester.