The North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, 850-1240

The kingdom of Alania was the most powerful polity in the medieval North Caucasus. It contained strategic mountain passes across the Caucasus mountains, as well as urban centres larger than any in contemporary Rus'. Its kings retained power from the mid-ninth to the late eleventh centuries, intermarried with the ruling families of Georgia and Byzantium, and led armies that terrorised the South Caucasus. In this, the first book to explore the subject in the English language, Latham-Sprinkle sheds light on how the kings of Alania came to embody 'the power of the foreign' - the status which accrued to individuals who could access the material and spiritual products of distant lands - thus rendering the development of a state structure unnecessary. Challenging existing narratives that centre elites and the state, Latham-Sprinkle provides an important contribution to the historiography of medieval state formation, Christianisation, and transregional connection. This title is part of the Flip it Open programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

John Latham-Sprinkle is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also co-ordinator of the Medieval Caucasus Network.