The Alan capital *<i>Magas:</i> A preliminary identification of its location
Journal: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Year: 2022

Abstract This article proposes that *Magas , capital city of the North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, can be identified with the gorodishche (hillfort) of Il'ichevsk, in Krasnodar Krai in the modern Russian Federation. The Kingdom of Alania was the most powerful polity in the North Caucasus in the tenth and eleventh centuries; however, the location of its capital has never been satisfactorily established. This article reviews the evidence of written sources on * Magas – notably Masʿūdī, Juvayni, R