Complex sentence: Whether the early Croats were Slavs who had taken a name of Iranian origin or were ruled by the Sarmatian elite caste, or were Slavicized Sarmatians, the remote Irano-Sarmatian elements or influences on the Croatian ethnogenesis cannot be entirely excluded.
Split into simpler sentences: Whether the early Croats were Slavs, who had taken a name of Iranian origin, whether they were ruled by a Sarmatian elite and/or were or were slavicized Sarmatians, cannot be resolved. The possibility of Irano-Sarmatian elements among, or influences upon, Croatian ethnogenesis cannot be entirely excluded.