The Alāns were an Iranian people of the western Eurasian steppes and North Caucasus, noted by Graeco-Roman authors (as Ἀλανοί, Ἀλανορρσοί, Alani, or Halani) since the first century C.E. Middle Persian and Modern Persian Alān (= Īrān < *āryāna < *aryānām (genit. pl.) < *arya ("Aryan"), with the shift ry > l characteristic of some Scythian dialects) = Arabic al-Lān (sometimes ʿAlāniyya), Hebrew Alan, and Armenian Alankʿ. The mediaeval Alāns were sometimes known as Ās/Āṣ in Islamic sources (cf. Georgian Ows-i, Mongol Asud (pl.), Hungarian Jász). Their