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596 OSSETIANS
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Herbert S. Lewis
OSSETIANS While Muslims are a minority among the Ossetians, a rural
people living in the Caucasus Mountains, they are the second largest group of
Indo-Iranian-speaking Muslims in the Soviet Union (after the Tajik). Ossetians
call themselves Iron and their land Iristan. One tribal division lives in the Digor
River valley, and its members call themselves Digiron. It is the Digiron who
comprise the Muslims among the Ossetians (Ossessians, Ossetes, Ossets).
The Iranic language, Ossetian, has two dialects, Iron (eastern) and Digor
(western), which is more archaic. Iron is the basis for Ossetian literature. There
are many influences and derivations from other Caucasian, Turkic and Russian
languages. Ossetian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Most Ossetians live in the mountainous North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic, an area of peaks and valleys suitable primarily for stockbreeding—cattle,
sheep and goats. At least seven mountains in the area exceed
the two-mile mark. Aerial photographs reveal a maze of valleys and precipices
which provide the rich background for the events in Ossetian legends.
Another smaller group of Ossetians lives on the forested plains of the South
Ossetian Autonomous Oblast' in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. These
Ossetians are traditional farmers, living on collective farms raising crops and
livestock.
In both northern and southern areas, Ossetians are known for their stone and
wood carving and metal craftsmanship as well as gold and silver embroidering.
A considerable number of Ossetians work in mining and steel industries.
There are approximately 583,000 Ossetians, of whom an estimated 40 percent,