Ossetian Muslims

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Ossetian Muslims

Ossetian: Ирон Пысылмӕттӕ
Total population
200,000
Regions with significant populations
Turkey	20,000–50,000
Russia	55,026
North Ossetia–Alania	43,000
Kabardino-Balkaria	6877
Stavropol Krai	1146
Syria	700
Languages
Ossetian
Religion
Islam (Sunni Hanafi)
Related ethnic groups
Ossetians

Ossetian Muslims (Ossetian: Ирон Пысылмӕттӕ, romanized: Iron Pysylmættæ) are ethnic Ossetians who practice Islam and are native to the region of Ossetia in the North Caucasus.

The majority of Ossetian Muslims today reside in Turkey, as well as the Western areas of North Ossetia, such as the Irafsky, Kirovsky, and Pravoberezhny Districts and in Vladikavkaz, with Minorities in the Alagirsky, Ardonsky, Mozdoksky, and western Prigorodny Districts, as well as in Syria, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Stavropol Krai. The Ossetian Muslim community is made up of people from both the Digor, and Iron subgroups of Ossetians.

Islam was first introduced amongst Ossetians in the 17th century when the local Digor Ossetians converted to Islam under the influence of the neighbouring Kabardin people who professed Islam. Prior to the annexation of the Digoria region into Russia in 1771, the vast majority of Digorians professed Islam. Previously in 1750. representatives of the Digor families of the Abisalovs, Bituevs and Mistulovs adopted Christianity following the example of the Kabardian princes who professed Christianity. However, by the 1830-40s most of the Digorians had re-accepted Islam. Numerous Muslim communities appeared in the settlements of Makhchesk, Stur-Digora, Aksau, Fasnal.

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Back in the 16th century, Islam penetrated the Tagaurian society. In the 17th century, all eleven Tagaur feudal surnames converted to Islam. Soon, ordinary people began to accept Islam. In 1785, Akhmed Dudarov, the Tagaurian Uazdan-Aldar, the owner of the village of Chmi, contributed to the adoption of Islam by the Chmins, and actively spread Islam throughout the territory, building a stone mosque in the village of Saniba .

In 1825–30, the rebel movement in Tagauria and Kurtatia was led by Beslan Shanaev, Khazbi Tulatov, Dzanhot Mamsurov, Kurgok Karsanov and others. units of the tsarist general Abkhazov burned with. Chmi, Kani, Lamardon and other villages. Settlers from Chmi founded the village of Kardzhin, settlers from Kani founded Brut. Tagauri settlers also participated in the founding of the village of Elkhotovo, Zilgi, Skut-Kokh, etc. In 1840, according to Kaloev, there were 3 mosques in mountainous Tagauria: one in Sanib, one in Chmi and one more either in Koban or in Kani.

In the 2000s a group calling itself Kataib al-Khoul was established by Ossetian Muslims as part of the North Caucasus insurgency and its goal was to expel the Russian presence in North Ossetia and establish an Islamic Emirate called Iriston. This unit was led by prominent Jihadi fighter Alan Digorsky, and gained publicity in 2005-2008 when it attacked casinos and gambling houses in Vladikavkaz, and engaged in a series of assassinations of high-ranking military and state officials in North Ossetia, this combined with that on May 26, the beheaded body of Shamil Jikayev, a venerated Ossetian poet was found near Vladikavkaz and the fact that his killer, David Murashev, himself an Ossetian, is said by authorities to have converted to Islam, stirred up talks about the increasingly uncomfortable coexistence of Christian and Muslim communities within North Ossetia, renewing fears of the “jihadization” of North Ossetian Muslims.^[2]