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According to the results of lexico-statistical reconstruction of the evolution of North Caucasian languages, Balanovsky et al. 2011 ^[1], the divergence of the Ossetian languages Digor and Iron began 1300 years ago.

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^[1] Parallel Evolution of Genes and Languages in the Caucasus Region. Balanovsky 2011. Supplementary Data. Supplementary Figure 2

The ancient Altai J2a2 turned out to be very close to some modern Iranian, Turkic, as well as Mongolian J2a2.

Source.

The Arab campaign against Alania [as part of Khazaria]. The Alans paid a poll tax to the Arabs.


Materials:

History of Adygea. Gubzhokov 2009

737–738 AD – the battle at the walls of Anacopia against the thousands-strong troops of the Arab commander Marwan ibn Muhammad, nicknamed by the Georgians "Kru" – "the Deaf" for his cruelty. Marwan had previously devastated Kartli, captured all the cities and fortifications of the Egrisi country. The Arab troops were defeated by the Abasgians. The defeat of the Arabs at Anacopia received wide publicity, playing a crucial role in the history of the Eastern Black Sea region and the entire Caucasus, as well as Western Europe. The favorable situation contributed to the advancement of the ruler of Abasgia Leon I to one of the first places in the region's hierarchy, who received hereditary power in Abkhazia from the Byzantine emperor. Leon I of Abasgia became the ruler of a vast territory, which included Abasgia, Apsilia, Misiminia and Lazica.


Materials:

"History of Abkhazia in Dates." T.A. Achugba 2011

The eleventh king of the Abkhazians. Brother of Constantine II. Founder of the Leonid dynasty (Alou, Lou, Loo). In 737, he won a convincing victory at the walls of the Anacopia fortress over the Arab commander Marwan ibn Muhammad. Previously, Marwan had crushed Kartli, whose king Archil was forced to flee with his retinue and detachment to Abkhazia.

The Arabs invaded Abkhazia, occupied the capital of eastern Abkhazia (Apsilia) – the city of Tskhum, and finally besieged the capital of the country itself – Anacopia. Here, the combined forces of the Abasgians and the Kartlian detachment defeated the Arab troops. As a result of the victory, by order of the Byzantine emperor, the Kartlian king Archil ceded to the Abkhazian king the disputed lands to the east of Leon's domains "up to Clisura," i.e., up to the Surami Range, and cemented his relations with the Abkhazian ruling house by giving his brother Mir's daughter, Gurandukht, in marriage to Leon. The Byzantine emperor, apparently Leo III, the very one who, during his time as spatharius of Justinian II, carried out punitive expeditions to Abasgia, sends a crown to Leon I, which is a recognition of the Abasgian ruler's victory, a confirmation of his hereditary rights to a qualitatively new political entity. The decisive significance in the victory over the Arabs is associated with the miraculous power of the local icon of the Mother of God of Anacopia (Nicopaea), which later gave the name to the Abkhazian capital.

In prolonged resistance, including armed struggle, Abasgia defended itself against the main claimants to its possession – the Arab Caliphate on the one hand, and Byzantium on the other. This circumstance contributed to the religious upsurge in the country, the acquisition of autocephaly by the Abkhazian Orthodox Church, the consolidation of the Abkhazian tribes into a single ethnicity and into a single centralized state formation, which received the name of the Abkhazian Kingdom.
Addressing Leon I of Abkhazia, the Byzantine emperor confirms the hereditary rights of Leon and his descendants to possess Abkhazia forever and ever. At the same time, the emperor warns the Abkhazian king against possible oppression of his eastern neighbors: "But respect the kings and their Kartlian people with good, and do not henceforth encroach upon their Egrisian borders, as long as they remain there or depart from there."

Judging by the time, it was Leon I who initiated the embassy of the Abkhazian clergy in 750 to Antioch. On the way, the embassy was attacked by robbers, and only two surviving clergymen reached the Antiochian patriarch. They told the primate of the Antiochian Church about what had happened to their embassy and about the purpose for which they had been sent by the Abkhazian king on such a distant and dangerous journey. On this occasion, Patriarch Theophylact (744–750) convened an extraordinary council, at which a decision was made to grant autocephaly to the Abkhazian Church. One of the two Abkhazians, named John, on whom the lot fell, was elected Catholicos of Abkhazia, and the second was ordained a bishop.

The "Divan" states that Leon I ruled for 45 years. It is possible that before his official accession to the royal throne, Leon I was co-ruler with his brother Constantine II.

King of Apsilia, son of the "illustrious patrician" Marinus. Soon after the defeat at the walls of Anacopia, the Arabs made a last attempt to establish themselves in Abkhazia. In 738, having briefly captured the Iron Fortress (Sideron), they captured Eustathius and took him away with them. For two years, the Abkhazian prince was held in captivity in Mesopotamia, in the ancient city of Harran. All this time, the Arabs tried to forcibly convert the captive prince to Islam. Having failed to achieve this, they put him to death, by decree of the ruler of the country, Suleiman ibn Isam, in 740. The tomb of the holy martyr became a place of pilgrimage for Christians who came to the relics of Eustathius and received healing. Holy martyr of the Abkhazian Church.

Materials:

All rulers of Abkhazia

Abkhazian Kingdom. 786 CE
Anthroponymic repertoire of the "Divan of the Abkhazian kings". G. A. Amichba
Chronicle of the Abkhazian kings. F. Jordania 1902
Bgazhba O. Kh., Lakoba S. Z. History of Abkhazia from ancient times to the present day. 2007
Culture and ideology of early medieval Abkhazia (5th–10th centuries). Amichba 1999
"History of Abkhazia in dates". T. A. Achugba 2011
Circumnavigation of the Euxine Sea. Flavius Arrian
Naturalis Historia. Pliny the Elder 77–79. Latin-English 1969
Reports of ancient Greek and Latin writers about Scythia and the Caucasus. Latyshev 1947
Constantine Porphyrogenitus. On the Administration of the Empire: Text, translation, commentary. Litavrin 1991