Biragova, Bela M.
Kavkaz Forum. 2022. Issue 10.

Abstract:
The article is dedicated to the memory of Felix Khazmurzaevich Gutnov,
Doctor of the Humanities, professor, Caucasian scholar, ethnographer, wellknown
researcher of the history of Alania-Ossetia, Honored Scientist of the
Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (07.04.1952–10.12.2020).
F.H. Gutnov left behind a vast and multifaceted scientific heritage, which
today serves as an authoritative language for Caucasian scholars of different
generations. Felix Khazmurzaevich Gutnov is the first researcher of the modern
history of the Alans, the phase development of the Alanian society, of the role of
the aristocracy and the military elite of the Alans in cross-cultural relations, the
religious system of the Alans, a conceptually expanded and enriching assessment
of the Sarmatian-Alanian research on the ancient and medieval history of Europe.
His fundamental works «Medieval Ossetia» (1993), «Aristocracy of the Alans»
(1995), «Early Alans. Problems of ethno-social history” (2001), “Early Scythians.
Problems of Social History” (2002), “Alanian Portraits” (2005), “Alans: Popular
Science Essays on History” (2011) determined the development of Alanian studies
for decades to come.
F.H. Gutnov for the first time developed a detailed «mountain feudalism»
based on the analysis of the norms of customary rights and social processes, that
took place in the mountain societies of the North Caucasus, studied the genesis of
Ossetian surnames on extensive ethnographic and genealogical material.
F.H. Gutnov is the author of more than 200 scientific papers, which have
gained popularity not only in the academic circles, but among the broad range
of readers. As an heir of the best research traditions, the scientist deserved
from the Caucasian scholars the name as a “historian from God”, “a knight of
Ossetian studies”, an innovator, a master of sampling source work and rigorous
consequence of the use of historicism and complexity, a talented enlightener.

Keywords: Felix Khazmurzayevich Gutnov, North-Ossetian Institute of Humanitarian and Social Studies after V.I. Abaev, Caucasian studies, Ossetian studies, early and medieval history of the Alans, Alanian aristocracy, mountain feudalism, Scythian-Sarmatian-Alano-Ossetian succession

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