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The paper presents the translations, introduction and interpretation of information about Alans, obtained from the Armenian written sources of the 12th – 18th centuries. The subject of research is information from the following sources: Armenian historical works published in Russian or the original language, as well as historical or grammatical works, aide-memoirs and colophons of manuscripts that have not yet been in the focus of researchers’ attention or are introduced into the scientific use for the first time. Most of the sources published here have been identified in the collection of the M. Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran). The information of the Armenian written sources dates the 12th – 18th centuries. This allows us to clarify the ethno-confessional map of the Caucasus in the 12th – 14th centuries and its transformation in the later period. Some of them, in particular, suggest the idea about the identity of ethnonyms “Alans” and “Osi/Oseti”. The sources also provide information about the written languages of the peoples of the Caucasus that were used in worship service. The paper pays great attention to the study of the issues of the “Alans”, “Alan Region” and “Alan Gates” mentioned in Armenian sources of the 16th – 18th centuries. The study uses the analysis of the available information on this oeconym, since in late Armenian sources the Alan Gates are localized in Derbent, and the terms “Alans” and the “Alan Region” are used in relation to the population and territory of the former Caucasian Albania.

Creating a true and objective picture of the historical development of any country is impossible without identifying and studying the characteristics and uniqueness of its various regions. Thus, the study of “Local history” (regional history) is one of the ways to deepen the understanding of historical processes and to identify regional differentiation within the framework of a single historical process in Dagestan, the Caucasus and in the broader framework. For example, as Russian orientalist V. Bobrovnikov writes, “the historical ethnography of Dagestan’s villages has made a significant contribution to the development of community theory in the Caucasus and in the world” [1, p. 5]. This is one of the most important directions of development of historical science in Dagestan, which received a new impetus in the early XXI century. One of the most fundamental researches in this sphere is the recently published monograph “Karakh in XII - beginning of XX century (historical and ethnographic essays)”, on the example of which we consider this direction of historical research in Dagestan.