AD MEMORIAM. KNIGHT OF OSSETIAN STUDIES: IN MEMORY OF FELIX KHAZMURZAEVICH GUTNOV (04.07.1952-12.10.2020)
The article is dedicated to the memory of Felix Khazmurzaevich Gutnov, Doctor of the Humanities, professor, Caucasian scholar, ethnographer, well-known 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.