До сих пор спорными остаются вопросы, касающиеся этнической атрибуции и происхождения носителей этнического названия буртас, которое мусульманские авторы упоминали в своих сочинениях IX-X вв., где описывалось население Хазарского каганата. Эта проблема волновала ученых более двухсот лет, результатом чего стало существование нескольких гипотез: мордовская; тюркская; угорская; кавказская. В последние десятилетия стала популярной аланская гипотеза, что заслуживает отдельного рассмотрения.
Since the 9th century AD the Muslim authors mentioned the people Burtas who lived in the Khazar kaganate. However, the origin of this ethnic group is unknown. Last time some scholars support the Iranian (Alanian) origin of the Burtas and, as a result, they propose several Iranian (Ossetian) translations of the ethnic name Burtas which could have the primary forms - ford-as or furt-as. The author of this paper proposes a new primary form of this ethnic name - fard-as meaning in the Eastern Iranian languages «the Ases of ford». According to the data of Archaeoiogical excavations and written sources the Aians iived in the beginning of the 9th century AD on the banks of the Lower Don where the fortress Sarkel was founded. There was a ford and, therefore, the ethnic name fard-as - «the Ases of ford» could be formed exactly in this weii-known place. In the Khazar language it was transformed into Burtas and was spread among other Alanian groups of the Khazar kaganate as the official name some time later.
