Tzanaria

Tzanaria (Georgian: წანარეთი) (alternative spellings: Tsanaria, Canaria, Sanaria, Sanaryia) was a historic district in the early medieval Caucasus, lying chiefly in what is now the northwestern corner in Georgia’s region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti.

In the narrow sense of the term, Tzanaria (Georgian: წანარეთი, Tzanareti; aka Tzanar Gorge, წანარეთის ხევი, Tzanaretis Khevi, reduced later simply to Khevi, i.e. gorge) was applied by the medieval Georgian annals to the area around the Darial Pass, inhabited by the Tzanars. This warlike tribe is already known as Sanars to Ptolemy. According to the 8th century Arab historian Masudi, the Tzanars, though Christians, claimed their origin from Nizar b. Maad b. Murad, and then from a branch of the Ukail family. Although this claim is completely rejected by modern scholars, the origins of the Tzanars are still uncertain today. The tribe is sometimes claimed to be an offshoot of Sarmatians. Vladimir Minorsky believes, however, that they were the Nakh-speakers.

Whatever their origin, the Tzanars seem to have adopted, over the centuries, many features of Georgian culture, including language and religion, being subsequently completely commingled with the Georgian people to form one of its ethnographic groups Mokheves, who were known until recently as Tsans (or Tsons) to the neighbouring Ossetes.

...
Wikipedia