JAVAKHISHVILI, IVANE (1876-1940). One of the most distinguished Georgian historians and scholars. Born in Tbilisi, Javakhishvili graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the University of St. Petersburg in 1899 and became a privat-docent at the Chair of Armenian and Georgian Philology. In 1901 – 1902, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Berlin and, in 1902, he and Academician Nikolay Marr studied ancient Georgian collections in Sinai. In 1906, he defended his thesis on state structure of ancient Georgia and Armenia, one of the first scientific studies of class society of these countries. In 1917-1918, he was instrumental in founding Tbilisi State University (TSU), where he became professor and dean of the Faculty of Philology and served as the university rector in 1919-1926. In 1918 – 1938, he directed the Department of History at TSU. In 1919-1925, he led the Georgian Historical and Ethnographic Society and, in 1937-1940, the Shota Rustaveli Museum. In 1939, he became a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Javakhishvili established himself as a preeminent authority on Georgian and Caucasian history, Georgian law, paleography, diplomacy, music, drama and other subjects, producing landmark studies in these fields. He was well known for his knowledge of Georgian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Persian and other sources, which he consulted throughout his studies. A prolific writer, he left a diverse literary legacy, which includes such works as Political and Social Movements in Georgia (1906), a four-volume History of the Georgian People (1908-1949), Problems, Sources and Methods of History (4 vols., 1916-1926), Ancient Georgian Historical Written Language (1916), Georgian Numismatics and Metrology (1925), Georgian Paleography (1926), Georgian Diplomacy (1926), History of Georgian Law (2 vols. 1928-1929), Economic History of Georgia (2 vols., 1930-1934), Fundamentals of the History of Georgian Music (1938). Due to his contributions to the study of the Georgian history and culture, Tbilisi State University was officially renamed to Ivane Javakhishvili State University of Tbilisi.

ALM