Ivane Alexandres dze Javakhishvili ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილი; 23 April 1876 – 18 November 1940) was a Georgian historian and linguist whose voluminous works heavily influenced the modern scholarship of the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and culture of Georgia. He was one of the founding fathers of the Tbilisi State University (1918) and its rector from 1919 to 1926.

Biography

Ivane Javakhishvili was born in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia) to the aristocratic family of Prince Alexander Javakhishvili, who served as an educator at the Tbilisi Gymnasium. Having graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the St. Petersburg University in 1899, he became a ''privat-docent'' of the Chair of Armenian and Georgian Philology at his alma mater. From 1901 to 1902, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Berlin. In 1902, he accompanied his mentor, Academician

Nikolai Marr Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (, ''Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr''; , ''Nikoloz Iak'obis dze Mari''; — 20 December 1934) was a Georgian-born historian and linguist who gained a reputation as a scholar of the Caucasus during the 1910s before embarking ...

, to

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It ...

where they studied medieval Georgian manuscripts (such as the

Georgian manuscripts of Saint Paul's letters Paul's epistles– are Paul the apostle's letters, which are the one of the most important parts of New Testament. In those letters are told old Christian dogmas, which preceded the development of the religion. The first versions of The epistle ...

). After the first volumes of Javakhishvili's monumental, but yet unfinished, ''kartveli eris istoria'' (A History of the Georgian Nation) appeared between 1908 and 1914, the young scholar quickly 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. Early in 1918, he was instrumental in founding Georgia's first regular university in Tbilisi, thus realizing a long-time dream cherished by generations of Georgian intellectuals but consistently frustrated by the Imperial Russian authorities. The Tbilisi University (present-day I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, TSU, which now bears his name), of which Javakhishvili became a professor and the head of the Department of the History of Georgia, rapidly assumed a dominant position in Georgia's educational life. In 1919, Javakhishvili succeeded the noted chemist

Petre Melikishvili Petre Melikishvili ( ka, პეტრე მელიქიშვილი; July 11, 1850 — March 23, 1927) was a Georgian chemist. He was the co-founder of Tbilisi State University (TSU), the first Rector of TSU, Head of the Department of Organ ...

as the second rector of the university: he served until June 1926, when, in the aftermath of anti-Soviet August Uprising of 1924, tolerance of non- Marxist intellectuals began to contract. Although he was permitted to publish and teach, this eclipse probably saved his life, since his successor at the university, was among the victims of the Stalinist

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

of 1936–7. He was forced to step down at TSU in 1938, but was soon appointed director of the Department of History at the State Museum of Georgia which he headed until his death in Tbilisi in 1940. He was interred at the yard of the TSU.

Legacy and works

Ivane Javakhishvili 1976 USSR stamp.jpg, Javakhishvili on a 1976 Soviet stamp Ivane Javakhishvili 2016 stampsheet of Georgia.jpg, Javakhishvili on a 2016 stamp of Georgia . Artist; G. Kartvelishvili File:Ge-money-lari-5.jpg, Javakhishvili on a Georgian 5 lari 2002 banknote File:Georgian new 5 lari avers.png , Javakhishvili on a new edition 5 Lari banknote (2017) Javakhishvili authored more than 170 works dealing with various aspects of Georgia's political, cultural, social and economic history. Since the publication of its first edition in 1908, his main work, ''A History of the Georgian Nation'' (fully published between 1908 and 1949), has remained one of the most comprehensive and eloquent treatments of pre-modern Georgian history. Regrettably, it has not been translated into any other language. Several of Javakhishvili's most influential articles and books including ''A History of the Georgian Nation'' have been reprinted in his twelve-volume collected works from 1977 and 1998.Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), ''Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts'', p. 15. Peeters Bvba .

Biography

Legacy and works

References

Further reading