Vitaliy Vyacheslavovich Naumkin (, ); born 21 May 1945) is a Russian scholar of Central Asia and Middle East. Naumkin graduated with honors from

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

from the Institute of Asia and Africa, where he studied

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Arab culture Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, in a region of the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab world. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout Histor ...

. He then served in the Soviet army from 1968 to 1970 as an officer and Arabic teacher.

Career

Naumkin earned his PhD from Moscow State University in 1972, writing his dissertation on medieval Islamic theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. In 1980, he released a translation of al-Ghazali's work. In 1984, Naumkin joined the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences as head of the department of Arab countries. In 1989, he became deputy director of the institute. In 1994, Naumkin began serving as the director of the center for Arab studies. In May 2009, Naumkin was made director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. He was also elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011. Additionally, Naumkin is a professor in the faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the “Vostok-ORIENS” Journal of the RAS and President of the Center for Strategic and Political Studies. In total, Naumkin has authored more than 500 publications on the history of Asia, the Arab world, Central Asia, the Caucus, political science, Islamic theology, international relations, philology, conflict management, and resolution.

References

1945 births Living people Writers from Yekaterinburg Russian people of Jewish descent Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Moscow State University {{Russia-academic-bio-stub