NATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHERS AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS. 20TH CENTURY

23 April [ 11 April] 1876 (1876-04-23), Tiflis — 18 November 1940 (1940-11-19), Tbilisi

Biography, education, career:

Ivane Javakhishvili was born to the aristocratic family of Prince Alexander Javakhishvili. In 1899 he graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Languages of Saint-Petersburg State University. In 1901—1902 he was a visiting scholar at Berlin University. From 1902 he was a Privat-Docent at the Department of Armenian-Georgian Philology. In 1908 he organized a students’ Georgian Scientific Circle at Saint-Petersburg University; in 1915 the materials from the circle were published in Georgian as a collection of scientific papers. Together with his mentor, Academician N.Y. Marr he participated in an expedition to Mount Sinai, where he studied medieval Georgian manuscripts. In 1905 he wrote Political Social Movement in Georgia in the 19th Century. From 1908 he began to publish his monumental work – A History of the Georgian Nation – which influenced Georgian historian science greatly. The last 4th volume of kartveli eris istoria was published posthumously, in 1949. Simultaneously, he authored papers on auxiliary historical disciplines and source studies. In 1917—1918 Javakhishvili was instrumental in founding Georgia's first regular university in Tbilisi; he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, which was at the time the only faculty of the newly established university. In 1919 he was appointed the second President of Tbilisi State University and held this position up until 1926, when he was fired on grounds of being Non-Marxist in the course of the purge. He was Chair of Georgian Society of History and Ethnography (until 1925). From 1937 until his death he was Director of Shota Rustaveli Museum and leader of the Mtskheta Archaeological Expedition. Tbilisi State University and the Institute of History of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences now bear Javakhishvili’s name.

Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of the peoples of the North and South Caucasus; Legal anthropology; Archaeology; Ethnic musicology

Awards and titles:

Ivane Javakhishvili was a recipient of the Stalin Prize (1947, posthumously); holder of the order of the Red Banner of Labour (1938).

Major publications:

• История грузинского народа. Тб., 1908—1949; [A History of the Georgian Nation. Tbilisi, 1908-1949];

• Задачи, источники и методы истории прежде и теперь. Тб., Т. 1—4, 1916—1926; [The Objectives, Sources, and Methods of History: Then and Now. Tbilisi., Vols. 1-4, 1916-1926];

• Древне-грузинская историческая литература. Тб., 1916; [Ancient Georgian Historical Literature. Tbilisi, 1916];

• Грузинская нумизматика и метрология. Тб., 1925; [Georgian Numismatics and Metrology. Tbilisi, 1925];

• Грузинская палеография. Тб., 1926; [Georgian Paleography. Tbilisi, 1926];

• Грузинская дипломатика. Тб., 1926; [Georgian Diplomacy. Tbilisi, 1926];

• История грузинского права. Тб., Т. 1—2, 1928—1929; [A History of Georgian Law. Tbilisi, Vols.1-2, 1928-1929];

• Экономическая история Грузии. Тб., Т. 1—2, 1930—1934; [Economic History of Georgia. Tbilisi, Vols. 1-2, 1930-1934];

• Основные вопросы истории грузинской музыки. Тб., 1938. [The Main Questions of the History of Georgian Music. Tbilisi, 1938].

About I. Javakhishvili:

• Джавахишвили Иван Александрович на официальном сайте РАН [Ivane Aleksandrovich Javakhishvili on the official website of the Russian Academy of Sciences]

• Джавахишвили Иванэ Александрович // Биографика СПбГУ [Ivane Aleksandrovich Javakhishvili // SPSU Biographica.]