Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky

Vladimir Minorsky ( Russian Владимир Фёдорович Минорский , scientific. Transliteration Vladimir Fedorovic Minorskij ; January 24 * ^{. Jul} / 5. February  1877 ^greg. In Kortschewa, Tver province ; † 25. March 1966 in Cambridge ) was a Russian Orientalist and Iranist . He was mainly active in the field of Kurdology .

Professional background

Vladimir Minorsky graduated from high school with a gold medal and then began studying at Moscow University , where he studied law from 1896 to 1900 . After completing this subject, he studied oriental languages at the Lazarev Institute .

In 1903 he began his work in the Russian Foreign Ministry , which took him to Persia from 1904 to 1908 and to St. Petersburg and Turkestan from 1908 to 1912 .

In 1912 he was appointed Russian ambassador in Istanbul and the following year he was a member of the Imperial Russian Government Committee in the international commission for the establishment of the Turkish-Persian border. Then he was called to the Russian legation in Tehran , from where he went to France in 1919 . There he worked for a few years at the Russian embassy in Paris .

From 1923 Vladimir Minorsky taught Persian literature at the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes , and later also Turkish and Islamic history .

From August 1930 to January 1931 he worked as Oriental Secretary for the Exhibition of Persian Art at Burlington House , London .

He began working at the University of London in 1932, where he worked as a lecturer in Persian at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). From 1933 he was a lecturer in Persian literature and history and in 1937 professor of Iranian studies in the successor of Sir ED Ross . In 1944 he retired and was made an honorary member of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). From 1948 to 1949 he was visiting professor at Cairo University .

Wladimir Minorskis was a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (1943), an honorary member of the Société asiatique in Paris (1946) and an honorary doctorate from the Université libre de Bruxelles (1948).

Vladimir Minorsky left behind over 200 writings. He was buried in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) in 1969.

Works (selection)

• Hudud al-Alam . "The Regions of the World". A Persian Geography, 372 AH - 982 AD Translated and illustrated by Vladimir Minorsky; with a foreword by Wassili Wladimirowitsch Bartold . Oxford University Press, London 1937 ( digitized version ).
• Studies in Caucasian History. Taylor's Foreign Press, London 1953 ( digitized version ).
• Al-Akrād. Translated from Russian by Maruf Khaznadar. Matba'at al-Nujum, Baghdad 1968
• Iran and Islam: In Memory of the Late Vladimir Minorsky. Edited by Clifford Edmund Bosworth. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1971.
• Persia, the Immortal Kingdom. Orient Commerce Establishment, London 1971.
• The Turks, Iran and the Caucasus in the Middle Ages. Collected essays. Published by John Andrew Boyle . Variorum Reprints, London 1978.
• Medieval Iran and its Neighbors. Variorum Reprints, London 1982 (collection of articles).

literature

• Bibliography of the Publications of Professor V. Minorsky. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 14, No. 3, 1953, pp. 669-681.
• Louis Robert, Henri Massé: Éloge funèbre de M. Vladimir Minorsky, associé étranger de l'Académie. In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Volume 110, No. 2, 1966 pp. 227-232 ( online ).
• Clifford Edmund Bosworth (Ed.): Iran and Islam: In Memory of the Late Vladimir Minorsky. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1971, ISBN 0-85224-200-X .
• Clifford Edmund Bosworth: Vladimir Fyodorowitsch Minorsky . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)

Web links

• Literature by and about Wladimir Fjodorowitsch Minorsky in the catalog of the German National Library
• Link with the text translated here including a detailed list of literature

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 14, No. 3, 1953, p. 410.