Ilia Abuladze (November 24, 1901 – October 9, 1968) was a distinguished Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 historian, philologist and public figure, a Corresponding Member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences

Georgian Academy of Sciences

The Georgian National Academy of Sciences is a main learned society of the Georgia. It was named Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences until November 1990...

 (GAS) (1950), Meritorious Science Worker of Georgia (1961), Doctor of Philological Sciences (1938), Professor (1947).

Abuladze was born in a small village in Imereti

Imereti

Imereti is a province in Georgia situated along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni river. It consists of the following Georgian administrative-territorial units:#Kutaisi #Baghdati region#Vani region#Zestafoni region...

 (Western Georgia). In 1927 he graduated from the Tbilisi State University

Tbilisi State University

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University , better known as Tbilisi State University , is a university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region...

 (TSU) and engaged in academic work since 1932. He was a scholar specializing in the history of ild Georgian literature and the Armeno

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

-Georgian literary and cultural relations. He is also renowned for having rediscovered the lost alphabet of Caucasian Albanians.

In 1950 Abuladze was elected a Corresponding Member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. In 1958 he organized the Institute of Manuscripts of the GAS (now the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts

Georgian National Center of Manuscripts

The Georgian National Center of Manuscripts is a research and educational institution dedicated to studying old manuscripts and historical documents. The Center is based in Tbilisi . Was founded as Institute of Manuscripts on June 30, 1958...

) and became its lifelong director. In 1938-1968 Abuladze was a Professor of the Tbilisi State University.

Abuladze published critical editions of all major Georgian hagiographical

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

 works in the monumental series of Works of Old Georgian Hagiographical Literature (ძველი ქართული აგიოგრაფიული ლიტერატურის ძეგლები). Having taken a special interest in Armenian sources, Abuladze edited the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian Chronicles. He also discovered and studied the ancient Old Udi

Old Udi alphabet

The Caucasian Albanian alphabet, sometimes called Old Udi script , was an alphabet used by the Caucasian Albanians, one of the ancient and indigenous Northeast Caucasian peoples whose territory comprised parts of present-day Azerbaijan and Daghestan...

script (1937) and compiled Dictionary of the Old Georgian Language (ძველი ქართული ენის ლექსიკონი; appeared posthumously in 1973).

External links

• Georgian National Center of Manuscripts