Alexander Khakhanov

Who was Alexander Khakhanov?

Aleksandr Solomonovich Khakhanov born Aleksandre Khakhanashvili was a Georgian-Russian historian, archaeologist, and one of the most acclaimed scholars of Georgian literature.

He was born in Gori, Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia, and studied at Tbilisi Gymnasium. Having graduated from Moscow University in 1888, he delivered lectures on Georgian language and literature at Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages since 1889 and at Moscow University since 1900. He authored numerous works on Georgian history and literature, including the resonant Очерки по истории грузинской словесности, published in Russian from 1895 to 1907. Khakhanov translated several pieces of Georgian written and oral literature into Russian, and conducted extensive research in Georgia, Italy, France and England to reveal old Georgian manuscripts. In 1900, he published Histoire de Géorgie in French. Khakhanov was elected to Moscow Imperial Archeological Society, Georgian Historic and Ethnographic Society, etc.