Arthur Leist

Who was Arthur Leist?

Arthur Leist was a German writer, journalist and translator of Georgian and Armenian literature.

He was born and educated at Breslau. During the Russo-Turkish War, he got interested in the Caucasus. After his three visits to Georgia between 1884 and 1892, Leist decided to permanently settle in Tiflis. He regularly wrote on the history, ethnography and culture of Georgia, and translated many pieces of classic Georgian and Armenian literature. He compiled the first anthology of Georgian poetry in German in 1887 and, with the help of the Georgian writer Ilia Chavchavadze, published the complete German translation of the medieval Georgian epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli in 1889. From 1906 to 1922, he edited Kaukasische Post, the only newspaper of the Caucasian German community. He died in Tiflis and was buried at the Didube Pantheon.