Mikhail Alexandrovich Salye (21 August 1899 – 17 August 1961) was a Soviet

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in medieval Muslim Spain, which lay on the ...

scholar and translator. Salye was the first to translate ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' into Russian directly from the Arabic source. Additionally, he translated into Russian seven tales not contained in the Calcutta II edition of ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (from the manuscript in the

National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...

). In 1919–1923 Salye studied in the Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Languages. In 1926, having graduated from the

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

, Salye entered the Institute of the Comparative Analysis of the Literatures and Languages of the West and East of that university. In 1921–22 Salye made trips to Tashkent, where he lectured at a local institute. In 1934 Salye was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR. He translated Tawfiq al-Hakim and other authors. Salye is buried at the Botkinskoye Cemetery in Tashkent.

Works (in Russian)

*«Материалы для датировки сказки об Ал-ад-дине Абу-ш-Шаалате (из “Тысячи и одной ночи”) *«Неизвестный вариант сказки о рыбаке и духе из 1001 ночи» *«Алишер Навои как биограф» *«Мухаммед аль Хорезми – великий узбекский ученый»

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salye, Mikhail Soviet Arabists Saint Petersburg State University alumni Soviet orientalists Translators from Arabic Translators of One Thousand and One Nights Translators to Russian 1899 births 1961 deaths Place of birth missing 20th-century translators