Zaza Aleksidze (, also transliterated as Zaza Alexidze; 18 October 1935 – 24 January 2023) was a Georgian historian and linguist who specialized in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

and Oriental studies. He is best known internationally for deciphering the

Caucasian Albanian script The Caucasian Albanian script was an alphabetic writing system used by the Caucasian Albanians, one of the ancient Northeast Caucasian peoples whose territory comprised parts of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. It was used t ...

Biography

Zaza Aleksidze was born on 18 October 1935 in Telavi in then-Soviet Georgia, into the family of agricultural scientist Nikoloz Aleksidze and his wife, pianist Eugenia Aleksidze. He graduated from

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი ''Ivane Javaxishvi ...

with a degree in history in 1958 and earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1969 and a

post-doctorate A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

in 1984. Aleksidze worked at the Georgian Institute of Manuscripts (now the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts) from 1958 to 1968 and the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography from 1968 to 1979. Later, from 1979 to 2006, Aleksidze chaired the Department of Armenian Studies at the Tbilisi State University. He then served as director of the Institute of Manuscripts from 1989 to 2006 and as head of the Department of Codicology at the National Center of Manuscripts from 2006 until his death in 2023. Aleksidze was also professor emeritus of the Tbilisi State University and academician at the

Georgian National Academy of Sciences The Georgian National Academy of Sciences (GNAS) ( ka, საქართველოს მეცნიერებათა ეროვნული აკადემია, tr) is a main learned society of the Georgia. It was named Georgian S ...

. He was decorated with the Order of Honor of Georgia in 2002 and several other academic awards. Aleksidze died in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

on 24 January 2023, at age 87.

Works

Aleksidze's research interests were focused on the social and cultural history of the medieval Caucasus. He authored several works on the medieval Georgian and Armenian inscriptions and manuscripts as well as commentaries on the medieval Armenian literary sources, such as the ''Book of Letters'' and Ukhtanes, which he also translated into Georgian. Aleksidze's best known achievement is his contribution to the decipherment of the Caucasian Albanian script — a long-defunct alphabet of the Caucasian Albanians — which he owed to his 2003 discovery of a Georgian-Albanian

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

at the

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleksidze, Zaza 1935 births 2023 deaths 20th-century historians from Georgia (country) 21st-century historians from Georgia (country) Tbilisi State University alumni Academic staff of Tbilisi State University Armenian studies scholars Linguists from Georgia (country) Recipients of the Order of Honor (Georgia) People from Telavi