Tsereteli Mikheil

Tsereteli Mikheil (Mikhako) (1878–1965), Philologist, publicist, Professor of Tbilisi and Berlin Universities. He was born in Tskhrukveti village, Georgia. He studied at Kiev University but was expelled in 1899 as politically unreliable person. He left for France and for a time studied at Sorbonne University, until the authorities banished him from Paris for taking part in an anarchist manifestation. In 1907 he returned to Georgia. Again, in 1918 he left Georgia for foreign countries and ever since, he lived and worked abroad. In 1918-1923 he served at the Universities of Brussels and Berlin, where he headed the Chairs of Assyriology and Georgian Language. He researched the problems of the genesis of Georgian nation and Georgian language, history of Urartu and Hittites. He published letters in French, German, English, Italian languages, using pennames Baton and M. Sangala. M. Tsereteli’s most important works are: Nation And Humankind (1910), Sumerian and Georgian (collection ‘Gvirgvini’, Tbilisi, 1912), Georgian translation of Gilgamesh (Constantinople, 1923), New Interpretation Of Sardur, King Of Urartu (Heidelberg, 1928: Paris, 1933-53), German translation of The Wisdom Of Lies By S. S. Orbeliani (Berlin, 1933), The Stories Of The Lives Of David The Builder And Queen Tamar According To ‘Kartlis Tskhovreba’ with German translations (Paris, magazine ‘Bedi Kartlisa’, 1957-58). The text of Sh. Rustaveli’s The Man In Panther’s Skin, which was newly researched and specified by M. Tsereteli, was published in Paris in 1961(German translation -1957).

M. Tsereteli died in Munich.