On March 20, 2013, Russian Ottoman studies suffered a heavy loss. Famous Georgian orientalist, Professor Mikhail Kharitonovich Svanidze has died at the age of 87.

M. Kh. Svanidze was born in 1927. Surami in Georgia. After graduating from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Tbilisi State University in 1950 with a degree in Turkish History, he entered the postgraduate course of the Institute of History of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, from which he graduated in 1953 and defended his PhD thesis.

Until 1960, he worked as an associate professor at the Batumi State Pedagogical Institute (later-the University), and then as a chief researcher of the History Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies named after him. Academician G. Tsereteli of the Georgian Academy of Sciences in Tbilisi. Here M. Kh. Svanidze worked on the history of Turkey and the Middle East, studied and published sources on the history of Turkish-Georgian and Russian-Turkish relations. In 1971, he defended his doctoral dissertation on "The history of Georgian-Ottoman relations in the XVI-XVIII centuries".

At the same time, Mikhail Kharitonovich was a professor at the Tbilisi State University and the Tbilisi Institute of Asian and African Countries, and conducted fruitful scientific and pedagogical work among students and young researchers. Among his students are many Georgian Turkologists, whose names and works have received international recognition.

Since the mid-1970s, for almost 20 years, M. Kh. Svanidze has been a regular participant of the" Barthold Readings " conferences on Oriental classics at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow and has worked closely with his colleagues in Moscow and St. Petersburg-orientalists. His works are distinguished by a fundamental approach to research

written documentary sources, the ability to accurately determine the causal relationship between the information of documents and historical events. His talent as an Oriental historian has earned him international recognition and respect among Soviet and foreign colleagues at Turkological congresses in Almaty, Tashkent, and numerous scientific symposia in Turkey and Western Europe.

He has written 10 monographs and more than 200 scientific papers, including publications in Georgian, Russian, Turkish, French and English. He is the author of articles for the Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of Islam, and the multi-volume History of Georgia. His works are widely used in the research of Russian and foreign orientalists.

In 2005, by the Decision of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia, he was awarded the Scientific Prize named after V. I. Abramovich. Academician G. V. Tsereteli.

Meetings, conversations and scientific exchanges with him, a top-level professional, always remained in the memory and convinced the interlocutors of the special value of sources in the study of the history of the East.

Friends and colleagues will remember Mikhail Kharitonovich for his nobility and dedication to the chosen science, modest charm and dignity of a true intellectual, respect and kindness towards younger colleagues, constancy and attention in relations with friends.

D. D. VASILIEV, R. A. KAVRELISHVILI, M. S. MEYER

MAIN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF M. KH. SVANIDZE

"Jaba defter" as a source on feudal land ownership in the Akhaltsikhe (Childyr) Pashalyk in 1694-1752 / / Source studies and textology of the medieval Near and Middle East, Moscow: Nauka, 1984, pp. 192-200.

"Extensive register of the Gyurjistan Vilayet" as a source for studying agriculture in Southwestern Georgia (Samtskhe-Saatabago). B. M.: B. ed., 1984.

Voprosy zemlevladeniya v Osmanskoy imperii na primere Akhaltsikhskogo (Childyrskogo) pashalyk [Issues of land ownership in the Ottoman Empire on the example of the Akhaltsikhe (Childyr) Pashalyk]. Problemy istorii i kul'tury [Problems of History and culture].

Voprosy zemlevladeniya v Osmanskoy imperii na primere Akhaltsikhskogo (Childir) pashalyk [Issues of land ownership in the Ottoman Empire on the example of the Akhaltsikhsky (Childir) pashalyk].

The date of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in Georgian sources / / Eastern Historical Source Studies and special historical disciplines. Dedicated to E. A. Davidovich. Issue 3. Moscow, 1995, pp. 112-120.

From the history of Georgian-Turkish relations in the XVI-XVIII centuries (1578-1639). Tbilisi: Tbilisi Publishing House. univ., 1969.

From the history of Samtskhe-Saatabago in the first quarter of the XVII century. Tbilisi: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia. SSR, 1954.

From the history of the Turkish-Persian War of 1578-1590. Tbilisi State University. Tbilisi, 1969. Vol. 116, pp. 383-400.

Izuchenie v Gruzii istorii Turki za 30 let (1945-1975) [Studying the history of Turkey in Georgia for 30 years (1945-1975)]. Turkologicheskiy sbornik, 1976, pp. 130-140.

O kharakteristike osmanskikh deftsrov [On the characteristics of the Ottoman deftsrovs]. Tbilisi, 1985. pp. 276-280.

About yurdluks and odzhaklyks as one of the forms of land ownership in the Ottoman Empire. Moscow, 1966.

Osmanskie defteri (censuses) / / Vostochnoe istoricheskoe istochnikovedenie i spetsialnye istoricheskie discipliny [Eastern Historical Source Studies and special historical disciplines]. Issue 1. Moscow, 1989, pp. 159-172.

Abuladze, Ts.A. and Svanidze, M. Kh., Registries of the Trebizond, Childir, and Kars Eyalets of 1694-1732, Turkologicheskii sbornik. 1978. pp. 15-20.

Turk'ko-iranskie otnosheniya v 1613-1619gg. i Gruziya [Turkish-Iranian relations in 1613-1619 and Georgia]. Osmanskaya imperiya: sistema gosudarstvennogo upravleniya, sotsial'nye i etnoreligioznye problemy, Moscow, 1986, pp. 186-199.

Turkish-Iranian relations in the early 17th century and Georgia // Problemy istorii Turkii [Problems of the History of Turkey], Moscow, 1978, pp. 18-33.

Turk'ko-iranskii Amasiyskiy mirny podroda 1555 g. i Zakavkaz'e [Turkish-Iranian Amasiy Peace Treaty of 1555 and Transcaucasia]. Issue 2. Moscow: Nauka; East Lit., 1994. pp. 114-122.

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