Simon Kaukhchishvili

Who was Simon Kaukhchishvili?

Simon Kaukhchishvili was a Georgian historian and philologist known for his critical editions of old Georgian chronicles; Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences.

He was born to a Georgian Catholic family in Kutaisi, western Georgia. In 1917, he graduated from the St. Petersburg University and returned to Georgia where he was assigned to the recently established Tbilisi State University where he attained to the title of Professor in 1930 and chaired the departments of the Byzantine Studies and of the Classical Philology. Since 1960 until his death, he headed the Department of the Byzantine Studies at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Tbilisi. Under Joseph Stalin, he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities, being sacked twice, in 1938 and 1953, but survived the Great Purge.

Having left a diverse literary and scholarly legacy and commonly regarded as the founder of the Byzantine studies in Georgia, his crowning achievements are the critical editions of the Georgian Chronicles and Prince Vakhushti’s historical-geographical treatise.