PROFESSOR ELENA DAVIDOVICH AND HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORIENTAL HISTORICAL SOURCE STUDIES

To the 100th Birth Anniversary

ანოტაცია

Professor Elena Abramovna Davidovich (1922-2013) is a scholar known worldwide; a specialist in the fields of numismatics, textology, palaeography, and other special historical disciplines employed for studies on Oriental historical sources. She had written numerous scientific works including nine fundamental monographs and more than 200 articles.[1] These publications give treatment to a wide range of problems in the areas of history, economics, numismatics, archaeology, metrology, and source studies of Medieval Central Asia.

She was born on December 24, 1922, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In 1945, at the age of 23, she graduated from the Department of History from the Central Asian State University (SAGU, Tashkent, Uzbekistan). Then in 1950, at the age of 28, she obtained her Ph.D. in Historical Sciences with her doctorate thesis entitled, “On Monetary Circulation in the State of Sheibanids, XVI Century.” In 1965, she wrote her Postdoctoral dissertation, “Numismatic Data on Socio-Economic and Political History of Central Asia in the 10th-18th Centuries.” Professor Elena Davidovich was conferred her Professorship in 1969 in recognition of her many years of teaching and her significant scientific achievements. As a scholar, she served for over two decades (1951-1972) at the Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, and then for four decades (1972-2013) at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies.

In her long and fruitful academic career, she had initiated many scientific forums and series, among them, the series of “Barthold Lectures” - the Annual International Seminar for Historians studying the Muslim Orient/Muslim World (1974-1993); and the journal “Historical Oriental Studies and Specialist Historical Disciplines” (1989-2004).