Origins & Early Life

Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (Russian: Васи́лий Влади́мирович Барто́льд; 15 November [O.S. 3 November] 1869 – 19 August 1930), who published in the West under his German baptismal name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples (Turkology). Barthold was born in Saint Petersburg to a Russianized German family. His career spanned the last decades of the Russian Empire and the first years of the Soviet Union.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

In 1899, Stanley Lane-Poole's book The Mohammedan Dynasties was published in Barthold's translation with numerous corrections of the translator. In 1900, after defending his thesis Turkestan in the Age of the Mongol Invasion (Parts 1 and 2, Saint Petersburg, 1898–1900), Bartold received the degree of Doctor of Oriental History. In 1901, Bartold was appointed Extraordinary and in 1906 Ordinary Professor of St. Petersburg University. He was the secretary of the Russian Committee for the Exploration of Central and East Asia, founded in 1903.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

In 1904, he made archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Samarkand. In 1910 he was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1913, Ordinary...

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