W. Ivanow: a biographical notice

Abstract

The death on June 19, 1970, of W. Ivanow, at the age of eighty-four takes from our midst an outstanding Orientalist and the greatest modern contributor to Ismadili studies. It is not possible in the limited space available here to give full information on the life and works of this lamented scholar, who was blessed with both longevity and rare productivity. Ivanow had to his credit some 120 publications, excluding book reviews, a list of which, compiled by the present writer, appeared in the January 1971 issue of Islamic Culture. This notice is, therefore, primarily devoted to the highlights of Ivanow's life and scholarly accomplishments. Vladimir Alekseevich Ivanov, as he had been known in his native Russia, was born in 1886. After completing his early education, he took up the study of Arabic and Persian in St Petersburg, mainly under the tutelage of Baron Victor R. Rosen (1849-1908), the famous Orientalist and organizer of Oriental studies in Russia. Subsequently, he specialized in Iranian languages, especially modern Persian dialects, and Suifism. Ivanow first visited Persia in 1910 and lived there from 1912 to 1914, during which time he collected many specimens of the various local dialects. The fruits of these linguistic and related ethnological studies, which he pursued until the 1920s, appeared as some twenty articles. These, aside from a few exceptions, represent Ivanow's earliest published works. In the meantime, Ivanow had become associated with the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. The Asiatic Museum, which at the time was under the directorship of Carl G. Salemann (1849-1916), the eminent philologist and specialist in Persian dialects, had long ceased to be a museum, however. It had, in effect, become a library, where Ivanow eventually rose to the position of Assistant Keeper of Muhammadan Manuscripts. In that capacity, Ivanow travelled extensively, mostly in Central Asia, and acquired a large number of Arabic and Persian manuscripts for the Asiatic Museum. The Museum was particularly enriched by the so-called Bukhara Collection which consisted of more than 1,100 manuscript volumes and was acquired by Ivanow in 1915. In retrospect, Ivanow's work at the Asiatic Museum had another impact of lasting significance on his life. For it was there, in his official capacity, that he examined in 1916 the Museum's newly acquired collection of IsmaIli manuscripts which had been collected by I. I. Zarubin, the wellknown Russian specialist in Tajik dialects, in the regions of the Upper Oxus. The so-called Zarubin Collection, although containing only eleven items, was the largest of its kind in any Western library. These manuscripts represented Ivanow's first major contact with genuine Ismacili literature, and it marked the beginning of his devotion to Ismdili studies, a devotion which he cultivated with increasing vigour until the end of his life some half a century later. Beginning with his 1917 paper, describing the Zarubin