Nizami

Evgenii E. Berthels (1890 - 1957) taught himself Persian and Turkish and in 1918 became a student at the Petrograd State University. After a year he was appointed lecturer in Persian language and literature. In 1946, he became professor of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies; and in 1950, he was appointed head of its Soviet Orient Department. In the post-Stalin era Berthels became one of the first Soviet orientalists to participate in conferences and to publish abroad. From the late 1930s to the mid-1950s, he was the mentor of most Soviet researchers of Persian and Muslim Turkic literatures. He is best known for his nine-volume Moscow Shah-nama (1960-71).