Identifying Cultural Intersections in the Works of Shota Rustaveli and Nizami Ganjavi

Maka Elbakidze, Doctor of Philology, is Associate Professor at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, and Deputy Director of the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, Georgia. She is the author of more than 90 academic articles and two monographs, and has participated in numerous international and national academic conferences. She is editor–in-Chief of the annual academic journal Literary Researches, and member of the Georgian Association of Comparative Literature. Her research interests include Rustaveli studies, the history of old and modern Georgian literature, and comparative studies.Irma Ratiani, Doctor of Philology, is Head of the Department of General and Comparative Literary Studies at Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, Director of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, Georgia, and President of the Georgian Comparative Literature Association (GCLA). She has authored several monographs and more than one hundred academic articles, and is Laureate of several national literary awards and the Presidential Order of Excellence. Her research focusses on the study of Georgian literature within a broad literary and theoretical context.