About Guram Chikovani
Professor GURAM CHIKOVANI, Doctor of Philology, was born in 1949 in Kutaisi. He is the director of the Center for the Study of Arab Countries and Islamic World, former Rector of Free University of Tbilisi (2009-2016), the founder of Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa (1991), the President and founder of Association for Relations of Georgia with Arab Countries (1990) and the Head and founder of the Department of Semitic Studies at Akaki Tsereteli Kutaisi State University (1991).Guram Chikovani is the representative of the recognized School of Oriental Studies that was founded by Academician George Tsereteli. He has published a number of papers on the Arabic dialects of Central Asia, which has and continues to be the primary research area of the Georgian School of Arabic Studies. Guram Chikovani has led many scientific expeditions to the Central Asian regions of Bukhara and Kashkadarya, where he collected significant linguistic and ethnographic data. On the basis of this data he has researched Semitic – Turkic – Indo-European linguistic contacts. Professor Chikovani’s other research interests include Georgian-Oriental linguistic relationships. Together with the language structure of Central Asian Arabic dialects, Professor Chikovani has analyzed Arab migration issues in Central Asia. By analyzing linguistic phenomenon, Arabic historical sources and ethnographic materials gathered in Central Asia, he was able to date Arab settlements in Bukhara and Kashkadarya. This work has been recognized by a number of international scientific societies. He is the member of the International Arabic Dialectologists`Association (AIDA, 1994), European Association for Central Asian Studies (1998) and the Linguistic Society of America (2011). In 1994 he was elected an honoured member of the United Arab Emirates’ Documentaries and Studies International Centre. Guram Chikovani is the translator, translation co-author and editor of many significant works of Georgian Classical Literature translated into Arabic. Professor Chikovani, with the active collaboration of Syrian translator NIZAR KHALILIi, edited Shota Rustaveli`s “Knight in the Panther`s Skin”. It was published in Arabic in Damascus, Syria in 1984. By the resolution of the Presidium of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, Guram Chikovani, Doctor of Philology, was awarded Acad. George Tsereteli`s Prize in Oriental Studies on December 27th, 2002, for the series of research works “The Arabic Dialects of Central Asia and its Significance for the History of Arabic Language.”