Todua Magali

Magali Todua (b. January 19, 1927, Salkhino, present-day Martvili Municipality – d. May 3, 2016, Tbilisi), orientalist, translator, winner of the Shota Rustaveli Prize (2013), Doctor of Philological Sciences (1969), professor (1971). He graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Tbilisi State University (TSU) (1949). In 1950–1961, he taught at TSU. From 1961, he was engaged in scientific work at the Institute of Oriental Studies (from 1968 – Head of the Department of Persian Philology of the same institute). In 1991–1995, he was the rector of Akaki Tsereteli State University in Kutaisi, in 1995–2008 – president of the Gelati Academy of Sciences, in 2002–2008 – founder and editor-in-chief of the “Journal of the Gelati Academy of Sciences”, from 2008 – founder and editor-in-chief of the journal “Kartvelology”.

Todua studied the history of Persian literature and issues of Georgian-Persian cultural-historical relations. He was the author of many scientific works, monographs and translations: Vīs and Rāmīn (text, research, commentary and dictionary, 1964; co-authored by A. Gvakharia), Sebastian Gottfried Starcke's version of Kalīla wa-Dimna (1967); Kalīla wa-Dimna, translated from Persian by King Vakhtang VI and Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, the text was established and commentary was added by M. Todua (1975); “Тбилисская коллекция персидских фирманов” (Vol. II, 1989; Vol. I, 1995), Ferdowsi and his Shahnameh (1995), Shota Rustaveli, The Knight in the Panther's Skin (translated from Georgian into Persian by Mohammad-Kazem Yusef-Furi. Line-by-line translation, research and editing by M. Todua, Rasht, 2002), Isa-Name. The Saviour and the Holy Virgin in persian poetry (2002) and etc.

Todua (together with A. Gvakharia) established the literary text of the Persian Vīs and Rāmīn based on the collation of the Georgian and Persian texts of Vīs and Rāmīn - published in Tehran in 1970. He traced unknown poems by Georgian poets living in Iran in manuscript repositories and private collections in Georgia and abroad.

Todua translated works by classic writers of Persian literature: Nizami. Selected Works (1956); Rudaki. Lyrics (1957); Nizami Ganjavi, Layla and Majnun (1986, 2003); Omar Khayyam, 55 Ruba'i (2001); Jesus Christ in Persian Poetry (2004); Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Philosophical Lyrics"(2007) and many others.

Todua received awards: Ilia Chavchavadze Prize “Saguramo” (2008), Georgian National Prize (2008), “The Best specialist of Iranian Studies in the World” (awarded by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran; 2008).

 

Literary work: ქართულ-სპარსული ეტიუდები, [წგ.] 1–2, თბ., 1971–75.