Agafangel Efimovich Krymskii

Krymskii, Agafangel Efimovich 

Born Jan. 3 (15), 1871, in Vladimir-Volynskii; died Jan. 25, 1942, in Kustanai. Soviet Ukrainian writer, scholar, and Orientalist. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1918).

In 1892, Krymskii graduated from the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow and in 1896 from the faculty of history and philology of Moscow University. Between 1898 and 1918 he taught at the Institute of Oriental Languages, where he was appointed professor in 1900. From 1918 to 1941 he was a professor at the University of Kiev. He wrote many books on the history and culture of Eastern peoples (the Arab countries, Iran, Turkey), as well as works dealing with Ukrainian grammar and other aspects of Slavic studies. Krymskii was one of the first Russian Orientalists to regard the history of the Orient as part of world history. He was one of the founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Krymskii published the collection Novellas and Short Stories (1895), the three volumes of poetry Palm Branches (1901–22), the novel Andrei Lagovskii (1905), and other works. He was a close friend of I. la. Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, and M. M. Kotsiubinskii. Krymskii’s works on the history and culture of Eastern countries have been translated into many languages. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

WORKS

Vybrani tvory. Introduction by S. M. Shakhovskoi. Kiev, 1965.
Tvory, vol. 1. Kiev, 1972.
Istoriia musul’manstva, parts 1–3. Moscow, 1903–04.
Istoriia Turtsii i ee titeratury, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1910–16.
Istoriia arabov i arabskoi titeratury svetskoi i dukhovnoi, parts 1–3. Moscow, 1911–13.
Istoriia novoi arabskoi titeratury. Moscow, 1971.
For bibliography of Krymskii’s works, see A. Iu. Kryms’kyi, bibliohrafichnyi pokazhchyk:. 1889–1971. Kiev, 1972.

REFERENCES

Krachkovskii, I. “Akademik AN UkrSSR A. E. Krymskii: K 70-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia.” Izv. AN SSSR: Otdelenie titeratury i iazyka, 1941, no. 3.
Smilianskaia, I. M. “A. E. Krymskii.” Narody Azii i Afriki, 1971, no. 4.
Kylymnyk, O. “A. Iu. Kryms’kyi (Do 90-richchia z dnia narodzhennia).” Vitchyzna, 1961, no. 1.