Berezin, Ilia Nikolaevich

Berezin, Il’ia Nikolaevich 

Born July 19(31), 1818, in Perm’; died Mar. 22 (Apr. 3), 1896, in St. Petersburg. Russian Orientalist. Graduated from the University of Kazan (1837). Student of M. Kazem-bek. Professor at the University of Kazan (1846–55) and St. Petersburg University (from 1855).

Berezin’s main works were on the history, philology, and archaeology of the countries of the Near and Middle East. From 1842 to 1845 he made journeys through Daghestan, the Transcaucasus, Turkey, and Iran; these resulted in his book Travels in the East (vols. 1–2, 1850–52). He published (1858–88) the Collection of Chronicles of Rashid al-Din with Russian translations and notes; the Library of Eastern Historians (1849–54); the Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary (vols. 1–16, 1873–79); and the Turkish Reader (vols. 1–3, 1857–90). Berezin compiled the first handbook of the Persian language in Russia (Grammar of the Persian Language, 1853).

WORKS

Vnutrennee ustroistvo Zolotoi Ordy (po khanskim iarlykam). St. Petersburg, 1850.
Recherches sur les dialectes musulmans, pts. 1–2. Kazan, 1848–53.

REFERENCES

Bartol’d, V. V. “I. N. Berezin kak istorik.” Zapiski Kollegii vostokovedov pri Aziatskom muzee AN SSSR, (1926), vol. 2, no. 1.
Samoilovich, A. N. “I. N. Berezin, kak turkolog.” Ibid., 1925, vol. 1.
Ol’denburg, S. “I. N. Berezin, kak puteshestvennik i issledovatel’ iranskikh narechii.” Ibid.
Vladimirtsov, B. “I. N. Berezin—mongolist.” Ibid.
Dantsig, B. M. Russkie puteshestvenniki na Blizhnem Vostoke. Moscow, 1965. Pages 173–77.

B. M. DANTSIG and G. A. DAVYDOVA