Prof. Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky

General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academy of Arts, a foreign member of Academy of Art, Armenia; member of Academy of Sciences, Tatarstan, member of the President’s Council for Culture and Art, member of the President’s Council for Science and Education; President of the Union of Museums in Russia

Education and Scholarly Career:

• Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) State University Oriental faculty (Arabic Philology, 1967, Honours);
• Practice in Cairo University (1965—1966);
• PhD program (Arabic and Islamic Studies) at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies, USSR Academy of Sciences (1969—1972);
• PhD thesis “The Legend of the Himyarite King As'ad al-Kamil” (1973);
• Graduate School of Social Sciences (Aden, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen: interpreter, Professor in History (1973—1976);
• Dr. Sci. thesis “South Arabia in the Early Middle Ages: the Process of the Formation of Medieval society”. Leningrad Branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies, USSR Academy of Sciences (1985);
• Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies; from Research Assistant to Leading Research Fellow (1967—1990);
• Soviet-Yemen Complex Expedition: Head of the expedition party (1983—1988), Head of the expedition (1989—1990);
• The State Hermitage Museum: the First Deputy Director (1991—1992), General Director (since 1992);
• Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1997);
• Editor-in-Chief of the journal “The Christian Orient” (since 1997);
• Saint Petersburg State University Institute of philosophy: Head of the Chair of Museology and Protection of Monuments (since 2004);
• Saint Petersburg State University Oriental faculty: the Head of the Chair of the History of Ancient Orient (since 2011), the Dean (since 2013)

Research Interests:

Ancient and Medieval history of the Middle East, the history of the Arabian Peninsula, the Qur’an and the early history of Islam, Ancient Arabian inscriptions, the ancient Arabic epic tradition, Arabic and Islamic manuscripts, the Muslim art.

References:

The State Hermitage Museum 

Saint Petersburg State University Oriental Faculty 

Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences