Ivane Machabeli

Writer, Translator, and Publicist - An active participant of the 19th century national liberation movement, and one of the founders of the new Georgian literary language, Ivane Machabeli was born in 1854 in the village of Tamarasheni.

In 1863, he entered the Tbilisi Gymnasium, from which he graduated from with excellence in 1870. During 1871-74, he studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of St. Petersburg University. He continued his education (1874-77) at the Hoffenheim Academy in Germany, and then at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

After returning to Georgia, his poems, letters, and translations were published in the press. He was an active employee of "Iveria" from 1879, and later became its editor. He also served as an editor for the well-known newspaper “Droeba” during 1883-85. He enriched the repertoire of the Georgian theater by translating a number of Shakespeare's well-known works as well as Moliere's "Sick with Suspicion.". On 26 June 1898, Machabeli, already ill, left home at dawn and disappeared without a trace. 

Source: Marine Utnelishvili, Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Gori.