1

Adriana Maria van Breukelen

On Occasion of the 150th Anniversary
of
Of Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev
(4 October 1867 30 March 1953)
His Live and Work*

____________________________
* I would like to thank A.G. Herzen for the photocopy of the fourth part of Goths in the
Crimea, Ionut Alexandru Tudorie for being so kind to send his paper Alexander
Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953) : The Patriarch of the Byzantine Studies, James N.Carder,
Archivist of the Dumbarton Oaks library and Archives for the material he made availably and
finally Jiri Rohek, Department of Documentation, Kondakov Institute for his help while
searching for material.
 2
Historical
In 1953 Elizabeth Sgalitzer Ettinghauses who had worked on tiles, among others in Istanbul,
and had her theses on a particular site with Andr Grabar, was asked to write an article at
Dumbarton Oaks. She became a Junior Fellow from 1943-1945 on Byzantine Studies at the same
time Alexander Alexandrovich was professor at Dumbarton Oaks. She met him at lunches. Work
at D.O.* was done by Scholars, parttime on the Archives of D.O. and parttime on their Ph.D.
(thesis). The work to be done was the archive of monuments, publications of the monuments, all
details, everything within the monuments all of different regions including the articles, all
articles that were published, and all photos that were published. Nowadays it is called a type of
database all over the eastern and eastern Byzantine World. For the Byzantine World one was
doing the collection (retrival) for Tunesia; it could have expanded to all regions, or places,
Jerusalem or Egypt. Each person was assigned to a specific region (classification system).
Mrs. E. Sgalitzer Ettinghauses remembered: At that time there was not yet a system, you got
the bibliography, worked yourself through it and did your own work. Co-fellows did their
research alone. Seminars and reportings were on the spot (Professor Koehler). The professors
were mainly historians, some later worked on other subjects. When you finished your work, you
handed it over to be typed, because there were no computers you wrote it by hand, and then it
was formalized.
Fellows of 1944-1945 were Milton Anastros, Peter Charanis and Sirarpie der Nersessian. All
three of them worked under/with Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev. Mrs. Sgalitzer Ettinghauses
also remembered:Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev sheered things up and made it much more
lively and interesting and was very Russian in a very pleasant way. He was very interested in
music. Professor Koehler started that. He got us a record player and records so we could have
music. In this period there were also lectures, seminars and United Nations Conversations
which were closed.1

A.A.Vasiliev with Donkey

* D.O Dumbarton Oaks

_____________________________
1. Oral History Interview with Elizabeth Sgalitzer, September 22, 2009. Dumbarton Oaks
Archives
3
One of the most known publications of Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev is his History of
the Byzantine Empire published in 1952. The original text was published in Russia, in Russian.
The first volume was in press during the last months of imperial Russia and the early days of the
first revolution and appeared in 1917, without foot notes, under the title Lectures in the History
of Byzantium. The second volume in three separate parts Byzantium and the Crusades, The
Latin Sway in the Levant, and The Fall of Byzantium was printed in 1923-1925, and supplied
with references to the original and secondary sources. 2
Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev met Henri Grgoire (1881-1964), a Belgian Byzantine
historian, in 1925-1926. Grgoire was professor of history at the Universit libre de Bruxelles,
and in 1938 we find him in New York City. In 1938-1939 Grgoire was invited to D.O.* as a
lecturer, among which in 1941: On the Eve of the Crusades: The Chanson de Roland and
Byzantium, The Greek Schism and its Political Implications, The Norman Plan of Conquest
of Constantinople and the Fourth Crusade, and Reaction after 1204. 3
And from this meeting came a fruitful cooperation, which resulted in a pulication in 1935 at
the Institut de philologie et dhistoire orientales in Bruxelles, consisting of three volumes under
auspician of Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev, together with Henri Grgoire, Marius Canard
(Co-Fellow and student of Vasiliev) and Ernst Honigmann.
Of which: t.1 La dynastie dAmorium (820-867) H.Grgoire et M. Canard.
t.2. les relations politique de Byzanz et des Arabes. Lpogue de la dynastie macedonienne. 2
parts.
t.3. Die Ostgrenze des Byzantinischen Reiches von 363 bis 1017 nach griechischen, arabischen,
syrischen und armenischen

Immigrationcard A.A.Vasiliev 1934.

 Identity card Paris A.A.Vasiliev 1934.

*Dumbarton Oaks

_________________
2. Bibliographie de A.A. Vasiliev. Annales de lInstitut Kondakov (Seminarium
Kondakovianum) X. Mlanges A.A. Vasiliev. G. Vernadsky. Praha 1938.
3. Henri Grgoire Papers: Four Lectures on the Political and Religious Relations between the
Byzantine Empire and Western Europe (XI-XIII centuries). Dumbarton Oaks Archives.

4
quellen; von Ernst Honigmann.
The serie had as title: Corpus bruxelles historiae byzantinae. 4
These were published in French in 1935 and 1950, although Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev
already published his Byzanz and the Arabs in 1901-1902 in Russia. All his life his
publications were orientated to the east of Byzantium, which resulted in his publication. The
iconoclastic edict of the Caliph Yazid II, A.D. 721, published in 1956 and again in 1967. 6
Sirapie der Nersessian, who was a Fellow-professor colleague remembers Vasiliev as follows:
December 1936 Vasiliev gave an informal talk at the University of Wisconsin of which he
had been elected a member. He spoke of his scholarly interests as follows: From the days of my
youth, when I had begun to be interested in history and to study, my special interest has always
been concentrated in the history of the Near East, both Christian and Moslem, the Balkan
Peninsula, Greece, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and so on. At
the outset this was not really a scholarly interest. At these countries seemed to me in my juvenile
dreams, so new, fresh, unknown, tantalizingly fascinating; one of my dreams was to go far away
from the civilized world into the desert of Arabia, to live there among the Bedouins to take part
in their expeditions and raids, to follow their caravans. Partially this dream came true in 1902
when I spend three months in Northern Arabia among the Bedouins and their camels, as well as
among the Greek monks of the isolated monastery of Mt. Sinai. Since first began to study the
Near East I have never lost interest in various problems connected with it, problems which are so
numerous, so complicated, and so absorbing. I have devoted my scholarly life to the Near East
not only for its own sake, but also for its extreme importance in the spread of Hellenistic culture
over the East after the campaigns of Alexander the Great. During the last years of his life he
turned once again to the subject of Byzantium and the Arabs. In the brief report he presented in
1948 to the meeting of the Board of Scholars of Dumbarton Oaks, he said, Now I am working
on the subject of Byzantium and the Arabs under Muhammed and his four immediate successors,
the so called Orthodox

Trip to Mexico with collegues from Dumbarton Oaks.

__________________
4. Byzanz et les Arabs, T.I,II,III. ed. A.A. Vasiliev with H.Grgoire, M.Canard, E. Honigmann
Corpus bruxelles historiae byzantinae. Bruxelles, 1935.
5.
( ), -
, XLVI. 1901. .1902
6. A. A. Vasiliev. Iconoclastic Edict of Caliph Yazid II. 1956. Dumbarton Oaks Archives.

5
Caliphs (622-661). I am still in the process of preparatory work, being glad to have overcome the
twelve bulky volumes, almost in folio, of Caetanis Annali dell Islam, without which it is
absolutely impossible to start work on this particular question. My work goes and will go, for a
certain time, slowly, because the sources for this period, particularly the Arabic evidence, are so
confused and so contradictory that one or another result may be reached only after attentive,
scrupulous, and accurate research. But I must admit that I am deeply interested in this work,
which takes me back to the days of my youth, when I published the two volumes in Russian,
Byzantine and the Arabs in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, which have now appeared in a
French revised edition.
As his study of the primary sources progressed he became increasingly aware of the
importance of the pre- Islamic period, and in his report of 1951 he said, I have come to the
conclusion that in my forthcoming work, not only the introductory chapter on the sources and the
exposition of certain complicated problems connected with the history of primitive Islam will be
necessary, but for a better understanding of the astounding epoch of the Arab conquests in the
seventh century, a special part, entitled , The Arabs in Syria [induding Palestine] and in the
Syrian desert before Islam must also be undertaken. The epoch of the amazing Arab advance is
extremely important for the history of Byzantium. After this event, the Empire could not have
lived by its former pattern; something new, something more drastic than to put new wine into old
bottles should have been done. He emphasized some of the aspects, which deserved special
attention.
I Attention must be concentrated on provincial Byzantium; before the seventh
century and after, when the Empire lost Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs,
along with the two brilliant cultural provincial centers of Antioch in Syria and
Alexandria in Egypt.
This needs the combine efforts of: 1. Historians, able to read hagiographic
literature. 2. Epigraphists, able to read the inscriptions. 3. Archaeologists and art
historians, to study the monuments,

6
mosaics, frescoes, etc., scattered over the territory of the Empire.
II. As far as Byzantine literature is concerned, attention must be paid to the works
of theology, but also to secular literature, work of historians, chronicles, poets,
satirists, and so on. I believe the first efforts must be concentrated on the tenth
century.
III. If we turn to Byzantine law, a thorough study of the Basilics is needed, a
stupendous piece of legislation; it was a code which reflected in its texts those
changes in the structure of the internal life of the Empire that had taken place
after Justinian to the end of the ninth century, when the Basilics were
compiled.7
On the 1st of May, 1942, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev held a Radio Talk on the Crimea
in Madison, America. He spoke the following: Before this war the peninsula of Crimea in South
Russia has been very little known outside Russia, especially in this country (America). Crimea
has been involved in this war, and at this moment the major part of the peninsula is still in
German hands. He mentions the best known peak of the peninsula, the Chatyr-Dagh, (Tent-
Mountain), 5000 ft. above sealevel. And remembers: myself many many years ago, I spent
overnight on Chatyr- Dagh in a primitive hut. And: very often mentioned in this war are the
military part of Sevastopol, the ancient Theodosia and Panticapaeum, near Kerch. All of them
were Greek colonies and had continues connections with Asia Minor and with Athens. Vasiliev
ends his radio-talk with : the Crimea is a real treasure for philological, ethnological and
archaeological work. The former Imperial government of Russia and the actual Soviet Russia
have already done a great work in the investigation of various Crimean problems. But the field is
so vast and so many sided that very much still remains to be done. From the standpoint of the
general background of political, social and economic relations in the basin of the Black Sea, the
Crimea may be regarded and studied as one of the essential elements in the process of the
development of European civilization in the Near East.8
 A.A.Vasiliev and Mrs. Mildred Bliss.

_______________________________________

7. Sirarpie der Nersessian. Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev, 1867-1953. Dumbarton Oaks

Papers 9/10 (1956); 1-21; Bibliography.
8. A.A. Vasiliev. My Radio Talk on the Crimea. Dumbarton Oaks Archives. [May 1 st, 1942]

Research
The Goths in the Crimea has already been published in two volumes in Russia (in Russian)
in 1921 and 1927. The first volume concerns the early excursions of christianity and the time of
the great migrations. The second volume concerns the following period (not mentioned in the
title). In 1936 only follows the translation and publications of The Goths in the Crimea in
english. It is the revised and augmented edition of the forementioned two studies in Russian.
Most of publications of Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev are intended to, finally, become a
textbook for students and scholars. This english version has six chapters, of which the first three,
deal with the early period of christianity, through the byzantine period, and ends with the conflict
of Gothia and Byzantium; the last three chapters deal with the time of the Latin Empire and ends
in 1783 when the Gothic eparchy became subject to the supervision of the Holy Synod
established by Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. Not many of the reviews from 1936-1938 are
easy to find nowadays, but some are mentioned in Goths in the Crimea, reviews. 9 As Vasiliev
intented, each province or part of the Byzantine Empire had to be researched. So also the
Crimea. Vasiliev mentions Herbert Kuehn (1936-1937) and noted: Eine ausgezeichnete
Darstellung der Goten in der Krim. Rein historisch. Trotzdem wird das Buch dem Praehistoriker
sehr erwuenscht sein. Das Buch gibt reiches historisches Material zur Geschichte der Goten in
der Krim.10 Mentions Paul Lemerle, 1938, who notes: The Goths in the Crimea can be helpful
for the sources non-Greques, oriental, Italien, Slaves, Arabian, Turkic, and can open and
interpret the bibliography Rus, so rich and badly understood. But critizises: if the Greek
documents are always translated correctly, the most important and the less accessible are not
cited very often in the original text.11
 Francois Nau, friend of A.A.Vasiliev in Paris. 1931.

_________________________
9. Goths in the Crimea, Reviews. Dumbarton Oaks Papers.
10. H.K. Khn. Jpek, XI (1936-1937). p. 158. Review Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev The
Goths in the Crimea.
11. Lemerle, Paul. Revue des tudes greques. Janvier-Mars 1938, 205-206

8
Vasiliev mentions A.E.R. Boak, 1937, who notes: the task Vasiliev attempts is rendered
extremely difficult by the character of the sources. These are both scanty in number and meagre
in substance, besides being highly diversified in character. They include: notices in Byzantine,
Arabian and Turkish historians, Russian chronicles, Genueze and Venetian official records, the
reports of travelers from Western Europe, and the lives of saints and official records of the
Orthodox Church. A few inscriptions and the results of archaeological excavations have also to
be taken into account. Much of our knowledge of the Crimean Goths is due to their early
acceptance of Christianity as a result of work of missionaries from the Syro-Palestinian Church
in the third century. They always remained orthodox and were under the authority of the
Patriarch of Constantinople until the extinction of the eparchy in the Crimea. 12 Continuing his
list of 15 reviews, Vasiliev mentions: V. Laurent, 1937, who notes: most Russian works are like
the remains of dead letters, because their originals are written in a poorly understood language.
Emigration, in dispersing the most active members to universities of the Ancient and the New
World put them in the lucky circumstance to express themselves in a true scientific manner. The
prestige and name of A.A. Vasiliev has won in the game of circumstance. This soon became
apparent, without doubt he was a master in rare polyglothes, a learning way to take control and
handling ingenious hypothesis. And all interested in the past of Byzanz or like to put the fruits of
its tree, feels the need to congratulate. And continues: The introduction to Christianity of the
Crimean Goths is seen in an inscription of 304. Laurent ends his review with the notice that
Vasiliev had only room for fifty pages for four centuries of Turkish regime in the Crimea and
finishes: this last period must have been one among the most prosperous. 13
The forelast review to mention is from Samuel H. Cross, 1937. Samuel Cross visited Nikolai
Marr in July, 1930, in St. Petersburg, and asked for a copy of the last three chapters of the Goths
in the Crimea. His request was declined twice. Cross notices: Vasiliev takes issue with
Pallmann and Bruun by holding, on the basis of the epistle of Gregory of Neocaesarea, that the
Goths in the Crimea had not been converted as early as 258,

Father Dvornik, collegue at Dumbarton Oaks.

_________________
12. A.E.R. Boak. Classical Weekly, Nov. 15. 1937.
13. V. Laurent. Echos dOrient, vol. XL, 187 (July-September, 1937), p.374-379.
9
and differs from both Latyshev and Golubinski in regarding Syrian influences in their conversion
as by no means excluded. And remarks: (The Goths in the Crimea) is a valuable addition to
the historical literature of the Near East14. The last review is from N. Bnescu, 1937, who notes:
[transl.] The work is not a history of the Crimean Goths, but a, as for as possible, complete
collection of news material. Vasiliev used the last certificated publications. These specific
Goths become christianized by prisoners of Cappadocia. Vasiliev agrees with the tradition of the
palestinian origin of the Gothic christianity. On the Bospor existed a christian community in the
3rd century, this is proved by the tomb inscription of Eutropius. The often mentioned Theophilus
Gothiae mentioned in the list of bishops of the Synod of Nicae should be the bishop of the
Goths on the Danube and of the Goths of the Crimea. The life of St. Niketas of Gothia should
give the prove. New is the conclusion (1937) that the residence of the Gothic authority should be
situated at Eski-Kermen and Theodoro-Mankup, seat of the greec princes, at another place. This
is proved, by the excavation-project between the Academy for the History of Material Culture in
Leningrad and the University of the Pennsylvania Museum in the years 1929-1933.15
 Newspaper article. University of Wisconsin. Historian (A.A.Vasiliev) Given
Rare Honors.

_______________________________

14. Samuel H. Cross. The American Historical Review, Vol. XLIII, no.1 (October, 1937), p.86-
88.
15. N. Bnescu. Byzantinische Zeitschrift, XXXVII (1937), 415-423.
10
In 1918 the State Academy of the History of Material Culture was established at Petrograd.
A.A. Vasiliev was elected a member from the very beginning. This new institution was the
former Archaeological Committee of the Russian Academy of Science. There were three
departments within this Academy: Ethnography, Archaeology and Art. Within the Archaeology
Department, professor Vasiliev worked as a head researcher for the section entitled Early
Christian and Byzantine Archaeology, where he was appointed by the chairman of this section,
between 1920-1922. Between 1912-1925 Vasiliev managed to publish a number of works
absolutely necessary to his students. We mention his course and textbooks of Medieval History
16
as well as the four volumes dedicated to the Byzantine Period. 17

A.A.Vasiliev at desk.
 A.A.Vasiliev before bookshelf.

____________________
16. . , Moscow 1915 208.;
, Moscow 1915, 223.
17. , I. ( 1081 ),
Petrograd 1917, VIII, 355.; . .
(1081-1185) (1185-1204), Petersburg 1923, 120.;
. .
(1204-1261), Petrograd 1923, 76.; : .
(1261-1453), Leningrad 1925, 143.
11
Also, by collaborating with his close friend I. Krachkovsky he issued the first part of Yahya-ibn-
Saids History.18 Very surprisingly for these times of political closeness of post-revolutionary
Russia, we find professor Vasiliev among the contributors to the first issue of the prestigious
Cambridge Medieval History.19 His articles, published mainly before the First World War
(between 1912-1914) concerned the late period of Byzantine history 20, with only one exception
revealing the authors enduring fascination with the christian Arab relation ships 21. During the
last part of the above-mentioned period (between 1918-1925) his main research topic within the
Archaeology Department section of the Academy of the History of Material Culture, concerned
the Crimea region.22 Vasilievs research about the Crimea resulted in his publishing three
original articles on this topic.23
Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev met difficulties with regard the right to travel at least for
scientific reasons. After the First World War, and especially after the Bolshevik Revolution
(1917) professor Vasiliev was no longer allowed to leave the territory of Russia/U.S.S.R., except
for a brief period in the summer of 1924, when he visited Germany, France and Belgium.
Most likely these restrictions (the difficulty of pursuing his research without bibliography and
contacts with the academic world of his field of study) account for A.A. Vasilievs openness to
any proposal coming from abroad. Such an opportunity soon presented itself. Vasiliev notes:
Sometimes our lives give us wonderful experiences; Rostovtzeff left Russia in 1918. Only in
1924, after ten years of my seclusion in Russia during the Great War and the Revolution, did I
succeed in leaving Russia for a short while to go to Germany and France. And in the summer of
that year, after six years of separations, I met Rostovtzef in Paris. I learned then that he was
leaving Madison [University of Wisconsin] for New Haven [Yale University].
_______________________
18. Histoire de Yahya-ibn-Sad dAntioche continuateur de Sad-ibn-Bitriq, dite et traduite en
franais par I. Kratchkovsky et A. Vasiliev in: Patrologia Orientalis XVIII (1924), 701-833.
19. The Struggle [of Byzantium] with the Saracens (867-1057), in: The Cambridge Medieval
History, IV. The Eastern Roman Empire (717-1453); Cambridge 1923, 138-150.
20. II
(1399-1403), , XXXIX (1912), 41-78,
260-304; , XV
, in: .-. - . ..
, Kharkov 1914, 397-402;
VIII, in: (1873-
1913). , Saint Petersburg 1914, 273-278.
21. --, XX (1913), 63-116.
22. For a brief information on prof. Vasiliev activity in the Crimean region, see: A.G. Herzen,
A.A. , in: . , ed.
G.G. Litavrin, Moscow 1994, 37-39.
23. , I
(1921) 247-344 (the second part of this/article's publication was delayed for lack of funds,
until 1927; also, the last part of this ample research, addressing the 13th -18th centuries
period, never published in Russian, was discovered by the scholar A.G. Herzen in the N.I.
Repnikov collection, in the Archives of the Archaeology Institute, the Leningrad/Saint
Peterrsburg branch: A.G. Herzen, () ..
, 40 [1979], 191-192;
, ,
II (1922) 237-240;
, III (1923), 378-386.

Bulgarian Badge (pendant)

 12
Back in the U.S.A. professor Rostovzeff addressed to dean George C. Sellery a letter dated
November 4, 1924, recommending Vasiliev for the Ancient History professor position 24. The
decision was made in late December 1924, and after Christmas Vasiliev had already received a
letter, announcing him of an imminent invitation from the University of Wisconsin. He notes:
It was an absolute miracle that I could leave Russia again in May [1925]. On September 15 he
came to Madison. Of course it was the most wonderful story I have ever experienced in my
life25. After this first academic year (1925-1926), Vasiliev started seeking a vacant stable
academic position, but in March 1926 the University of Wisconsin offered him a tenured
position. Between 1926-1938 he continued his academic activity within the University of
Wisconsin. Starting with 1932 he became entitled to an assistant for the Ancient History course;
his choice felt on Peter Charanis, his closest disciple among the few students, who managed to
complete their doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Alexander Vasiliev. 26
Among other memberships of Academy of Sciences abroad, Vasiliev became chairman of the
N.P. Kondakov Institute of Prague (in 1936) which since 1927 had been issuing the periodical
Annales de lInstitute Kondakov/Seminarium Kondakovianum. In the summer of 1938 he toured
the Northern part of Europe, visiting Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia, and visited
the town of Tartu (former Yuryev/ Dorpat), where he had taught between 1904-1912.
His relationship with his native Russia didnt cease dramatically from the very beginning: in the
summer of 1925, following University Wisconsins official invitation for professor Vasiliev as a
visiting professor for the academic year 1925-1926, professor Vasiliev requested State
authorities to extent his authorization to work abroad. The answer was positive, which
encouraged Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev to request another extension for the following
two academic years. Finally July 1, 1928 was the deadline set by the

____________________________
24. J.W. Barker, Vasiliev in Madison, Byzantinische Forschungen XXVII (2002), 246.
25. S. der Nersessian, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953), Dumbarton Oaks Papers
9-10 (1955-1956).
26. The electronic database of University of Wisconsin
(http://history.wisc.edu/databases/db_asp/phd.asp, 29.05.2010) indicates only five students
who obtained the title of Doctor of History under professor Vasilievs scientific supervision,
and only two of them tackled Byzantine history issues. Chronologically, the five researches
are: John Schneider (The Scope and Content of and Some Reflections upon the Papyri for the
Period of Diocletian as found in the Oxyrhynchus Collections June 1931); Hazel Ramsay
(The Scriptores Historiae Augustae: A Critical Study of the Reliability as a Source of the
Vita Alexandri Severi June 1933); Nels Bailkey (The Rise and Development of
Individualism in Sumerian Civilization: A Contribution to the History of Education May
1934); Peter Charanis (The Religious Policy of Anastasius I: Emperor of a Later Roman
Empire, 491-518 May 1935); Kostis Argoe (John Kyriotes Geometres: A Tenth Century
Byzantine Writer May 1938).
 13
bolshevik authorities for Vasilievs return to Leningrad (Sankt-Petersburg). As he failed to meet
this deadline, he was considered a traitor, and his goods were confiscated, including his
collection of books. Among a number of books he had ordered from Russia, Steven Runciman
found several volumes that had belonged to the Russian Orientalist.
Whereas the State authorities extended his delegation abroad until the summer of 1928, he
found less sympathy with his collegues of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where Vasiliev had
been a correspondent member since 1919. Thus, at the meeting of June 2 nd 1925 he was excluded
from the Academy, and was rehabilitated post-mortem on March 22 nd,1990.
Professor Vasiliev always remained faithful to his native country. In every meeting and reception
he attended his first words addressed to unknown persons were: My name is Vasiliev. Do you
speak Russian? 27 His deepest friendship bound him to several fellow countrymen, as proven by
the archives preserving professor Vasilievs correspondence. 28 Turning 70 years old in
September 1937, professor Vasiliev had to comply with the American education law and gave up
teaching at the University of Wisconsin, although his physical condition would have certainly
allowed him to continue it. In his drafting papers for an autobiography, he described the teaching
period (1925-1940) in very few words.29 As professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin,
after 1938, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasliev decided to remain in Madison, and in October
1944 he left his adoptive American town for Washington DC: he had received the tempting offer
to come as a Senior Scholar to the Center for Byzantine Studies of Dumbarlon Oaks, and
establish a permanent residence there. Subsequently, starting with 1949, he became a Scholar
Emeritus within the same institution, affiliated to Harvard University. During the last years of his
life (1938-1953) he published two highly appreciated monographs. The next research project was
his

__________
27. M.V. Anastros, Alexander A. Vasiliev; A Personal Sketch, The Russian Review XIII (1954)
62-63.
28. In the U.S.A., three archives have interesting information on the biography of Alexander A.
Vasiliev. Firstly, the University of Wisconsin (Division of Archives. College of Letters and
Science. Department of History. General Correspondence) holds seven cases containing the
letters received by the professor between 1925-1935 (A.A. Vasiliev collection, (no. 7/16/16,
Box 1-7). Secondly, Duke University (Special Collections Department. William R. Perkins
Library) holds four folders, belonging to Rostovtzeff collection (Box 3, Folders 1-4).
Thirdly, The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Vasiliev, Alexander A.,
Papers, Box 1-5), apart of different notes, references, and drafting copies of his lectures,
holds several personal letters in English, French, German, Italien, and Russian (the full
description of Vasilievs Papers in this archive is available at the following web address:
http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/historical-papers/alexander-
a.-vasiliev-papers;07.06.2012). Also, at Moscow, the Archives of the Russian Academy of
Sciences contain several of Vasilievs letters in the collection of his most regular
correspondents: Sergey Alexandrovich Zhebelev ( , . 1026; On. 3, .207).
29. See the full draft copy in Dumbarton Oaks Archives (Vasliev, Alexander A., Papers, Box 3,
Folder 18).
 14
revising and updating the first English edition of the History of the Byzantine Empire. With the
help of his close disciple, Peter Charanis, this revising started in the summer of 1945 in Madison.
The work was published only in 1952.30 Further, hagiography appear to have been the most
attractive ones of these years.31 He also resumed the issue of the Empire of Trebizond. 32
However, during his last years of life, he had also pursued another major editorial project,
concerning his preferred topic: the Byzantine-Arab relationships. In 1948 in the report submitted
to the scientific committee of Dumbarton Oakes, professor Vasiliev avowed his intentions: Now
I am working on the subject of Byzantium and the Arabs under Muhammed and his four
immediate successors, the so called Orthodox Caliphs (622-661). I am still in the process of
preparatory work being glad to have overcome the twelve bulky volumes, almost in folio, of
Caelanis Annali dell Islam, without which it is absolutely impossible to start work on this
particular question. I must admit that I am deeply interested in this work which takes me back to
the days of my youth, when I published the two volumes in Russian: Byzantium and the Arabs in
the Ninth and Tenth Centuries.33 In 1951 the report of professor Vasiliev reveals the progress of
this work: I have come to the conclusion that in my forthcoming work not only the introductory
chapter on the sources and the exposition of certain complicated problems connected with the
history of primitive Islam will be necessary, but for a better understanding of the astounding
epoch of the Arab conquest in the seventh century, a special part entitled, the Arabs in Syria
[including Palestine] and in the Syrian desert before Islam must also be undertaken. This pre-
Islamic era is of extreme importance for the history of Byzantium 34. As a Senior Scholar, then
Scholar Emeritus within this well known Center for Byzantine Studies, professor Vasiliev took
part in

Haskins medal given to A.A.Vasiliev.

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30. History of the Byzantine Empire (324-1453), 2nd English edition, Madison 1952, XI, 846.
Starting with 1958, this edition was reprinted in two volumes, preserving the original page
numbering.
31. The Life of St. Theodore of Edessa,Byzantion XVI (1942-1943) 165-225; Life of David of
Thessalonica, Traditio IV (1946) 115-147; The Life of St. Peter of Argos and its Historical
 Significance. Traditio V (1947) 163-191.
32. The Empire of Trebizond in History and Literature, Byzantion XV (1940-1941) 316-377.
33. S. der Nersessian, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953), Dumbarton Oaks Papers
9-10 (1955-1956) 7.
34. S. der Nersessian, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953), Dumbarton Oaks Papers
9-10 (1955-1956) 7-8. All the scientific reports for the period in Washington DC (1945-
1952) are available in Dumbarton Oaks Archives (Vasiliev, Alexander A., Papers, Box 2,
Folder 14).

15
the annual symposia organized at Dumbarton Oaks, alongside the most reputable scholars of the
times: Ernst Kitzinger, George Lapiana, Francis Dvornik, Otto Demus, Andr Grabar, Robert P.
Blake, Albert M. Friend, Sirarpie der Nersessian. 35Although he had reached his 80s, he would
not give up the joys of travelling. In a few letters addressed to his friend I. Krachkovskiy,
between 1941-1945, he told the latter about his experiences in visiting Alaska, Mexico, Cuba,
Honduras and Guatemala.36

__________
35. At the 1946 Symposium, he presented the papers: Hagia Sophia in History and Hagia Sophia
in Legend, at the 1947 Symposium: The Contribution made by the Russians and Slavs to
Byzantine Scholarship and in 1949 he presented a part of his project, dedicated to the
Byzantine-Arab relationships: Byzantium and the Arabs under Muhammed and his
Immediate Successors, 622-661.
36. All the replies from J. Krachkovskiy are preserved in Dumbarton Oaks Archives (Vasiliev,
Alexander A., Papers, Box 3, Folder 16).

16
In 1953 Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev attended the Congress of Salonika. He wrote the
following: the public, among which his majesty, did not quite understood my speech, because
it was in English, instead of German or French. But Gregoire was there, and after my speech he
came to me, and kissed me. Tremendous applause! After the end of this sance professor
Zakythinos told me in French Cest lapotheose de Vasiliev. He joined the excursion to
Kastoria. A very pleasant drive from Salonika with mountains covered with snow. By arrival he
heard that the authorities of Kastoria had decided to proclaim him and Grgoire honorary
citizens of Kastoria. After the official proclamation and speeches, on their way back to Salonika,
they passed near the two lakes Ostrovo, the big and the small one. This was the place where, in
1899, fifty-four years ago, the late Russian archaeologist Boris Farmakovsky and myself spent
six weeks, excavating a prehistoric necropolis at the commission of F. Uspensky, the director of
the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinopole. Next day he flew to Istanbul. There,
and thereafter, in Paris, Vasiliev stayed only a short time. In Paris his health suddenly failed.
When he come to Dumbarton Oaks, a month later, everybody was deeply shocked by the change
in his appearance. The end came suddenly on May 29-30, on the 500th anniversary of the fall of
that Empire whose history had been his main concern during his entire scholarly life, and of
whose glories he had been one of the most eminent exponents. 37

_______________________
37. S. der Nersessian, Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953), Dumbarton Oaks Papers
9-10 (1955-1956) 11. On the unanimous recognition enjoyed by prof. Vasiliev among
Byzantinologists, we complete this telling excerpt by mentioning that even during his
lifetime, he was dedicated two annual volumes of well-known periodicals: Seminarium
Kondakovianum (X [1938]) and Byzantion (XVII [1944-1945]).

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