Background
Shota Rustaveli was born about 1172 in Rustavi, Georgia. "Rustveli" is not a surname, but a territorial epithet that can be interpreted as "of/from/holder of Rustavi".
Queen Tamar
Rustaveli's fresco in the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem
monument of Shota Rustaveli in Tashkent
(Beautifully translated by Lyn Coffin, this is the first-e...)
Beautifully translated by Lyn Coffin, this is the first-ever rendering of the 12th century Georgian epic 'The Knight in the Panther Skin' in the same poetic style as it was written. The new English translation of 'The Knight in the Panther Skin' received 2016 Saba prize for best translation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9941079269/?tag=2022091-20
2017
Shota Rustaveli was born about 1172 in Rustavi, Georgia. "Rustveli" is not a surname, but a territorial epithet that can be interpreted as "of/from/holder of Rustavi".
A legend states that Rustaveli was educated at the medieval Georgian academies of Gelati and Ikalto, and then in the Byzantine Empire.
In 1191 Rustaveli became a Minister of Finance to Queen Tamar. He must have produced his major work no earlier than the 1180s and no later than the first decade of the 13th century, most probably 1205-1207. Rustaveli may have composed Persian verse as well.
His poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin was first printed in 1712 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Two folios of this text, dating from the 16th century, are located in the Institute of Manuscripts of Georgia in Tbilisi
Shota Rustaveli died between 1245-1250.
Rustaveli is considered to be the preeminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. His poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin is considered to be a Georgian national epic poem and has been translated into many languages.
The highest Georgian state prize in the fields of art and literature is the Shota Rustaveli State Prize. There are several places in Georgia named in his honour, such as Rustaveli Avenue, the Rustaveli Theatre, the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, and the Rustaveli metro station, as well as streets in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in Kiev and Lviv, Ukraine and in Gyumri, Armenia.
(Beautifully translated by Lyn Coffin, this is the first-e...)
2017Rustaveli was well acquainted with Persian, "and was therefore able to read and appreciate its poetry without having to resort to faulty translations".
