Anna Arkadievna Iskoz-Dolinina, a Russian and Soviet Arabist with a list of over 200 publications, passed away on 16 April 2017. She was born on 12 March 1923 in Petrograd (later Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, Russia). Her father was a Leningrad University professor, a specialist on Dostoyevsky. Anna's original plan was to study German literature, but during WWII the family were evacuated with parts of the University to Tashkent. There, she became fascinated by the Orient and developed an interest in Arabic literature. The choice of Arabic vs. other languages was made easier by the publication in 1945 of the book Among Arabic Manuscripts (“Nad arabskimi rukopisiami”) by the leading Russian Arabist of the time Ignatii Iulianovich Krachkovskii (Ignaty Krachkovsky, 1883–1951).
Dolinina's early book was Ocherki istorii arabskoĭ literatury novogo vremeni: Egipet i Siriiภaม: publitภsมistika 1870–1914 gg. (“An Historical Outline of Modern Arab Literature: Journalism of 1870–1914 in Egypt and Syria,” 1968). This was followed by Ocherki istorii arabskoĭ literatury novogo vremeni: Egipet i Siriiภaม: Prosvetitel'skii roman 1870–1914 gg. (“An Historical Outline of Modern Arab Literature: The Enlightenment Novel in Egypt and Syria, 1870–1914,” 1973). She became a translator of Kahlil Jibran and Ameen Rihani, and published a volume of Rihani's Selected Works (“Izbrannoe”) in 1988. After many years of archival research, she published Krachkovsky's first academic biography, Nevol'nik dolga (“Prisoner of Duty,” 1994), which became an important contribution to the history of Soviet intellectual life as well as of Russian Arabic and broader Oriental studies. Appropriately, in 2010 she became the first recipient of the memorial Krachkovsky Medal, established by the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN).
Dolinina's professional life centered on teaching Arabic literature in the very same Department of Arabic Philology from which she graduated in 1949. For fifty years, she taught generations of students, some of whom became university faculty, academic researchers, professional translators and interpreters, or diplomats. In the 2016 Festschrift from her loving students and colleagues (Podarok uchënym i uteshenie prosveshchënnym, “A Gift to the Learned and Consolation for the Enlightened”) numerous contributions refer to Dolinina's intellectual generosity, wry sense of humor, and demanding yet tactful treatment of students. Scholars from other Russian cities and Soviet republics traveled to Leningrad for consultations and kept in touch by correspondence for guidance. Those living closer visited her modest, book-filled apartment “for a cup of tea,” as did those who, now living worldwide, occasionally returned to St. Petersburg for visits. Dolinina's teaching was recognized by the 1999 award of the honorific title The Merited Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Zasluzhennyi rabotnik vysshei shkoly Rossiiskoi Federatsii).
Dolinina's translation skills led to a prominent “second career” as translator of Arabic poetry and prose. With the Russian Arabist V. M. Borisov (1924–1987), a lexicologist, translator and aphorist, she completed two editions of the Maqamat by al-Hariri (1978 and 1987). In 1999 Dolinina published the Maqamat of al-Hamadhani (with Z.M. Auezova). Both translations entertain the reader in rhymed prose for sajʿ and in verse for poetic passages. The 1983 anthology Araviiskaia starina: Iz drevnei arabskoi poezii I prozy (“Arabian Antiquity: Selected ancient Arab poetry and prose”) contains Dolinina's poetic translations of the Muʿallaqat. In 2012 Dolinina was awarded the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Translation.
Dolinina periodically returned to her early interest in the reception of Russian literature in Arab countries (the subject of her 1953 dissertation). She published articles and chapters on the impact of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy on Arab literature, and edited and contributed introductions to numerous collected volumes. In 2013, Dolinina was honored by the medal “For Spiritual Unity” from the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation. Her latest achievement was the production of Krachkovskii's volume of essays on literary history of the Christian Near East (Trudy po istorii i filologii khristianskogo Vostoka, “Essays on the history and philology of the Christian East,” 2015). Dolinina is survived by her son Andrei Dolinin (1956–) and two nephews: the film director and screen writer Dmitry Alekseevich Dolinin (1938–) in St. Petersburg and his brother Alexander (Alekseevich) Dolinin (1947–), a professor of Slavic Literature in the United States.
