On January 29, 2013, Dr Alexander L. Khosroyev celebrated his 60th Birthday. He was born in Orenburg to the family of a journalist and a teacher of Russian and literature who belonged to the old Russian intelligentsia. In 1970, he was admitted to the Philological Faculty of Leningrad State University, the Department of Classical Philology then headed by Prof A.I. Dovatur, the disciple of Acad. S.A. Zhebelev. A special role in his formation as a scholar was played by his tutor, Dr A.I. Zaitsev.

Later, classical background helped Dr A. Khosroyev to study successfully those cultures of Near East and North Africa which were based on Hellenistic education. He studied Coptic under Dr A.I. Elanskaya and Old Armenian, or Grabar, under Dr K.N. Yuzbashian but his final choice was made in favor of Coptic studies. On January 25, 1984, he defended his PhD Dissertation, The Novel about Alexander in Near East (the Coptic Version) [Роман об Александре на Ближнем Востоке (Коптская версия)], supervised by Dr K. Yuzbashian. Then he turned to the complex study of early Coptic texts of religious and philosophical contents translated from Greek, basically those found in Nag Hammadi. These texts served as the basis for his understanding the fundamental academic problem of genesis and development of early Christianity. He put forward and defended in intense discussion with his opponents the statement that various forms of nondenominational Christianity, including Gnosticism, did belong to Christianity just like its churchly branch. He presented this conception first in his monograph Alexandrian Christianity According to the Texts from Nag Hammadi [Александрийское христианство по данным текстов из Наг Хаммади] (Moscow 1991) that was defended as his Habilitation Dissertation, on January 29, 1993. After several years spent in Germany he confirmed his original ideas with new arguments in the monographs, Die Bibliothek von Nag Hammadi. Einige Probleme des Christentums in Ägypten während der ersten Jahrhunderte (Altenberge 1995) and From the History of Early Christianity in Egypt. On the Basis of the Coptic Library from Nag Hammadi [Из истории раннего христианства в Египте. На материале коптской библиотеки из Наг Хаммади] (Moscow 1997). He studied also the history of Egyptian monastic tradition, in the monograph Pachomius the Great. From the History of Cenobitic Monkhood in Egypt [Пахомий Великий. Из истории общежительного монашества в Египте] (St Petersburg 2004), and his longstanding interest in Manicheanism was reflected in the fundamental work The History of Manichaeanism. Prolegomena [История манихейства (Prolegomena)] (St Petersburg 2007) where he demonstrated the belonging of this religious movement to Christianity. His translation of The Testament of Judah (2009) allowed the well-educated Russian reader to get acquainted with this text free of false and quasi-academic interpretations.

Dr A. Khosroyev spent much forces for edition of the important works of his predecessors on Coptish Grammar such as The Papers on Coptic Grammar [Исследования по грамматике коптского языка] by P.V. Ernstedt (Moscow 1986) and A Coptic Grammar. Sahidic Dialect [Грамматика коптского языка. Саидский диалект] by A.I. Elanskaya (St Petersburg 2010).

In 1976, he started to work at the Academic Library of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies (now the IOM RAS) and, from 1984 to 1995, was its head. From 1982, he has been also a researcher at the Section of Near Eastern Studies, first as an assistant researcher and up to a leading researcher.

Dr A. Khosroyev is a member of the International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS) and International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS), participant of numerous international congresses on Coptic studies, the history of Manichaeanism, religious studies.

The IOM’s administration and colleagues wish him good health, cheerfulness and academic longevity.

the IOM's Director, Prof Dr Irina F. Popova