January 2016 marked the 160th anniversary of Vladimir Semenovich Golenishchev (1856-1947), one of the founders and recognized authorities of the schools of Egyptology and Assyriology in Russia and around the world.

In Russia and abroad, various collections, books, and articles in academic journals have written about him, his collection of Oriental antiquities, and his scientific research. A recently published book is " Golenishchev. Pioneer of Egyptology "("Golenishchev. Ra'id ilm al-mysriyat") (Cairo, publishing house "News of Russia". 2016. 217 p.) was, according to its compiler - Hussein el-Shafi*, the first publication in Arabic about the activities of the scientist. It was prepared for the international conference dedicated to V. S. Golenishchev, which was held in Moscow at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in February 2016.

Vladimir Semyonovich can rightly be called the founder of Egyptology teaching at Cairo University, where he was a professor for several years. During his many years of wandering in the Nile Valley, he got acquainted with the life of the Egyptian people, who became close to him, and to whom he always treated with great love. The Arabic reader who first gets acquainted with the biography of the Russian Egyptologist will find a lot of interesting things in it.

The first part of the book presents the main stages of V. S. Golenishchev's research activity. Here you can find out when a scientist made his first trip or, say, purchased the first item for his collection. This section contains several articles, or rather documentary sketches of Golenishchev, which he wrote in different years in the " Notes of the Eastern branch (Imperial) Russian Archaeological Society" based on the results of their expeditions to Egypt. Among them are "Archaeological results of a trip to Egypt in the winter of 1888-1889" (V, issue I, 1890) and "Epigraphic results of a trip to Wadi Hammamat" (II, issues 1-2, 1887).

The second part contains memoirs, articles (of which, however, only three, given the small volume of the book) about V. S. Golenishchev and his works, written at different times by his students in Russia and France, where he spent a significant part of his life, having married a Frenchwoman, Cecilia Matten.

So, the "Obituary of Vladimir Vikentiev to Vladimir Semyonovich Golenishchev"is placed. It was originally published in French in the Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts of Cairo University in 1951 (XIII, Part I), a few years after Golenishchev's death. The Egyptologist Vikentiev recalled:"...In the last year of his life, just as in the first year of his work, he was fondly, literally, attached to everything that had to do with ancient Egypt..."(p. 74).

Another article, "A Word about Golenishchev," was written by Vladimir Semyonovich's student, the French Egyptologist Jean Saint-Far Garneau, in the Bulletin of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (No. 58, 1959). Golenishchev bequeathed to him all the documents of his archive, which Garneau transferred to the higher educational school in Paris, where the Vladimir Golenishchev Center was established. The French scientist described his teacher as follows:: "Golenishchev was not only one of the most powerful, but also one of the most individual minds of his time" (p.77).

The last article, "Golenishchev in Egypt", is written by a modern scientist, orientalist, Doctor of Historical Sciences V. V. Belyakov (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

The third part is devoted to papyri from the collection of V. S. Golenishchev. This section describes the famous "Moscow Mathematical Papyrus" - one of the oldest mathematical texts known today, as well as the "Papyrus with the Story of Un-Amon" (or "Un-Amon's Travels to Byblos"). This papyrus was discovered and first translated by Golenishchev.

At the end of the booklet are documents from the beginning of the XX century, including "A list of large and valuable items from the Golenishchev collection compiled by a commission of scientists", as well as " Notes of Professor B. A. Turaev and academicians P. K. Kokovtsev and N. P. Kondakov on the collection of Oriental antiquities of V. S. Golenishchev, heard at the meetings of the General Meeting of the Imperial Academy February 9, 1908".

This book will undoubtedly be useful both for Egyptian students studying the ancient history of their country, and for anyone who is simply interested in Egyptology and the contribution of an outstanding Russian scientist to this science.

K. V. MESHCHERINA, Editor of the magazine "Asia and Africa Today"

* Hussein El-Shafi-Head of the Egyptian-Russian Foundation for Culture and Sciences, Editor-in-chief of the magazine " News of Russia "(Egypt, Cairo).