Attaia, Mikhail Osipovich

Date of birth unknown; died in 1924. Russian linguist and Arabist.

Attaia was an Arab by birth, from Beirut. He taught the Arabic language and Muslim law in the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow; after the October Revolution he taught in the Institute of Oriental Studies and collected materials for comparative Semitic philology. His basic works include Practical Guide to the Study of the Arabic Language (1898) and Arabic -Russian Dictionary (1913). He translated the book Kalila and Dimna and the collection of fables Bidpaia (1889) into Russian, and the Communist Manifesto and the “Internationale” into Arabic.