Vasiliev was born in
Saint Petersburg. He studied under one of the earliest professional Byzantinists,
Vasily Vasilievsky, at the
University of St Petersburg and later taught
Arabic language there. Between 1897 and 1900, he furthered his education in
Paris. In 1902, he accompanied
Nicholas Marr in his trip to
Saint Catherine's Monastery in
Sinai. During his stay at the
Tartu University (1904–12), Vasiliev prepared and published a highly influential monograph,
Byzantium and the Arabs (1907). He also worked in the
Russian Archaeology Institute, established by Fyodor Uspensky in
Constantinople. In 1912, he moved to the St Petersburg University as a professor. He was elected to the
Russian Academy of Sciences in 1919. In 1925, during his visit to
Paris, Vasiliev was persuaded by
Mikhail Rostovtsev to emigrate to the West. It was Rostovtzeff who ensured a position at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison for him. Several decades later, Vasiliev moved to work in
Dumbarton Oaks. Towards the end of his life, he was elected President of the
Nikodim Kondakov Institute in
Prague and of the
Association Internationale des Études Byzantines. ==Bibliography==