Armenius Vambery
Armenius Vambery
| Prof. Armenius Vambery | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Born | 1832 | ||||||
| Died | 1913 | ||||||
| Residence | Pesth | ||||||
| Occupation | academic | ||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
proposed 1867.06.04 as local secretary
Prof. in the University
Notes From Elsewhere
Ármin Vámbéry, Arminius Vámbéry born Hermann Bamberger, or Bamberger Ármin (19 March 1832 – 15 September 1913), was a Hungarian Turkolog and traveler. According to Ernst Pawel, a biographer of Theodor Herzl, as well as Tom Reiss, a biographer of Kurban Said, Vámbéry's original last name was Wamberger rather than Bamberger.
In 1861 Vambery, "disguised as a Sunnite dervish, and under the name of Reshit Efendi, he set out from Constantinople. His route lay from Trebizond on the Black Sea to Tehran in Persia, where he joined a band of pilgrims returning from Mecca, spending several months with them traveling across Central Iran (Tabriz, Zanjan, and Kazvin). He then went to Shiraz, through Ispahan, and in June, 1863, he reached Khiva (Central Asia). Throughout this time, he succeeded in maintaining his disguise as "Reshit Efendi," so that upon his arrival at Khiva he managed to keep up appearances during interviews with the local khan. Together with his band of travelers, he then crossed Bokhara and arrived at Samarkand. Initially, he aroused the suspicions of the local ruler, who kept him in an audience for a full half-hour. Vámbéry managed to maintain his pretences, and left the audience laden with gifts. Upon leaving Samarkand, Vámbéry began making his way back to Constantinople, traveling by way of Herat. There he took leave of the band of dervishes and joined a caravan to Tehran, and from there, via Trebizond and Erzerum, to Constantinople, arriving there in March 1864.
This was the first journey of its kind undertaken by a Western European; and since it was necessary to avoid suspicion, Vámbéry could not take even fragmentary notes, except by stealth. He returned to Europe in 1864. That following June, he paid a visit to London, where he was treated as a celebrity because of his daring adventures and knowledge of languages. That same year, he published his Travels in Central Asia, based on the few, furtive notes he was able to make while traveling with the dervishes. Returning to Hungary, Vámbéry was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest in 1865, retiring in 1905"
A Jewish-Hungarian traveller, author, linguist and orientalist. He was born in Hungary and educated in Vienna and Budapest, showing marked linguistic abilities. After a stint as an Ottoman official in the late 1850s, he travelled, disguised as a Dervish, through Central Asia to Samarkand, from 1861 to 1864. This trip is described in his Travels in Central Asia (1865). He was later appointed to a professorship at the University of Budapest.
In 1864, after his travels as a dervish, Vámbéry met Burton at Fryston, the Yorkshire estate of Monckton Milnes, a scene he described fondly in his memoirs.[300] Later he also attended the fateful meeting of the British Association at Bath in September 1864—“At the request of the President,[301] M. Vambery convulsed the audience by pronouncing the Mahomadan blessing, which as a holy beggar pilgrim he was constantly called upon to utter.”[302] The affection between the two was qualified in later years, since Burton did not approve of Vámbéry’s supposed Turcophilia—“You will therefore regard M. Vambery’s opinions upon the subject of Turkey with suspicion, and reserve all your respect for his invaluable publications upon the Turanian dialects, his specialite.”
Publications
External Publications
History of Bokhara from the earliest period down to the present
