Arminius Vambéry: Traveller, Scholar, Politician

The article discusses the life, travels, writings and politics of Arminius Vambéry (1832-1913), a noted Hungarian Turcologist. Vambéry's expertise was in the field of Turcology and he invested several years in Istanbul to study it. Afterwards he travelled for close to two years in Central Asia at great personal risk. Hence he disguised himself as a dervish and collected there manuscripts in the Turkic languages. He used these for his research after his return to Budapest, being appointed as a university professor there. Vambéry published numerous books and articles in several languages describing his life and travel experiences as well as many studies in Turkic linguistics and related fields of research. In his later years he published many newspaper articles on patriotic politics which were intended to promote Hungary's interests. Some of his scholarly works, chiefly on the languages and history of Central Asia, are still referred to today by scholars and students in those areas of research.