Ármin Vámbéry in 2000
Ármin Vámbéry in 2000

Summary/Abstract: "Writing about Ármin Vámbéry is not an easy task. He died eighty-five years ago, but his life still puzzles the world. Writings about him bear witness to this failure. Most tend to document their author's reaction to Vámbéry's immence success. For success is, indeed, the key word here. Vámbéry was a successful man, and he did not make a secret of it. This was a problem then, too. The poor orphan of a student of the Talmud from Dunaszerdahely, he was disabled from ealry childhood, but had free access the Windsor Castle, was a confidant of the Prince of Wales, and at times called on the Turkish Sultan. The Shah of Persia called on him personally to present him with an award. He was elected a member of the Magnate Casino - even more select a club than the Upper House. He bacame a university professor without even having completed secondary school. There must be something fishy about this man! It is even more difficult to decide which Vámbéry to write about. The traveller, the linguist, the diplomatic correspondent, or the journalist? Or perhaps the father, the man who brought up Rusztem Vámbéry, a leading figure of the Hungarian civil rights movement?"

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