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VAMBERY, ARMIN (1832– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 876 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VAMBERY, ARMIN (1832– ) , Hungarian Orientalist and traveller, was See also:born of humble parentage at Duna-Szerdahely, a See also:village on the See also:island of Shutt, in the See also:Danube, on the 19th of See also:March 1832. He was educated at the village school until the See also:age of twelve, and owing to congenital lameness had to walk with crutches. At an See also:early age he showed remarkable aptitude for acquiring See also:languages, but straitened circumstances compelled him to See also:earn his own living. After being for a See also:short See also:time apprentice to a ladies' tailor, he became See also:tutor to an innkeeper's son. He next entered the untergymnasium of St Georgen, and proceeded thence to See also:Pressburg. Meanwhile he supported himself by teaching on a very small See also:scale, but his progress was such that at sixteen he had a See also:good knowledge of Hungarian, Latin, See also:French and See also:German, and was rapidly acquiring See also:English and the Scandinavian languages, and also See also:Russian, Servian and other See also:Slavonic See also:tongues. At the age of twenty he had obtained sufficient knowledge of See also:Turkish to See also:lead him to go to See also:Constantinople, where he set up as teacher of See also:European languages, and shortly afterwards became a tutor in the See also:house of See also:Pasha Hussein Daim. Under the See also:influence of his friend and instructor, the Mollah Ahmed See also:Effendi, he became, nominally at least, a full Osmanli, and entering the Turkish service, was afterwards secretary to Fuad Pasha. After spending six years in Constantinople, where he published a Turkish-German See also:Dictionary and various linguistic See also:works, and where he acquired some twenty See also:Oriental languages and dialects, he visited See also:Teheran; and then, disguised as a See also:dervish, joined a See also:band of pilgrims from See also:Mecca, and spent several months with them in rough and squalid travel through the deserts of See also:Asia. He succeeded in maintaining his disguise, and on arriving at See also:Khiva went safely through two audiences of the See also:khan. Passing See also:Bokhara, they reached See also:Samarkand, where the emir, whose suspicions were aroused, kept him in See also:audience for a full See also:half-See also:hour; but he stood the test so well that the emir was not only pleased with "Resid Effendi " (Vambery's assumed name), but gave him handsome presents. He then reluctantly turned back by way of See also:Herat, where he took leave of the dervishes, and returned with a See also:caravan to Teheran, and subsequently, in March 1864, through See also:Trebizond and Erzerfim to Constantinople.

By the See also:

advice of Prokesch-Osten and See also:Eotvos, he paid a visit in the following See also:June to See also:London; there his daring adventures and linguistic triumphs made him the See also:lion of the See also:day. In the same See also:year he published his Travels in Central Asia. In connexion with this See also:work it must be remembered that Vambery could write down but a few furtive notes while with the dervishes, and dared I not take a single See also:sketch; but the weird scenes, with their misery and suffering, were so strongly impressed on his memory that his See also:book is convincing by its simplicity, directness and See also:evidence of heroic endurance. Vambery also called the See also:attention of politicians to the movements of See also:Russia in Central Asia, and aroused much See also:general See also:interest in that question. From London he went to See also:Paris, and he notes in his Autobiography that the Parisians were much more interested in his See also:strange manner of travelling than in the travels themselves. He had an inter= view with See also:Napoleon III., who failed to impress him " as the See also:great See also:man which the See also:world in general considers him." Returning to See also:Hungary, he was appointed See also:professor of Oriental languages in the university of See also:Budapest: there he settled down, contributing largely to See also:periodicals, and See also:publishing a number of books, chiefly in German and Hungarian. His travels have been translated into many languages, and his Autobiography was written in English. Amongst the best known of his works, besides those alluded to, are Wanderings and Adventures in See also:Persia (1867); Sketches of Central Asia (1868); See also:History of Bokhara (1873); See also:Manners in Oriental Countries (1876); See also:Primitive See also:Civilization of the Turko-Tatar See also:People (1879: Origin of the See also:Magyars (1882); The Turkish People (1885) ; and Western Culture in Eastern Lands (1905).

End of Article: VAMBERY, ARMIN (1832– )

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