The Vámbéry Collection

Dániel Szilágyi and Ármin Vámbéry, Istanbul 1852 (Hungarian Museum of Geography, Érd; collected by Zoltán Csaba)
The bequest of Ármin Vámbéry (1832–1913) was donated to the Academy by his son Rusztem Vámbéry. Ármin Vámbéry was a directorial board member and honorary member of the Academy. His collection consists of 660 works including 56 manuscripts.

A major part of the manuscripts is in Turkish and hence incorporated in the Turkish manuscript collection. Some preserve the memory of Central Asian Turkic languages. Among them are Hulasa-yi Abbasi (Török O. 380) and Lugat-i čagatay (Török O. 386).

Several volumes represent the inša literature.

It is also due to Vámbéry that in 1860 the Academy came into possession of an important manuscript on Hungarian history entitled Tarih-i Ungurus (Török F. 57) which he had found in Istanbul.

The oldest known copy of Ferej ba'd eš-šidde, from 1451 (Török F. 71, 1v)
Its Hungarian translation, critical edition and its facsimile were published by György Hazai (1996, 2009).

The manuscripts also contain a small Persian collection numbering eleven.

Vámbéry's collection also contained eleven Persian manuscripts, which include works of classical Persian literature, a dictionary to the works of Nevai entitled Beda-i al-lugat (Per. O. 45), and a splendid tezkere from the Qajar period, Majma-ye Mahmud (Per. F. 14), written by Mahmud Mirza Qajar.

The catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the Vámbéry bequest was published by Éva Apor in 1971.