Gábor Fodor: Hungarian Memoirs from the Ottoman Empire, 1848–1918

March 7, 2020
7pm

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After the failure of the Hungarian revolution and freedom fight of 1848‒1849 against the Habsburg Monarchy, thousands of soldiers found asylum in the Ottoman Empire. Even though most left the empire within a year, hundreds preferred to stay, live, and work in a society about which they knew virtually nothing. Improvements in Hungarian-Turkish political relations, particularly after the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish war, led to an increase in the number of Hungarian journalists, politicians, orientalist, tourists, soldiers and even representatives of the Catholic Church who spent periods in Istanbul, Asia Minor and the Ottoman Middle East. The foundation of the Hungarian Geography Society led to the first golden age of publication of Hungarian travelers’ accounts and memoirs. Young Turkologists such as Ignácz Kúnos,Gyula Mészáros and Gyula Németh pursued their research along the Aegean shores. During the Balkan Wars, Hungarian journalists also appeared in the field to cover the manoeuvres of the Turkish army. The outbreak of the war in 1914 caused a further intensification of mutual visits. In this talk Gábor Fodor, director of the Hungarian Cultural Center in Istanbul, sets out to shed light on the published and unpublished Hungarian-language sources from 1848-1918, highlighting trends, changes in modes of travel, and story telling.

Part of a series of Wednesday talks running from March to May 2020. Held in the handsome Cezayyir palazzo behind Galatasaray Lycée, entitled European Travelers to Istanbul & Anatolia in the Long 19th Century, and coordinated by Ingela Nilsson, Director (Swedish Research Institute, Istanbul), Evangelia Balta, Research Director (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens), Richard Wittmann, Associate Director (Orient-Institut Istanbul) and Olof Heilo, Deputy Director (Swedish Research Institute, Istanbul).