Materials for a History of Hungarian Academic Orientalism: The Case of Gyula Germanus

This article provides materials for an institutional history of academic Hungarian Orientalism through the life of Gyula Germanus (1884-1979). Using hitherto unexploited archives, this text explores his education, integration into academia, and career up to 1939. I argue that Germanus was an assimil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Die Welt des Islams
Main Author: Mestyan, Adam 1979- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2014
In: Die Welt des Islams
Further subjects:B Orientalism Germanus Goldziher Vámbéry Hungary conversion pilgrimage PEN Club Islam
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
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Description
Summary:This article provides materials for an institutional history of academic Hungarian Orientalism through the life of Gyula Germanus (1884-1979). Using hitherto unexploited archives, this text explores his education, integration into academia, and career up to 1939. I argue that Germanus was an assimilated Hungarian of Jewish origin with a strong loyalty to the state. His two conversions – to Calvinism in 1909 and to Islam in 1930 – also transformed him from a minor Turkologist into a popularly acclaimed Arabist. This study demonstrates that academic Orientalism as a national science was a contested vehicle of social mobility in the Hungarian transition from an imperial to a nation-state setting. 

ISSN:1570-0607
Contains:In: Die Welt des Islams
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700607-00541p02