Ármin Vámbéry

Born into a poor family, Ármin Vámbéry taught himself languages; as a young man he went to Istanbul, mastered Turkish and grew close to the Ottoman court.

In 1863, as "Reşid Efendi" disguised as a dervish, he joined a pilgrim caravan to Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand — at a time when few Europeans returned alive from Central Asia — and his travel account caused a sensation in Europe.

He became professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest, wrote on the Turkic languages and the origins of the Hungarians, and is regarded as a founder of Hungarian Turkology.