Memorial Website of Ignaz Goldziher

The Academician

“He acquired fame, respectability and credit for Hungarian scholarship”

Goldziher’s relationship with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences began at a very young age, and proceeded along a reasonably balanced and smooth path. In 1876 he became Correspond­ing Member, in 1892 Ordinary Member, and in 1905 he was elected President of Section I. In 1911 he became member of the Board of Directors. In the International Association of Academies, he represented the Academy, and was often delegated to international congresses.

From 1869, he regularly published in the Academic Transactions, which also carried texts of his lectures at the Academy’s meetings, as well as his official and technical reports. Some of his studies, and later his book reviews, appeared in the Budapest Review, a journal under the aegis of the Academy, and the Academy also published his works in Hungarian. He took an active part in academic meetings and other programs, sometimes he acted as the president.

He had close connections with the Library of the Academy. On his study trip to Cairo in 1874, he helped to expand the holdings of the library by purchasing important books. He wrote the first report on the Hebrew manuscripts and books in the David Kaufmann Collection, and one could always count on his expertise when cataloguing books in Semitic languages.

The palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Széchenyi monument
The palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Széchenyi monument. Photo: Alois Beer. LHAS Department of Manuscripts, K294/37
Szily Kálmán, az MTA főtitkárának levele Goldzihernek
Letter of Kálmán Szily, Secretary General of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, thanking Goldziher for his donation of books. LHAS Oriental Collection, GIL/01/17/04

In August 1919, the rising tide of antisemitism reached the groves of Academe. As a reaction to the speech of one of his fellow members at the justificatory plenary session he resigned from office as President of Session I, as he felt compelled to take upon himself the antisemitic attack against his co-religionists.

When Goldziher died, his funeral bier was placed in the portico of the Academy, and the Secretary General eulogized the scholar who “earned international recognition in several divisions of learning with more than five decades of valuable, serious, and quiet scientific work”. The funeral procession started from there to accompany him on his final journey.

The Academy invited Sir Aurel Stein to deliver the memorial speech. Stein, an external member of the Academy, was an archaeologist-explorer who achieved remarkable success in studying the Silk Road and had had close friendly contacts with Goldziher since childhood. This obituary was not written, but Stein did arrange that the collection of Goldziher’s handwritten notes and correspondence donated to the Academy be supplemented with copies of the letters by Theodor Nöldeke (1836–1930), deposited at Tübingen.

To accommodate the bequest, the Academy opened a Goldziher-room on the 8th of October 1933. Since 2012 the complete correspondence has been made accessible through the Library’s online catalogue in digital format, not only for experts but for the public at large.

The correspondence of Theodor Nöldeke and Ignaz Goldziher who exchanged several hundred letters with each other.

Entire text in REAL-MS repository

The correspondence of Ignaz Goldziher has been available in a digitised form since 2012 in the online catalogue of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Catalogue of the letters

Theodor Nöldeke
Theodor Nöldeke (1836-1930), the most important correspondent of Goldziher. LHAS Oriental Collection, Goldziher 142/71
A letter from Aurel Stein to the Secretary General of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, mentioning the Goldziher correspondence
Excerpt from Sir Aurel Stein's letter to the Secretary General of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences expressing his joy on the opening of the Goldziher room at the Academy. LHAS Department of Manuscripts, RAL 1933/400

Related publications

Bibliographic items related to this content

A buddhismus hatása az iszlámra

Előadások Kőrösi Csoma Sándor emlékezetére, 2, Budapest, MTA, 1903

A kairói Haszan-mecset [La Mosquée du Sultan Hassan au Caire. Par Max Herz Bey. Le Caire. (Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’Archéologie orientale.) 1899]

Reviewed author: Max Herz

Akadémiai Értesítő (1901) 12-17

A koránmagyarázás különféle irányairól

Előadások Kőrösi Csoma Sándor emlékezetére, 1912. április 28. Budapest, MTA

A M. Tud. Akadémia jegyzőkönyvei : Huszonkilenczedik akadémiai ülés. Az I. osztály nуоlсzadik ülése. 1915 november 2-én (Hans Stumme üdvözlése külső taggá választása alkalmából)

Akadémiai Értesítő 26 (1915) 684-685

A nemzetközi segédnyelv kérdése

Akadémiai Értesítő (1907) 334-335

Adrien C. Barbier de Meynard és Michael Jan de Goeje külső tagok emlékezete

A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia elhúnyt tagjai fölött tartott emlékbeszédek, 14/7 (1909) 1-17

Was this content useful?

Share with your colleagues!

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email

Related pages

Memorial Website of Ignaz Goldziher

The Family

“For my father, the memory of his parents was the subject of a real religious cult.” The forefathers of Ignaz...

Studies in Hungary

“The child prodigy” As a child, Goldziher, who had been brought up in the spirit of strict religiosity and commitment...

The Secretary of the Community

„A field worthy of my intentions: the educational affairs of the Jewish community” At the age of 21, Ignaz Goldziher...

Jewish Studies

“Jewish literature would find in me one of its most devoted researchers” Apart from Arabic and Islamic Studies, Goldziher also...
Hebron

The Arabist

„Scholarship should be cultivated with enthusiasm” Ignaz Goldziher’s oeuvre, numbering over 900 items, was extremely diversified, but his main interest...
Goldziher around 1910

The Professor

“A notable teacher of Semitic languages” József Eötvös, Minister of Religion and Public Education, as early as 1868 had already...
selyemut_009

search & browse

Thematic websites

See also the other thematic websites of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences! You can explore the collection through virtual exhibitions, which can also be used for educational purposes.