É. Apor (ed.): Jubilee Volume of the Oriental Collection, 1951–1976. Papers Presented on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
É. Apor: Sándor Kégl' s Bequest and the Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Collection
36 In short, Dr. Kégl' s work would do credit to any academy and I personally strongly advocate its publication. "[ 3] Sándor Kégl' s letters to Ignác Goldziher — and altogether 18 are preserved in Goldziher' s private papers and letters now in the Oriental Collection — reveal his deep affection for his teachers. In the first letter, dated 1891, he thanked Goldziher warmly for his review of Kégl's first work — the study referred to above — and asks him if he may present it to the Academy. Before 1914 Kégl addressed Goldziher in his letters as "Dear Professor"; after that date the form of greating was changed to "My Dear Friend". He had a profound knowledge of Arabic, Persian and Turkish philology, thanks in no small measure to his excellent teachers. He received his doctorate for a study on ' Hayät al-haywän' by the 14th century Arabic writer DAMÎRÎ. [ 4] The field-work he did in Persia, which was mentioned in Vámbéry's letter, probably turned Kégl into a Persian rather than an Arabic scholar. He assembled a unique fund of knowledge and material on modern Persian literature. The literary significance of his research lies not purely and simply in the material itself, but rather in the indisputable fact that the period under review, a period which saw the first stages of the reforms carried out by the early Qàjâr rulers and in particular by Näser ed-din sah, is crucially important for an understanding and appreciation of modern 20th century Persian literature. This was the "period of enlightenment" in Persian society and literature and Kégl studied it closely and wrote about it enthusiastically. His Essays on Modern Persian Literature [ 5] (1892), which Ármin Vámbéry had recommended so warmly and his papers in the ZDMG ( 61, WZKM [ 7) and the JRAS [8] not only gained him international recognition in his own lifetime but even today give the reader a faithful picture of 19th century Persian literature. The significance of his work on Persian folksongs! 9] lies in the wealth of material it contains. It is interesting to note that the Persian folksongs were presented in Kégl's work in Hungarian phonetic transcription. But Kégl was greatly interested in modern Hindustani and Hindi; he made a particular study of the ' Bhagavadgita' , one of the episodes of the ' Mahabharata'. He was also very widely read in religious history, comparative linguistics and Turkish, Arabic, Germanic and Rumanian philology. [ 10 ] But, of course, his most important research was done in the field of Persian literature. He worked in Pusztaszentkirály in the family house where in the course of time he built up an enormous library of 11, 000 volumes which after his death was presented to the Academy Library in 1925. The Secretary-General of the Academy at the time, Jenő Balogh, thanked Kégl' s brother for the gift in the following words: [11 ! "The Presidency of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences expresses deep gratitude to your Excellency for your most generous decision to present the library of your late brother and our most respected colleague, Dr. Sándor Kégl, to the Academy in accordance with the wishes of the deceased." The Chief Librarian of the Academy Library made special mention of the Kégl library in his report for the years 1925 and 1926:[12]
