É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
ORMOS, István: The Correspondence of Ignaz Goldziher and Max Herz
ISTVÁN ORMOS same Muhammad Bey Magdi appears in an earlier letter also where Herz informs Goldziher that he has handed over Goldziher's letter to him: "The letter enclosed with your visiting card of 15 September 1 delivered to Mohamed Bey Magdi the day after I received it. He was quite happy with it and regretted to have been informed too late of your stay here. I have told him about your "Az iszlám'. He asked me to translate it for him. I admit that I am little inclined to do that. Perhaps in extracts; hut even in that case it would not be an ordinary undertaking because I would have to translate the Hungarian text into French for him so that he could translate that into Arabic. May I ask for your opinion of this affair? ( Den Ihrer Visitenkarte vom 15. Sept. beiliegenden Brief habe ich am folgenden Tage der Inempfangnahme Mohamed Bey Magdi eingehändigt. Er war ganz glücklich darüber u. bedauert sehr zu spät von Ihrem Aufenthalte hier erfahren zu haben. Ich sprach ihm von Ihrem 'Az iszlám'. Er bat mich es ihm zu übersetzen. Ich gestehe, daß ich wenig Mut dazu fühle. Vielleicht im Auszuge; aber auch so wär's kein gewöhnliches Unternehmen, denn ich müßte ihm den ung. Text in 's Französische übersetzen, damit er dies in 's Arabische übertrage. Darf ich Ihre Meinung darüber erbitten?)" 9 9 The letters deal very often with personal and family matters. Herz tells Goldziher repeatedly of his many tasks and heavy burdens thus justifying his delay in the preparation of certain scholarly works. He informs Goldziher every now and then of the situation in his family and from these letters he is seen as a most attractive personality living in perfect harmony with his wife and taking loving care of his children. Every now and then Herz tells Goldziher proudly of the progress and development of his children, especially that of his beloved son, Géza. In later years, after the tragic death of his son, Géza, he mentions their hardly bearable sorrow several times in the letters to Goldziher. Of course the Goldzihers fully shared his feelings because they themselves had been hit by a similar tragedy. Their elder son, Miksa/Misi (Max), committed suicide at the age of twenty (31 May 1900). 9 5 Most of Nineteenth-Century Egypt. A Study in National Transformation. Cairo-Detroit 1984, 9697, 107 (note 81), 210 (note 36). 9 4 Letter dated Cairo, 28 October 1896. It is to be assumed that Goldziher sent Herz only a visiting card with the letter in question on 15 September 1896 with the silent request of delivering it to Muhammad Bey Magdi. Goldziher did not visit Egypt at this time. Goldziher's stay in Egypt referred to in the letter is the study tour with the Hungarian secondary schoolteachers at the tum of 1895 and 1896. 9 5 Goldziher called this date the darkest day in his life - "which severed my connection to earlier periods of my life like a sharp sword" - but he did not elaborate. (In the printed text of the Tagebuch there is a misprint or lapse of the pen: it happened in 1900 and not 1899.) Goldziher, Tagebuch.... 228-229. See also Nöldeke's letter of 20 June and Goldziher's answer of 24 June 1900. In his will of 1901 Goldziher wrote: "My unforgettable dear son Misi fell victim to the conditions in the Budapest Faculty of Law on 31 May last year". Original in Hungarian. Sándor [= Alexander] Scheiber, Folklór és 188
