I. Parlatir , Gy. Hazai , B. Kellner-Heinkele (comp.): Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Introduction
precious collection, unfortunately not all the manuscripts he possessed, entered the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The other well-known Hungarian Turkologists (devoted to Turkish manuscripts) were Ármin Vámbéry (1832-1913) and József Thúry (18611915). After their deaths, their smaller collections found the way into the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Another small collection, that of the Orientalist Áron Szilády (1837-1922), which was preserved in the College of Kiskunhalas, now Szilády College, was purchased by the Library after the Second World War. Hungarian Turkologists in the twentieth century, like Gyula Németh, who himself published a manuscript of the collection (see N° 137), were always aware of this unique source material and encouraged every effort to making it known. (For some editions made during the last decades see N o s 320, 364, 582 and 602). The first serious initiatives to present the collection were the reports of Ármin Vámbéry and Ignácz Kunos, further the preliminary register of the manuscripts by Sándor Kégl, who had mastered Turkish, Arabic and Persian which was crucial for such an undertaking. S. Kégl's hand written register has many deficiencies, and even mistakes, but his work was a useful tool for the discovery of the collection. 2 In 2002 the issue of a comprehensive catalogue of the collection took a decisive turn. On the invitation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor Hasan Eren, a former President of the Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil Kurumu), and Professor Ismail Parlatır, Professor at Ankara University, paid an official visit to Hungary, which gave them the opportunity to see the collection. The deep interest they showed led to the formulation of a cataloguing project, and soon, a team of scholars, Professor Ismail Parlatır (Ankara), Professor György Hazai (Budapest) and Professor Barbara Kellner-Heinkele (Berlin) received immediate support for the project in both Hungary and Turkey. It is necessary to acknowledge the generous assistance of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Dışişleri Bakanlığı Kültür Dairesi) of the Turkish Republic which permitted Professor Parlatır to carry out three one-month study trips to Budapest between 2001 and 2003. In December 2002, on the initiative of Professor B. Kellner-Heinkele, the Institute of Turkology of the Free University Berlin organized an international symposium dedicated to the cataloguing of Turkish manuscripts. This symposium offered an excellent opportunity to discuss the problems of the project. Eventually, the publication of this catalogue was realized through a common effort of the Hungarian and Turkish Academies of Sciences, with the aim to publish the final product in two parallel volumes: one in English 12
