É. Apor , H. Wang (ed.): Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Comp. by John Falconer, Ágnes Kárteszi, Ágnes Kelecsényi, Lilla Russell-Smith.

KELECSÉNYI Ágnes: Sir Aurel Stein and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

SIR AUREL STEIN diploma certificates. Stein subscribed to Durrant's press-cutting service, and to the Authors' Syndicate, and there are several hundred press-cuttings on his expeditions and publications. Throughout his life Stein maintained contact with the eminent scholars in Hungary, seeking their opinions and in many cases helping them to solve problems. But the relationship was never one-way. In particular, it is worth noting that Stein's most famous discovery, the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang, was the direct result of his communication with the Hungarian scientist, geologist and geographer, Lajos Lóczy. Lóczy had discovered the caves in 1879, as a member of the expedition led by Béla Széchenyi (the son of Count István Széchenyi, the founder of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). Stein wrote: 'It is a great satisfaction to me that the work during the last months was conducted in the Tun-huang region, an area where a Hungarian expedition deserves credit for its first systematic exploration. Lóczy, my highly esteemed friend drew my attention first to the Sa-chou "Thousand Buddhas grotto temples" and I believe he will be glad to know that their research has added many precious finds to my collection.'

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3 Stein published regularly in Hungarian periodicals and was a member of several Hungarian scientific societies. Indeed, his very first article was published in Hungarian: 'Az óperzsa vallásos irodalomról' (On the Old Persian Religious Literature) published in 1885 in the Budapesti Szemle (Budapest Review). The Hungarian daily newspapers regularly printed accounts of his expeditions and there were always large audiences for his lectures in Hungary. A number of his books have been published in the Hungarian language, translated and reworked by Gyula Halász. With Stein's permission, Halász's reworkings of the texts had slightly different titles from the original English. To mention just a few: Homokba temetett városok. Régészeti és földrajzi utazás Indiából Kelet-Turkesztánba 1900-1901 ('Sand-buried cities. An archaeological and geographical journey from India to East Turkestan, 1900-1901'), published in 1908 in the Hungarian Geographical Society Library series; Romvárosok Ázsia sivatagjaiban ('Towns in ruins in Central Asia') published in 1913 by the Royal Hungarian Natural Science Society; and Ősi ösvényeken Ázsiában. Három kutatóutam Ázsia szívében és Kína északnyugati tájain ('On ancient tracks in Asia. My three expeditions in the heartland of Asia and in the Northwestern part of China') issued in 1934 by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. From his youth, Stein had very close ties with Ignác Goldziher, who is still recognised as the most prominent researcher of Islam. On the occasion of Goldziher's 60th birthday, Stein wrote a study entitled Note on Buddhist local worship in 1

3 Aurel Stein to Ignác Goldziher, Wang-fu hsia, Kansu, 30 Jun 1907. Oriental Collection of the Library of the HAS (Goldziher-correspondence, 41). (On the influence of Lajos Lóczy on Aurel Stein's discovery, see Lilla Russell-Smith, 'Hungarian Explorers in Dunhuang', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd Series, Vol.10, Part 3, 2000, pp.341-362. 21