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

ÁGNES KELECSÉNYI Mohammadan Central Asia for inclusion in a Memorial Volume published in Budapest. Stein later played a major role in bringing the correspondence of this prominent scholar to the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The Academy also invited Stein to write the memorial speech for Theodore Duka. This was read by Kálmán Szily at a session of the Academy in October 1913, and Stein prepared an English version, In memóriám Theodore Duka

, which he published privately in Oxford in 1914. Stein was in regular correspondence with the principals of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and these letters show how he kept track overseas of the developments in the Hungarian academic world and his active participation in this work, grasping every opportunity to help. In 1895 he was elected as an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, one of the first academies to confer such an honour. He wrote, 'I remember with pleasure and some pride that I gained the earliest recognition for my scientific efforts from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and thus from my native land by being elected most honourably as its external member.'

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4 The title of his academic inaugural lecture, delivered on 24 May 1897, was A fehér hunok és rokon törzsek indiai szereplése (White Huns and Kindred Tribes in the History of India). In his inaugural speech he expressed his thanks for the honour: 'I feel the branch of science I study with modest talent barely offers me any opportunity to do work which would make me worthy of being an external member within the close meaning of the Academy's constitution referring to works 'explicitly interesting to Hungary or the Academy.'

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5 Yet, in his letter to Albert Berzeviczy, written in 1912, he provided a justification for his external membership: 'I am sincerely delighted to know that with the help of the Indian Government I have had the opportunity to work in an area which is of close interest to the Hungarian scientific research as regards the historic background of the migration of old Hungarian and Turkish tribes.'

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6 On the occasion of the centenary celebration of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1925, the British Academy asked Aurel Stein to be its representive and interpret its best wishes. He could not, however, be present on this occasion because he was on assignment in India, so he greeted the Hungarian scientific society in a letter. The President and Secretary, in turn, sent the following greetings: 'The Fellows of the British Academy desire to join in acclaiming the many eminent scholars whose names adorn the Roll of the Hungarian Academy. They gratefully acknowledge the valued contributions by the members of the Academy to the advancement of learning, more especially in the domain of Oriental Philology and Archaeology. 1

4 Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, Library of the HAS (RAL 460/1932). 1

5 Published in Budapesti Szemle, Vol.XCI, August, 1897. 1

6 Akadémiai Értesítő, 23/1912, p.589. 22