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 regulations passed by Emperor Joseph 11 (1780). He worked in Egypt as an architect from 1880 until the end of 1914. He was active in restoring and preserving Arab Islamic and Coptic monuments of architecture, first as assistant architect in the Technical Bureau of the Waqf Administration, and subsequently he was for 25 years chief architect to the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de I'Art Arabe. In this capacity he was in sole charge of this whole field, directing the restoration and preservation of monuments of Arab Islamic and Coptic architecture throughout the whole of Egypt for a quarter of a century, until he was expelled from Egypt by the British authorities as an enemy alien after the outbreak of World War I Herz retained his Hungarian citizenship until the end of his life. He was also director of the Arab Museum - the present Museum of Islamic Art in Bäb al-Halq. He published extensively on the history of Arab Islamic architecture and in addition he was also a prolific private architect. Contemporary sources say he designed more than 150 buildings in Cairo. Notwithstanding his exceptional merits and achievements, Herz Pasha is almost completely forgotten today." The envelope with the inscription "Herz Miksa pasa, Cairo in Box No. 16 contains sixty-one items. In addition to letters, post-cards and a visiting card with a brief message one can find there a printed invitation to Herz Pasha's wedding, a proof-sheet of the death-notice of his son, Géza, from Corriere della Sera (Milan), the death-notice of Herz Pasha himself, and a visiting card from his widow with a few words thanking Goldziher and his family for their condolences. More items concerning Herz Pasha can be found in Box No. 45 among the documents of the study tour of Hungarian secondary school teachers to Egypt at the turn of 18951896. We possess only one half of the correspondence, i.e. Herz Pasha's letters to Goldziher. Goldziher's answers have not survived; they seem to have been lost together with Herz Pasha's belongings, which he was compelled to leave behind in Egypt at his expulsion. In the beginning the letters are in Hungarian. In later years German is also employed in the letters. Some letters arc in German, others in Hungarian and several letters are in a mixture of these two languages. Even in the German letters Herz is likely to revert to Hungarian when discussing family or intimate matters. During the war, when Herz was staying in Zurich, he seems to have used German deliberately so that his letters would pass the military censorship more easily. One post-card and a brief note are in French. Occasionally the letters exhibit careless constructions: 3 See now István Ormos, 'Max Herz (1856-1919). His Life and Activities in Egypt', in: Le Caire - Alexandrie: architectures européennes 1850-1950. Ed. Mercedes Volait (Etudes Urbaines 5), Cairo 2001, 161-177; Id., 'Preservation and Restoration. The Methods of Max Herz Pasha, Chief Architect of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe, 1890-1914', in: Historians in Cairo. Essays in Honor of George Scanlon. Ed. Jill Edwards, Cairo-New York 2002, 123-153. 160