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 hat...)"

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1 That Goldziher may have enclosed relevant letters in the manuscripts of his articles might be assumed in the case of other apparently missing items. In connection with the information requested by Goldziher about the local saint Abü RIs his tomb is located in the vicinity of Sayyida Zaynab in Cairo - the wording of Herz's answer is not wholly clear, yet it seems to suggest that he has not been able to obtain the necessary information: "You have the right to ask me, esteemed Friend, why you do not hear from me. I confess my guilt. The intention was never lacking to give you a sign that I am alive and doing well but at the same time I wanted to inform you of the result of your enquiry about i_Au jji and so nothing happened. (Du hast recht zu fragen, mein geschätzter Freund, warum man nichts von mir hört, ich gestehe meine Schuld. Der Wille fehlte mir nie Dir ein Lebenszeichen zu geben, ich wollte aber zugleich über den Jfij f das Erwünschte mitteilen u. so blieb alles V'62 weg.) In another case Goldziher seems to have enquired after the Damwa (Dumüh/Dammüh) synagogue in Giza. Goldziher may have come across it in alMaqrizi, who wrote that in his own time it was the most important and splendid synagogue all over Egypt and that it was connected to Moses in several ways.

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3 It took Herz considerable time and effort to find out something on the subject because he referred to it repeatedly in his letters to Goldziher asking for his patience. He even visited several Jewish dignitaries such as Cattaui Bey

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4 and the chief rabbi, yet without the desired result because nobody seemed to know anything about this synagogue any more. The only place with any connection with Moses appears to have been a mosque in Giza where Moses' basket had been preserved in previous times: "Honoured Sir, and My Dear Friend, 1 am sorry for the long interval that has occurred in our correspondence. I am sorry for it all the more because you have entrusted me with the famous , in connection with which, although I have taken steps, it was, to my regret, of no avail. I have been to Cattaui (a well-known 6

1 Not edited in Róbert Simon, Ignác Goldziher. His life and Scholarship as Reflected in his Works and Correspondence, Budapest-Leiden 1986. 6

2 Letter dated Milano, 24 November 1898. On Abü RIs see Alexander Fodor, 'Goldziher's Abü RIs', in: Proceedings of the Arabic and Islamic Sections of the 35th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS), Part Two. Ed. A. Fodor. (The Arabist 21-22) Budapest 1999, 167-190. 6

3 See al-MaqrizT, Kitäb al-mawä'iz wa-l-i'tibär

..., Büläq ed., vol. 2, p. 464, line (-2) - p. 465, line 13 = London (Ayman Fu'äd Sayyid) ed., vol. 4, part 2, p. 922, line 9 - p. 923, line 8. 6

4 Probably Maurice Cattaui (1850-1924). On him see Rudolf Agstner, Die österreichischungarische Kolonie in Kairo vor dem Ersten Weltb'ieg. Das Matrikelbuch des k. u. k. Konsulates Kairo 1908-1914 (Schriften des Österreichischen Kulturinstitutes Kairo 9), Cairo 1994, 136-137. 176