Promotion of the life and work of famous Uzbek scientists, and their rich heritage is one of the important activities of the diplomatic missions of Uzbekistan in foreign countries.

Recently, the article “Becoming Mullah Ishaq: An Uzbek Man in 19th-Century Hungary” was published on the initiative of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Vienna, together with the Committee for the Study of Islam in Central Eurasia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The article was written by the Head of the Department of Turkic Studies of the Eötvös Loránd University, the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of Hungary Benedek Péri.

Based on the historical data, it presents important information about the meeting of the Uzbek scientist Ishaq Ibrahim (Mullah Sadiq) (1836-1892) with the Hungarian Turkologist and traveler Ármin Vámbéry, their joint journey through Hungary, as well as about the life and work of the Uzbek scientist in this country.

As noted in the article, Mullah Ishaq’s arrival and presence in the country was an extraordinary event and it was reported in daily papers in June 1864 that Vámbéry brought him to Hungary as a ‘living proof of the genetic relations between Hungarian and Oriental languages.’ Mulla Ishaq became a celebrity in his own right, and contemporary papers and magazines frequently published short reports on him in the mid-1860s.

According to the author, Mullah Ishaq learned Hungarian so well that he began translating a narrative poem by János Arany (1817-1882), a celebrated poet and the secretary of the Academy, into his mother tongue. He also helped Szilády to study Central Asian Turkic and this cooperation resulted in the publication of the Hungarian translation of an Uzbek tale in 1865. His detailed account of wedding customs practiced around Bukhara and Khiva was published in a weekly magazine in 1870.

That’s why the Hungarians called him an abundant and authoritative source of knowledge on many aspects of contemporary Central Asia for Hungarians, on its natural environment, agriculture, language, and customs.

Mullah Ishaq must have often felt homesick because he seems to have thought of visiting his homeland. He applied for a Hungarian passport and collected money to cover his family’s living expenses while he was away. It seems that due to various unfavorable circumstances he could never realize his ambition, the author writes.

He passed away on 10 May 1892 in the village of Velence, and the news of his death was reported by daily papers. He was buried in the village cemetery, and the last rites were administered by an Imam serving with the Bosnian battalion stationed in Budapest.

The author of the article Benedek Péri is a prominent representative of the Hungarian school of Turkology. He was born in Hungary in 1966. Currently, he is the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of Hungary and the Head of the Department of Turkic Studies of the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest). 

In recent years, scientist has been researching the work of Alisher Navoi, publishing articles in English in this direction. He is also working on the translation of Baburname into Hungarian.

UzA