Zoltán Fejős: Testimony and role play
Portraits of Ármin Vámbéry, 1864–1865

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The oeuvre of the Hungarian (Jewish) Orientalist, Ármin (Arminius) Vámbéry, its academic legacy and impact, and the author’s contribution to public life and politics are extensively covered by a vast array of academic literature and popular media. His figure has become part of the collective image of 19th-century national scholarship, and the novelistic features of the scholar and public figure have repeatedly drawn attention to his person and his impressively rich oeuvre. Nonetheless, not even the latest wave of Vámbéry research has yet expanded to systematically collect, organise and critically investigate the diverse visual representations of the “great Hungarian traveller to the East.”